Hello, Larry

I remember watching this show in the late seventies and thinking "McLean Stevenson left MASH for this?!" But the show began to grow on me and it was fun watching a single dad raise two teenaged daughters. One episode that hit home with me was when Ruthie decided to rechristen herself as Ruth. That's my name (officially Ruth Ann, but call me Ruthie) and I can relate to being Ruth (serious, professional, etc.) as well as Ruthie (cute, informal, etc.)-it's been going on for almost 55 years. Granted, this show will never equal MASH, but McLean Stevenson could be knock-down funny when he wanted to and it was sad to see him go through so many projects (the reason he left MASH was to possibly host the Tonight Show) and it was sad to see him die without equaling his work on MASH. The show got better when Krista Errickson replaced Donna Wilkes as older daughter Diane and the other cast (Joanna Gleason, Ruth Brown, Meadowlark Lemon, etc.) did very well. This was a show that should've gotten a better chance. And that's the Ruth(ie).

This quasi-spin-off of Different Strokes brought well-loved McLean Stevenson back to the airways after his departure from MASH. This was one of the first to ACCURATELY portray a single father's struggles raising two young daughters. It never really developed a following, and the numerous scheduling changes made it difficult to find. This is an ideal candidate for TV Land.

Hello Larry was, strangely enough, the most successful TV show McLean Stevenson was ever on. After he left MASH that is. Every single show he was the headliner for was cancelled after one season. Hello Larry ran for two. He later admitted that leaving MASH was the worst career decision he ever made and... I have to agree with him.

The show itself didn't feel complete. It was shown after "Diff'rent Strokes" and was by the same producer so in order to cement this they had a couple crossovers where Larry and Mr. Drummond met as they were old war buddies. Nothing really came of it though. After those three episodes they never met again.

The story itself was of a guy on the radio giving people advice but he wasn't very good at it. He often made smart-alec responses to what the callers would call in about. After a couple episodes it was decided to change the format around and now he was supposed to focus on his two daughters. After his divorce he moved, with them, to Portland from LA for this job.

Older daughter Diane and younger daughter Ruthie. They.. were typical sitcom kids. Nothing of real note.

In the end it just wasn't interesting enough to carry along and was dropped.

This series didn't run long enough to jump the shark. We had to say goodbye to "Hello,Larry" aka "The MacLean Stevenson Show" all too soon. This series which was produced and created by the same people who brought you "Diff'rent Strokes" and "The Facts of Life" lasted for two seasons on NBC-TV which came in as the mid-season replacement producing 38 episodes on January 26,1979 ,and it only lasted a mere two and half seasons on the air before it was canceled on April 30, 1980 it gave its viewers a nervous breakdown to why in the hell actor MacLean Stevenson should have stayed on M*A*S*H,but lets face it,back in the mid- 1970's,and part of the early-1980's,NBC had the reputation as being the worst television network around,and believe me when I say that NBC was going toward a downward spiral as it faced stiff competition from rivals ABC and CBS.

The show itself had a good concept during its first five episodes then after that it got the reputation for one of the worst TV shows of all time,and it ranked right up there with "My Mother The Car","F- Troop","Manimal", "Mister T and Tina","Pink Lady and Jeff" and the worst of them all "Gilligan's Island", to name a few,giving "Hello,Larry" a scapegoat for bad TV,which some of NBC's programming was at the time,totally horrible under the supervision of the network executive over at NBC at the time,Fred Silverman.

However,I do recall the changing of the guards when it came during the cast change for same character,but was played by two different actresses:It wasn't the same after actress Donna Wilkes was replaced by Krista Errickson,and from there the result was a train wreck on impact. However,this show was that bad overall,but lets not put the blame on MacLean Stevenson,whom after his involvement with M*A*S*H,gain the reputation for a string of failed TV-shows that emerge during the late-1970's,but in some way he was fairly positive with his role. But I put the blame on the producers of this series! The same producers that were behind "Hello,Larry",were behind the shows "The Facts Of Life","Diff'rent Strokes","One Day At A Time",and so many more! Stevenson brought along a Everyman approach to the role,given him a comedic fair to the character who was a single dad raising two teenage daughters on his own without a mom around in suburban Portland,Oregon. This was in fact the male equivalent to another situation comedy show that was around the same time as this series:"One Day At A Time",which was on a rival network.

