Welcome to a new Wildcard Wednesday! This week, I’m launching a series of bi-monthly posts, spotlighting interesting but overlooked sitcoms that are at least twenty years old. Frankly, I’m excited, for this is my excuse to dip back into the 20th century here to examine shows that I’ve heretofore missed — starting now with a series that premiered 45 years ago this week…
PARK PLACE (April 1981, CBS)
Premise: The staff of a Manhattan legal aid clinic works to help those in need.
Cast: Harold Gould, Lionel Smith, Mary Elaine Monti, James Widdoes, Don Calfa, David Clennon, Alice Drummond, Cal Gibson
Writers: Reinhold Weege, Tom Reeder
Thoughts: The first sitcom created by Barney Miller alum Reinhold Weege, Park Place was clearly crafted in its forefather’s image. It’s another ensemble workplace crime-based procedural set in a grungy New York office. This time, a legal aid clinic led by straight man Harold Gould, anchoring an ensemble of eight. Those regulars vary in terms of clear comic personalities – the best is probably the meek, overly devout secretary played by Alice Drummond – but if you squint, you can see that everyone has at least one detail that’s reiterated over the course of these five episodes, suggesting definition. The problem, as it was on Barney Miller, is that these characters just aren’t tasked with inspiring story. It’s case-of-the-week fare, a parade of both funny and sad people who need help. Accordingly, the regulars’ definitions are limited because they don’t get the chance to reveal themselves, and then refine, through the typical narrative cycle of generating and guiding plot. This is not ideal for situation comedy, as it puts more of the burden on episodic idea-based concerns, rather than the sustaining elements of the situation. As for Park Place, what most differentiates it from Barney Miller is that it’s helmed not by Danny Arnold but Reinhold Weege, which means it’s willing to lose some of the former’s realism to court bigger laughs. Indeed, this is a broader show overall — with a live studio audience restored to make that point clearer – rendering it more stylistically a preview of its creator’s next series, the funnier and more character-forward Night Court (which eventually branched out into unmotivated lunacy, but at least started as a grounded yet more yuk-yuk-seeking Barney Miller). Narratively, they’re quite similar; almost every episode of Park Place has an element that would later be reused on Night Court – a woman who nonchalantly confesses to murdering her husband, a blizzard that traps characters in an elevator, a manic judge throwing lawyers in jail for contempt, etc. So, essentially, this series is a trial run for that forthcoming classic, a stylistic bridge between the sitcom from which Weege came and the sitcom towards which he was heading. That makes it fascinating, if not spectacular in its own right – a middle point that never ran long enough to calibrate its own brand of excellence.
Episode Count: Five episodes produced, four broadcast. | Episodes Seen: All five.
Key Episode: “Pilot” (04/09/81)
Why: No sample is sublime, but this one — which literally features Barney Miller and Fish’s own Florence Stanley as a woman who claims to have killed her husband — is notable because the same plot with the same actress (in the same character name) was used on a fourth season entry of Night Court called “Murder” (which, incidentally, also guested Park Place’s Alice Drummond). Also, as Weege’s premiere sample of the series, the pilot makes an overt effort to communicate individual definitions for the regulars, which is a basic first step for forthcoming sitcommery.
Come back next week for a new Wildcard! And stay tuned Tuesday for more Community!