Hail to the Chief

But I still laughed.

Fans of Soap will dig it. There was clearly a lot of inspiration there.

And the satire was brilliant.

Patty Duke was the eye of this hurricane. The only normal one. The rest were your regular stereotypes.

Philandering first husband. Friendly but slightly unhinged Russian Premier. (Shawn was excellent in the role.) Loose daughter. Gay assistant. War monger General. Right wing secretary of state. (Herscel Bernardi's last role?) Southern gentleman democrat. And Glynn Thurman playing and over-the-top version of Jesse Jackson nearly stealing the show.

The humor was a bit off color, but that's what made me laugh. I think people liked it despite themselves.

I remember this show being pretty funny. It would air well on Trio or Bravo back-to-back with Soap, as the two are similar in style and humor. Patty Duke was a good lead as Pres. Mansfield, and I remember Dick Shawn (LSD from the movie The Producers) having a blast as the Russian premier. Richard Paul was also good as a reverend who thought it was blasphemy to have a female president. It gave him good practice for when he'd start playing Rev. Jerry Falwell. (He played Falweel in The People vs. Larry Flynt and also in the 1990 TV-movie Fall from Grace, starring Kevin Spacey and Bernadette Peters and Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker.) Hopefully someday a cable channel will tire of the usual sitcom reruns and give this one a shot.

In her autobiography, Patty Duke claimed that this series failed because "Viewers couldn't accept the idea of a woman President." Not hardly, it just wasn't a very good show overall. But it did have one great comedy scene in one episode that I still remember and laugh inside when I do.

The scene took place at KGB headquarters in an office where two Russian agents were talking about something or other. People were going in and out of the office and every time the door was opened you would hear someone off-camera screaming in pain (obviously some poor soul being interrogated in one of the KGB's torture chambers.) The conversation between the two agents went on until finally someone opened the door and there was no screaming to be heard. When that happened, one of the two KGB men jumped up, ran to the door and shouted down the hallway, "Get back to work!" Immediately the screaming resumed.

Priceless.

This was the funniest show of 1985 and it was tragic when they canceled it. I wish it was on DVD or video. I would buy it today. I believe it was so controversial that it scared the southern baptist coalition and republican party of things come. Obviously it was exactly 23 years ahead of its time. When President H. Clinton takes office I hope she will invite Patty Duke to the inauguration. The show touched on many issues that have come to life in recent years. Why was it canceled? If anyone has a tape of the show I would like to buy it. The characters were extremely realistic. If anyone knows when this show will be available on video please let me know.

This show was cute. Patty Duke played the country's first woman president, much like the film "Kisses For My President." Ted Bessell played her astronaut-hero husband who played around on her while he could. Herschel Bernardi was cast as an Ehrlichman/Kissinger type. It's a shame the show didn't find an audience.