Product Description
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Love, American Style was an hour-long television anthology which
originally aired between September 1969 and January 1974. For the
1971 and 1972 seasons it was a part of an ABC Friday prime-time
lineup that also included Brady Bunch, the Partridge Family, Room
222, and the Odd Couple. Each week, the show featured different
stories of romance, usually with a comedic spin. All episodes
were unrelated, featuring different characters, stories and
locations. The show often featured the same actors playing
different characters in many episodes. In addition a large and
ornate brass bed was a recurring prop in many episodes. Charles
Fox's delicate yet hip music score, featuring flutes, harp, and
flugelhorn set to a contemporary pop beat, provided the "love"
ambiance which tied the stories together as a multifaceted
romantic comedy each week.
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No "I Love the '70s" party will be complete without this blast
from the groovy past, when women were "chicks," beaded door
curtains were cool, and Carl Betz got top billing over Harrison
Ford. Love American Style was an anthology series of comedic
playlets about modern love, some sweet (two shy ventriloquists
let their dummies do the talking in "Love and the Dummies"), some
silly (a greeting-card writer's romance is threatened by his
penchant for practical jokes in "Love and the Joker"), and some
mildly risqué (In "Love and a Couple of Couples," a man regards
his ex-wife's ior as she asks of their former marital bed,
"Is it still firm?"). A more apt title for this series could be,
"Comedy, Neil Simon-style." One of the more interesting segments
is "Love and the Good Deal," co-written by Garry Marshall, and
which plays like a deleted act from Barefoot in the Park in which
newlyweds Paul and Corie look for a new bed for their ed
apartment.
Love American Style debuted in 1969, a year in which the networks
started to reach out to "modern people living in a modern world"
with shows such as Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, The Mod Squad, and
The Music Scene (which anticipated Saturday Night Live with its
mix of satirical sketches and contemporary music). Love American
Style was hip enough to feature a story called "Love and the
Pill" and to refer to Philip Roth's novel Goodbye, Columbus. But
traditional values invariably triumphed. In "Pill," a young man
tells his girlfriend's overwrought parents that they have
abstained from you-know. "That's the way we happen to feel about
it," he reassures them. But what we truly love about American
Style are the casts. You'd have to sail The Love Boat or visit
Fantasy Island to find such a stellar gathering of Hollywood
greats, comic legends, TV Land faves, future stars, and unsung
character actors with the indelible and unforgettable faces. To
name a few: Bill Bixby, Sid Caesar, Hans "Uncle Tonoose" Conreid,
Broderick Crawford, Dwayne "Dobie Gillis" Hickman, David Ketchum
(Agent 13 on Get Smart), Shari Lewis, Regis Philbin, Connie
Stevens, Larry Storch, Paul "Tigger" Winchell, Joe Flynn and Carl
Ballentine from McHale's Navy, and Mr. Ford, who shows up as
Roger, the boyfriend, in "Love and the Former Marriage." Stuart
Margolin (The Rockford Files) is the most recognizable face of
the show's stock company who appear in Laugh-In-style blackouts
that link the stories. These are hit and miss, but some are
blink-twice bizarre, as the one in which a black man reassures
his reluctant fiancée, "Okay, we'll raise the kids Jewish." So
cue the Cowsills ("Love American Style/Truer than the red, white
and blue
.") and ignite the fireworks. It's dated, yes, but Love
will never go out of style. --Donald Liebenson