HomeReview1970s Fun Flops: Phyllis

1970s Fun Flops: Phyllis

The news of NBC rejecting the planned The Office spinoff featuring Rainn Wilson highlighted the unlikelihood of a return to the golden age of comedy spinoffs.

This golden era, primarily in the ’70s, saw a surge in sitcom spinoffs, but it’s doubtful television will witness a comparable wave again.

These spinoffs typically revolved around relatively minor characters, often those who had only made one-time appearances on the parent show (like Maude or Laverne and Shirley).

Major characters rarely received spinoffs unless the actors, like Valerie Harper or Abe Vigoda, were fielding so many other offers that producers had to choose between providing them with a spinoff or losing them entirely.

Then there was Phyllis, a spinoff that fell somewhere in between those two categories. It is now remembered as the most obscure response to a Mary Tyler Moore spinoff trivia question, noted for its campy theme song.

If TV shows were akin to baseball teams, it might also be recognized as the show with an uncanny streak of misfortune.

The decision to spin off Cloris Leachman’s character, Phyllis, into her own show didn’t primarily stem from high-minded artistic intentions.

Leachman was never a regular presence on Mary Tyler Moore, and beginning in the third season, after her Oscar win for The Last Picture Show, her appearances on the show became even more infrequent, with just three or four episodes per season.

Her performances were so impactful, and her showcase episodes so memorable (like “The Lars Affair,” a standout in Mary’s fourth season), that people often believed she was a more frequent presence than she actually was.

When the opportunity arose to work with her full-time on a series, both MTM and CBS were eager to collaborate with the recent Oscar and Emmy winner. They faced a choice: spin off the character from Mary or create a new show for her.

From what I’ve gathered, there were significant doubts about whether Phyllis was a suitable lead character; her role was often that of an antagonist, and turning such a character into a lead posed a challenge.

However, this did not prove to be an issue for characters like Maude or George Jefferson. The allure of a spinoff—offering instant brand recognition and the potential for crossovers—proved too enticing to resist.

Thus, Leachman’s show was christened Phyllis, and it was created by Mary‘s showrunner, Ed. Weinberger (with the period in his name remaining a mystery) and Stan Daniels.

The decision to spin off Cloris Leachman’s character, Phyllis, into her own show didn’t primarily stem from high-minded artistic intentions.

Phyllis was a spinoff of the popular The Mary Tyler Moore Show, focusing on the character of Phyllis Lindstrom.
Phyllis was a spinoff of the popular The Mary Tyler Moore Show, focusing on the character of Phyllis Lindstrom.

Leachman was never a regular presence on Mary Tyler Moore, and beginning in the third season, after her Oscar win for The Last Picture Show, her appearances on the show became even more infrequent, with just three or four episodes per season.

Her performances were so impactful, and her showcase episodes so memorable (like “The Lars Affair,” a standout in Mary’s fourth season), that people often believed she was a more frequent presence than she actually was.

When the opportunity arose to work with her full-time on a series, both MTM and CBS were eager to collaborate with the recent Oscar and Emmy winner. They faced a choice: spin off the character from Mary or create a new show for her.

From what I’ve gathered, there were significant doubts about whether Phyllis was a suitable lead character; her role was often that of an antagonist, and turning such a character into a lead posed a challenge.

However, this did not prove to be an issue for characters like Maude or George Jefferson. The allure of a spinoff—offering instant brand recognition and the potential for crossovers—proved too enticing to resist.

Thus, Leachman’s show was christened Phyllis, and it was created by Mary‘s showrunner, Ed. Weinberger (with the period in his name remaining a mystery) and Stan Daniels.

The initial challenge in spinning off the character of Phyllis was the fact that she had a husband.

Lars, her husband, remained unseen—an early example of the concept of invisible spouses, a trope that would later include characters like Vera Peterson and Maris Crane.

Although Lars cheated on her with Betty White’s Sue Ann Nivens, she was still legally married, making it difficult to base a show around a lead character with an unseen spouse.

As a solution, the pilot episode commences with the abrupt death of Phyllis’s husband, leaving her destitute, without insurance, and lacking any family to turn to.

While she did have a brother in one episode of Mary, he’s effectively left in sitcom oblivion, much like Chuck Cunningham. Phyllis’s only recourse is to relocate to San Francisco to live with Lars’s mother, who has just remarried a wealthy judge.

This dark premise for a sitcom explains, in part, why many consider ’70s sitcoms to be somewhat more audacious and bold than those of other decades.

Instead of downplaying or avoiding the bleakness of this situation, showrunners Weinberger and Daniels confront it head-on, attempting to extract humor from their main character’s honest appraisal of her dire circumstances.

The pilot episode employs a favorite device of Stan Daniels, with a long, dead-serious speech followed by a punchline that breaks the tension without diminishing the underlying somberness (“Geez, you got me”).

Apart from the melancholic premise, there was a shared awareness of the risk of creating a lead character who would either be completely unsympathetic or excessively diluted.

