Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Tuesday's Overlooked TV: The Slap Maxwell Story


This dark but funny sitcom lasted only one season, 1987 - 88, and is probably forgotten by most people today, if they ever heard of it to start with. But I really enjoyed it. Dabney Coleman was perfectly cast as an abrasive, old-fashioned sportswriter on a newspaper in a southwestern city. The great character actor Bill Cobbs was a philosophical bartender. And this was the first show where I saw the beautiful actress Megan Gallagher, who I've been smitten with ever since. Mostly, though, it was very well written and acted, with a lot of poignant moments as Slap tried to adjust to a modern world in which he found himself out of place. I've never forgotten the line, "I look at the future and I see a big dog growling in the dark." I really like that. I've felt like that many times.

I haven't seen THE SLAP MAXWELL STORY since it aired the first time, so I don't know if it holds up, but I suspect it does. It's not available on DVD, though, at least not officially.

9 comments:

Scott said...

I liked Megan in the Nowhere Man

pattinase (abbott) said...

We watched it and thought it was terrific. But a show about a nasty person seldom succeeds. Or a book for that matter.

Randy Johnson said...

I remember this one well. Dabney Coleman I always liked.

Todd Mason said...

Probably the pinnacle of Coleman's career...a refinement on BUFFALO BILL.

Fred Blosser said...

If I remember correctly, this one and John Ritter's HOOPERMAN debuted in the same season, and prompted critics to coin the gawdawful (and short-lived) term "dramedy" to describe the two shows.

Todd Mason said...

THE DAYS AND NIGHTS OF MOLLY DODD had already been tagged with that redundancy.

Anonymous said...

I've been rewatching the series the last few days. It still is funny and poignant, and unfortunately, it was too good to last. One of a kind, at times brilliant.

James Reasoner said...

I'm glad to hear that it holds up.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe no one's put this out on DVD or torrented it. I'd love to buy it, but I've been looking for it for decades now, and I'd desperate to watch it in any way I can.