Welcome to a new Wildcard Wednesday! On this day in 1976 (Sep 30), NBC was scheduled to debut a new sitcom called Snip. It was executive produced by James Komack (Chico And The Man, Welcome Back Kotter) and developed by Stan Cutler from an idea loosely inspired by the 1975 film Shampoo. Standup comic David Brenner was to star as a womanizing hair stylist whose philandering ways busted up his marriage to fellow beautician Beverly (Lesley Ann Warren). In the opener, he attempts to woo her back — rejoining her in the salon and taking up residence on her couch. Others in the main cast were Andy Griffith‘s Hope Summers as Beverly’s Aunt Cleo, Bebe Drake-Hooks as a manicurist, and Walter Wanderman as a gay hairdresser.
Although not the first gay sitcom regular — characters on The Corner Bar (1972) and HOT L BALTIMORE (1975) predated Snip — his inclusion was still controversial. NBC abruptly pulled Snip from its schedule in late August 1976, shortly after ABC had rejiggered its own lineup to be more competitive. Execs promised to slot the show in at midseason whenever there was a dropout, but the scuttlebutt was that the network had second thoughts over its risqué content — not just the gay character (there were also gay regulars on CBS’ new Ball Four and ABC’s new The Nancy Walker Show), but the general promiscuity of the lead, who lived unmarried with his ex-wife while also having eyes for other women as well. Apparently, Komack and his crew were initially encouraged by the network to offer an adult “sex comedy” — a show that would be perfect to air at 9:30, well outside the then-attempted “Family Viewing Hour” — before facing blowback. Production on the series paused and then briefly continued after its postponement, with approximately seven of the fifteen ordered episodes filmed before the plug was pulled.
Ultimately, NBC never made room for the series on its schedule, though all of the fully edited and completed entries (five) were sold to air in Australia. Since then, the series’ reputation for naughtiness has remained, but later sources have implied that its failure to launch was due to broader creative problems and strife on the set, which exacerbated network concerns. Couple that with contrasting ideas about the show’s content and its topical permissions, and it’s clear that Snip was not an endeavor where all parts of its whole were working together. Thus, I think there were a variety of factors that led to its initial and then permanent shelving.
Nevertheless, it’s remained an interesting footnote. (Every completed episode currently exists at the Paley Center.) And I bring it up here because I’ve had the pleasure of reading a final draft script for one of its filmed episodes — “Out Of The Closet And Into The Fire” by Stan Cutler and Bob Shayne. It concerns a ruse by the gay hairdresser, Michael, to pretend that Beverly is his wife, since he’s not yet out of the closet to his visiting mom. It’s a clichéd sitcom story that, to be fair, would have been a lot more novel in 1976. Now, reading it today, I’d say it’s mildly amusing, but not all the personalities jump off the page — Beverly, for instance, seems more like a straight-man plot device than a full character — and Brenner’s David just seems overbearing. Also, I’m not personally the biggest fan of James Komack’s style (too obvious, ingenuity-lacking), so I’m afraid I think Snip was inherently working within creative constraints.
That said, it’s always interesting to see a sitcom, especially a curious one like this, try to discover itself. So, here’s an excerpt from this script — offered in full to subscribers who comment below to alert me of their private, educational, non-commercial interest.
Come back next week for a new Wildcard! And stay tuned Tuesday for more sitcom fun!