Did "Hello,Larry" jumped the shark? Actually,no. It started out in midair,then went halfway over the shark tank. What really stinks is that actress Kim Richards-a child actor that was all over the place in several movies and TV shows during the entire decade of the 1970's and way into the mid-1980's-stayed on throughout the whole show until its demise in the spring of 1980,after 38 episodes. Richards,was a drop dead gorgeous babe who was the object of every teenage boys' fantasy during the mid-1970's,and still is today. Ahhh yes,KIM RICHARDS,every boy's erotic fantasy! Was that really Kim Richards in the 1985 teen drama called "Tuff Turf"? Yes,it was and she was totally hot!!! The second reason that "Hello,Larry" didn't jump the shark is this: Why is it that in every episode you got to have Meadowlark Lemon as special guest star? Why wasn't he made a regular? Why was he the second banana? The others? Having the cast of Diff'rent Strokes on the show--which at time was the ONLY hit that NBC had,where the carrying presence of Gary Coleman made the show--where Gary Coleman's character,Arnold runs away in Portland leaving Kim Richards,and Strokes' regulars Dana Plato and Todd Bridges to find him. The other daughter? Donna Wilkes,after her departure from the show,was tapped to do three installments to the "Angel" films in the 1980's,and was never heard from again since.

Whatever happened to MacLean Stevenson after the demise of Hello,Larry? This was in fact a string of failed shows one after the other including his own series,"The New MacLean Stevenson Show","America","In The Beginning","Dirty Dancing","Dear,John"...the list goes on and on! "Hello,Larry" was a good show in his heyday,but there was a time that NBC sucked so badly that everything on its programming roster never had a chance because viewers stayed the hell away from the network. The saving grace that rescue NBC from a watery grave was the realignment of its entire programming,that resulted during the termination of Fred Silverman,during the mid-1980's and the resurrection of a new person that would bring the network back to glory who was also in charge of NBC's entertainment division as well.

Hello, Larry premeired as a mid season replacement series on the NBC network starting in January of 1979 and ending in April of 1980, totalling thirty eight episodes over that short two season span. The series starred McLean Stevenson, Kim Richards, Joanna Gleason, Donna Wilkes (Season One, was replaced by. Krista Errickson in Season Two) and George Memmoli (Season One only). When Season Two began, new cast members, such as Ruth Brown, Fred Stuthman, John Femia and Meadowlark Lemon were added.

The series was created by producers of both Diff'rent Strokes and One Day at a Time. They even utilized some of the same writers from both of those TV shows for this TV show.

The series dealt with divorced father Larry Alder, who hosted a talk radio show dealing in psychology and was raising two daughters as a single father. The series was based around the life of Alder, his career and his raising of his two teenaged daughters after he and his wife divorced, which made him and his daughters move to Seattle Washington to start over. Much of the series dealt with how Alder dealt with the challenges of balancing his career and raising his two daughters. Later episodes dealt with him spending more time with his daughters while also still maintaining his carreer and his relationships with various people.

The series was canceled way too soon.

Hello, Larry was actually a very good show. It was funny, charming and bittersweet. The series was also well written and was also very realistic. It actually was a wonderful series and was severely underrated. Stevenson was superb in his portrayal of Larry Alder and also, his supporting cast turned in some good performances as well. Hello, Larry was a pretty funny show and it deserved more a chance than it did when the series was on the NBC network. NBC simply canceled this series way too soon. It never really got the chance that it deserved. It was funny and entertaining. Again, it deserved more of a chance on TV than it did during its initial run.

To clarify here, this series wasn't a spin-off of Diff'rent Strokes. The episodes that featured characters from both Diff'rent Strokes and this show were simply crossover episodes.

I used to watch thjis show myself as a child. I loved this show and watched it until it left the air.

Hello, Larry was severely underrated and really deserved a better chance that its initial run on NBC. It was canceled way too soon. It was a very good and very entertaining show.