Phyllis is a delusional woman who genuinely believes she is exceptional – a great woman, a great liberal, someone naturally envied by everyone – when, in fact, she is nothing of the sort.

A brilliant line from the pilot episode encapsulates her character perfectly: “What a wonderful child you are, Bess. I must be a wonderful mother.”

This self-delusion was amusing when she served as a supporting character, attempting to flaunt her supposed advantages over Mary and Rhoda (all the while secretly envying their freedom and opportunities).

However, it raised the pressing question of how it could remain humorous when she became the character the audience was supposed to root for.

To provide structure and depth to the show, the producers turned to Barbara Colby, an actress who had made a strong impression on Weinberger and Daniels in the fifth season premiere of Mary Tyler Moore.

Colby, with her distinctive appearance and remarkable throaty voice, had portrayed a prostitute Mary befriends in jail. The producers were so impressed by her that they brought her back for another episode.

In Phyllis, she assumed a pivotal role, arguably the most crucial role in shaping the series: Phyllis’s boss, the only individual willing to hire someone so vastly unqualified, and incidentally, the woman Lars originally intended to marry.

In contrast to the typical crusty Lou Grant-style bosses seen in other Mary Tyler Moore-inspired shows, Colby’s character, Julie Erskine, represented a fresh approach to the obligatory lovable boss character.

She was there to offer Phyllis sensible advice, a down-to-earth perspective, and, ultimately, to make us like Phyllis because a genuinely likable person believed in her.

And then, tragically, Barbara Colby was murdered.

Also Read: 1970s Fun Flops: Blansky’s Beauties

The unsolved murder of Barbara Colby remains a tragic and senseless story, casting a somber shadow on an article like this, which might otherwise seem rather trivial. In brief, she and another actor were shot in a parking lot by two men they had never met.

The police categorized it as a drive-by shooting, but the perpetrators were never apprehended. Barbara Colby was merely 36 years old at the time of her death.

Colby had already completed shooting for two episodes and the pilot of the show. Following her shocking and demoralizing death, Leachman and the writers deliberated on how to address the situation.

They concluded that the role had to be recast. Leachman also recorded a special message to explain the tragic turn of events.

However, CBS, in the first of several publicized conflicts between the network and the show, refused to air the message, leaving the issue of recasting unaddressed within the series.

The text of the message was leaked, presumably by Weinberger or someone else involved, and it would have conveyed the following sentiment:

“As some of you may know, shortly after we filmed tonight’s episode last July, Barbara Colby, who has played the part of Julie, was tragically killed. She was a superb actress and one of the most joyful and giving people I have ever known. The loss of Barbara left those of us involved in the production of Phyllis a number of alternatives. We could have redone the episodes in which she appeared without her. But to those of us who knew and loved Barbara, this was unthinkable. We could have written out the character, but this would not have fooled you, and more important, it would not have fooled us. And so beginning next week, the part of Julie will be played by another actress. This will mean that some episodes will be shown out of their logical sequence, but we hope you will bear with us. It was not easy to replace Barbara Colby as an actress, and it is impossible to replace her as a person.”

CBS’s refusal to allow the show to remember Barbara Colby likely strained their relationship with the producers, although Ed. Weinberger chose his words carefully when discussing the network’s decision.

He stated, “It’s a delicate, sensitive issue, and the network does have its prerogative. We objected, but we were all so disconsolate about Barbara that we had no stomach to fight for what we thought was just and proper.”

The replacement for Julie, portrayed by Liz Torres, was a competent actress but lacked the dynamic personality to match Cloris Leachman.

The writers didn’t emphasize the characters as much as originally intended, and the chemistry between the characters fell short of the spark exhibited by Leachman and Colby in the first three episodes.

Although the show enjoyed good ratings following the success of Rhoda and was often quite humorous, it suffered from a notable gap: the cast was considerably weaker than it would have been had Colby not tragically passed away.

Henry Jones and Jane Rose, who portrayed the eccentric older couple with different forms of contempt for Phyllis, were decent but not exceptional. (Rose’s Audrey was a ditzy character, as was Julie’s assistant, played by Richard Schaal, and having two ditzy characters might have been excessive for one show.)

Lisa Gerritsen remained her charming and genuine self, but it couldn’t compensate for the absence of Barbara Colby.

In the episode tag, Phyllis was originally supposed to happily reveal that Bess had told her nothing happened on the skiing trip. However, her mood would then darken as she considered the possibility that Bess might have been lying.

TV Guide, an invaluable source for TV industry reporting in the ’70s, reported that Ed. Weinberger flew to New York to discuss the episode with CBS executives, one of whom humorously referred to it as the “Bess gets laid” episode.

Eventually, a compromise was reached that diluted the entire episode. The aired version concludes with Phyllis exclaiming, “Nothing happened!” and joyfully leaping into the air, with a freeze frame marking the end and virtue seemingly triumphant.

