That's Life

I attended many TV shows in New York as a child, including talk shows and game shows. But the most unique show that I saw as a member of the studio audience was "That's Life".

I saw the taping of several episodes, including the first one, if memory serves. There was also an episode that featured Terry Thomas, who, like Morse, had a gap in his teeth. The two made light of the fact that they shared this trait, and even sang a song about it.

There were edits, and sometimes the sessions were very long, but for the most part, it was "live to tape". There was even a studio orchestra. It was a fun show to watch from the theater.

They changed the location after a while, and like most TV shows, "over distributed" tickets, and it was hard to get a seat. I think it also had become a "hot ticket" in New York, in that it was very much like a Broadway show, and it was free!

I would love to see these episodes again. I wonder if the tapes still exist.

I discovered That's Life on YouTube as a clip. They were having a party and were singing. Reach out of the Darkness and With A Little Help From My Friends. When I tried to find out if it would be released on DVD, it said that it probably wouldn't for awhile or not at all because of the copyrights to the songs, and it would be too expensive. That's what I found out about Laugh-in, too, and it has been released on dvd. I liked what little I saw of it, and hope that it will be released or that collectors will let people know that they have it, even though it will be "bootlegged" copies and will be expensive. They have it sometimes on ioffer, but not very often, or some collectors will do trades.

"That's Life" was one of the spin-offs of the "ABC Stage 66"/"ABC Stage 67" series that introduced unique artistic efforts on the ABC Television Network. I remember watching "That's Life" as a kid, and absolutely falling in love with it.

The show was set up as a weekly, ongoing Broadway musical production, with original songs each week.

Bobby Morse and E. J. Peaker were fantastic as the stars of the excellent show.

I would love to see it released on DVD. I would be thrilled to see these episodes again.

ABC, in those days, was far more creative than the other networks. They had to be more creative, and try risky ventures, because they had far fewer stations than the other networks, and were always a distant third place in the ratings. This situation brought about some of the most creative and imaginative shows ever on television. I really miss those days.

I can't recall if this show was live, but it was very stage like. It was about a young couple that went through all of the mini-trials that newlyweds face. Sometimes it was light drama; other times Robert Morse might be singing.

I also recall that when they had a baby they did a show from the baby's point of view.

Each show offered its own uniqueness.

The endings always came out as two people in love, a la Robert and Laura Petrie, with a little more sentiment that could touch your heart.

I don't know that I would be interested in this being on DVD, but I would sure love to see a couple of the episodes. It was a good family show, too tame (wonderfully so) by today's standards.

It was a great show and I've wondered about it over the years. It would be great if we could rent a DVD of the episodes - maybe ABC could make some money out of it from Mad Men fans. I remember that it was so entertaining and unique. It was wonderful and I really enjoyed it at the time. I wonder what happened to E.J. Peaker -- and Bobby Morse was so young (especially compared to how he looks on Mad Men!)! I'm glad to see that other people remember it too and it wasn't just a figment of my imagination! Was it an hour or half hour? Thank heavens for the Internet so that we can look up all these things we liked so much. There's an episode listing online as well.