I was doing a bit of animation research through Variety when an article about potential line-ups for the 1967-68 fall schedule caught my eye. There were two comedies potentially slotted on ABC that I had never heard of. Evidently, the network had either bought them or the trade paper thought the producers and network were close to a deal. Whatever the case, they never became a series.
In puttering around, I spotted a third potential comedy that also never managed to get past the pilot stage. All were from the same production team.
Dee Caruso and Gerald Gardner became hot, thanks to their work on The Monkees TV series. They took advantage of it by pitching other series ideas. They caught some interest. And they got a good push in Jack Hellman’s column of January 19, 1967.
INTO THIS "FIFTH CARBON TOWN" (THE APPELLATION IS theirs) bounded two comedy writers, Gerald Gardner and Dee Caruso, to take up their trade. They were first heard from a year ago as writers in N.Y. of "That Was the Week That Was." When New Yorkers started packing everything they owned on the Chief for the promised land of swimming pools and penthouses, they were to be counted among them. To become oriented to the west they needed only typewriters and an imagination that flew off in all directions. "The Monkees" may not be your dish but it was theirs and 26 segments bore their names. From the looks of the ratings they've got the wacky show off to what should be a second season and not the half-way ABC kind. They wanted to avoid their own descriptive of Hollywood as a dim carbon of successes so they conceived their own formula—wild and reckless but never bland. If "The Pickle Brothers" sounds like something that should be put back in the brine the reckoning is not shared by Four Star, ABC or Bill Friedkin, who'll direct under the production wing of Gardner and Caruso. If it has any resemblance to the Marx Bros, it is strictly intentional. The three "Pickles," formerly a nitery act billed in Greenwich as "The Uncalled For Three," comprise Ron Prince, a nephew of William Morris' Abe Lastfogel (they're not Morris clients), Peter Lee and Mike Mislove. What's wilder than wild? That's the step they'll take and they exude a confidence that brooks no fumbling.ABC president Tom Moore was quoted in the Los Angeles Times of February 27, 1967 that the Pickle Brothers was under consideration to fill one of the remaining network slots for September. The show was screened for network executives in New York in early March—and that appears to have been the end of it. At least as a series.
Phil Cowan, who is more than a p.r. man for the team, has seen comica come and go for all of tv’s years and likes the odds they'll wing it into safe Nielsen country. What makes him so positive? "They'll get the writing and Friedkin's direction, a winning combination in any time spot." Friedkin, who has had his share of glory, was so won over to the kids that he gave up 15 days and nights to rehearse them. Gardner and Caruso have been writing comedy, both brash and brittle, for 10 years and they have rarely deviated from thin pattern. Behind them are scripts for "Get Smart" and "Monkees" and "Pickles" is just one entry in their future book. Screen Gems' Harry Ackerman, whose record for comedy hits is unmatched, took an immediate liking to their created "Tay-Gar of the Jungle" and is now being edited for the client scramble. Their "Mauley and the Mob," starring Paul Lynde as a dilettante detective, will be wilder than a March hare and as frantic as "The Pickles."
Where did they get much a corny title? Says Caruso, who claims kinship to the great Enrico (his father was a second cousin) but can’t sing a note, recalled that "mother used to regale us youngsters with stories of Ickle, Mickle and Pickle." Gardner's six-year-old, Lindsay, has also contributed a new generation touch to some of the situations. It would be interesting to both to see the reaction of Groucho Marx to the pilot. "If he thought he and his brothers were wild, wait till he gets a load of this." ABC's program board, leapt of the comedy-conscious judges, think well enough of what they've seen of the Gardner-Caruso works to call them in for development deals on three pilots. If the kids from Hofstra college in N.Y., who are the "Pickles," can laugh off the competition next season it'll be the crowning point of the Gardner-Caruso career. It's their first very own, from creation, writing and production even though they blandly (they hate the word) confess it's a direct steal from the Marx Bros.
Prince, Lee and Mislove continued to perform as the Pickles in clubs and on television through the balance of the 1960s. They did get a TV show—they were signed by WPIX-TV to do a local Saturday night show starting September 28, 1968 (Variety, Sept. 25, 1968). Perhaps the most interesting aspect of their career is when the ABC radio network split into four networks in January 1968. They were picked by the network to do a five minute satire on the news for the Contemporary Network, then survived a disastrous first week after which most feature programming was cancelled (Variety, Jan. 17, 1968). Director Friedkin went on to other things. Something about boys in a band or a French connection or an exorcist or something.
As for the other shows, Variety reported on December 2, 1966, then the following week:
Mike Henry, one of the many who played role of Tarzan in a feature film (an MGM-TV series is now being produced by Sy Weintraub for NBC), was signed yesterday to star in Screen Gems' "Tay-Gar Of The Jungle," a Tarzan spoof. It's a pilot being planned for next season, rolls Tuesday, at the Columbia Ranch.The pilot was shot January 18, 1967.
George Kirby previously was set for a leading role. Bob Claver is the producer, Harry Ackerman exec producer. Dee Caruso and Gerald Gardner scripted the pilot. (2)
Gerald Gardner and Dee Caruso will set up offices at MGM Dec 19 for production of "The Pickle Brothers" pilot for ABC-TV. Director and supporting cast not yet set for pilot, which stars The Uncalled For Three, for Sullivan Productions.
Gardner and Caruso, story editors and chief writers for "The Monkees" series, have a second pilot, "Manley And The Mob,” to begin shooting Jan. 3 at Four Star, with Fred de Cordova producing and Paul Lynde and Nehemiah Persoff starring.
A third Gardner-Caruso pilot, "Tay-Gar Of The Jungle," starring Mike Henry, George Kirby and Kit Smythe, is now rolling at Screen Gems. Harry Ackerman is executive producer. (9)
Taygar was perhaps up against too much competition. At the same time, Desilu was working on Alfred of the Amazon starring Wally Cox and produced by Get Smart’s Arnie Rosen, and Universal had Walter of the Jungle, starring Jonathan Daly, with Rose Marie and Nipsey Russell. The jungle spoof which did air that season wasn’t in prime time. It was the cartoon series George of the Jungle from the Jay Ward studios.
Reading about pilots is fascinating to me. There are always some interesting concepts and shows where star-power wasn’t enough to get them on the air. Broadcasting magazine used to do a round-up of them every year. You can read about the potential fall shows for 1967-68 in this edition, starting on page 27.
Late note: in hunting around for photos for this post, I came across the Pickle Brothers pilot and discovered a book had been written about their career. See the pilot below. The music, incidentally, isn’t by the Monkees. Caruso and Gardner got Quincy Jones.
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