The controversy surrounding this episode may explain why subsequent episodes of Phyllis largely avoided dealing with contemporary, significant issues and instead pursued zanier concepts.

For example, Phyllis participates in a séance and meets the parents of her daughter’s fiancé, discovering they are little people.

Many of these episodes were humorous, and in fact, Phyllis was arguably a more consistently funny show than the more popular Rhoda.

This was thanks to the talents of Ed. Weinberger, Stan Daniels, and the many young writers on staff, including Glen Charles and Les Charles, who became the show’s most prolific scriptwriters.

However, the show lacked a central focus or thematic direction.

But then, a savior arrived in the form of an old and cantankerous character. In the fourth episode, the first without Barbara Colby, writer Earl Pomerantz introduced Mother Dexter, the octogenarian mother of the Henry Jones character.

Judith Lowry, the actress who portrayed her, had previously played zany grandma characters in commercials and similar roles – elderly ladies who rode motorcycles or comically tried to be “hip.”

Mother Dexter, on the other hand, was distinct. She was a realistic, grumpy old woman, physically and mentally frail, embodying the weariness and indifference that often comes with old age.

This character instantly resonated with the audience. When she mistreated Phyllis, it was amusing, perhaps because she lacked the authority over Phyllis that Audrey and Jonathan had. She quickly became a beloved addition to the show.

When the show returned for its second season, it had been moved to a more challenging time slot, and the workplace aspect of the show underwent a complete overhaul.

Phyllis transitioned to working in a politician’s office, and the work-related material shifted closer to the format of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

This aspect of the show never truly clicked, but the producers remained optimistic that Mother Dexter’s popularity would help anchor the home-based storylines. Ed. Weinberger, during the second season, openly stated that the show was increasingly centered around Mother Dexter as a key supporting character.

He expressed hope that her role could have a similar impact on their program as the Fonz character had on Happy Days. He mentioned that they had initially signed Judith Lowry for only half the episodes but ended up using her almost every week.

The producers even promoted an upcoming two-part episode in which Mother Dexter would marry an even older man. Lowry herself expressed that the producers had “great faith in my longevity.”

The article concludes with an editor’s note, revealing that Judith Lowry had passed away after the piece was published.

This explains why The Golden Girls cast a similar character with an actress who was considerably younger than the character. The incident serves as a reminder of the potential challenges associated with building a show around a character in their eighties.

Without its breakout supporting character, Phyllis limped to the end of its second season and eventually faced cancellation.

Towards the end of the second season, new writers joined the show, and there was a suggestion that they might attempt to refocus the series more on Bess, as CBS desired a younger audience (concerned that their shows couldn’t compete with ABC’s appeal to younger viewers), and Bess was the only young character available.

However, this approach was unlikely to succeed, as Lisa Gerritsen’s charm came from her genuine portrayal of a real person who didn’t come across as an actress. In fact, after Phyllis was canceled, Gerritsen left show business altogether.

Despite its tumultuous history, Phyllis is a show that would be worth exploring if it were ever made available. However, given Fox’s problematic handling of the MTM library, such availability seems unlikely.

Individual episodes are likely to contain humorous moments, as Ed. Weinberger, Stan Daniels, and their writing team were at the height of their comedy-writing prowess. Some episodes also feature bold or unconventional ideas.

For instance, “Leo’s Suicide” explores a character attempting suicide (though the pills he takes are placebos), but it’s played for comedy rather than the typical “Very Special Episode” drama.

However, the show probably couldn’t have succeeded, and every time it approached a breakthrough, it faced another setback. A show can be funny but still fall short if the audience is uncertain about its core premise and theme.

No discussion of Phyllis would be complete without mentioning its theme song. Stan Daniels, in addition to being a comedy writer, was also a professional composer-lyricist.

In 1974, he took a break from television to write a Broadway musical called So Long 127th Street, which unfortunately turned out to be a flop. Daniels composed the theme song for Phyllis, which parodied the “Big Lady” theme songs found in shows like Hello, Dolly! and Mame.

These were traditional Broadway tunes where chorus members praised the leading lady for an extended five-minute performance.

However, the twist in the Phyllis theme song was that the person they were singing about wasn’t Phyllis herself, although she naturally assumed it was.

This twist was a clever take on both Broadway show tunes and the Mary Tyler Moore theme song, which spent a minute extolling Mary’s awesomeness and beloved status.

Phyllis, on the other hand, was the character who believed she was great and was surprised to discover she wasn’t.

This fundamental difference might explain why Phyllis only lasted for two seasons while Mary Tyler Moore enjoyed a seven-season run. It’s generally better to build a show around someone genuinely awesome.

Reesav Niraula
Reesav Niraula
Reesav is a entertainment freak who enjoys spending his time immersed in the arts and entertainment world. In his free time, he is delved into entertainment as well, i.e. playing his guitar and singing songs.

Expertise: Story Arc Analysis Psychological Themes

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