Shark Bytes

While we wait (and WAIT!) for the DVD collection, some good eggs at YouTube have posted a few top-shelf episodes, ("Y'alright, Sam?" I'm alright!") including "Boom Boom Boom" with Jan Murray and my fave, "I Hate Captain Block!" with BeBe the parrot ("Y'alright, Sam?" I'm alright!"). Funniest bridge game this side of ANIMAL CRACKERS in that one! Now if they'd post that one with Larry Storch getting bagged just by talking about "The Atlantic Bar & Grille! They give you three shots for a dollar--VOOM VOOM VOOM!" Heck, somebody please post them ALL! "Y'alright, Sam?" I'm ALRIGHT!"

Classic episode is the one where toody is looking for charlie zimmaman, but francis ends up robbing a bank!!! absolutely classic. "I want u 2 think"...brilliant!!!

My All time favorite sitcom...
Best plots ever..
I wish we could get movement to get the series to a legitimate DVD packaging.
RJMdrum

"This show jumped the shark on the 1st episode... The most annoying thing about the show was the goofy patrolman constantly saying, Ooohh, ohhh. I mean that was just stupid and annoying."

Better to remain silent and thought the fool than to speak up and remove all doubt.

"How about the classic episode when Muldoon took the Russian diplomat to the strip club? This show remained totally offbeat throughout, never took itself too seriously."

Do you remember the part where Toody brings the Russian diplomat to meet his brother-in-law Julius who owns a plumbing parts manufacturing business? The diplomat says something along the lines of meeting "this bloated capitalist pig" and Toody responds, "hey Francis, he knows Julius!"

Hilarious

Never Jumped

I see a lot of good episodes here, but no one mentions the one where Toody is mistaken as a mastermind criminal by a new gang of crooks.

Toody is so carried away with their admiration of him that when he leads them into a sting operation he yells "cops" when he sees captain Block. Block keeps repeating "cops, he said cops."

I bought my DVDs (cheap) on ioffer

ONE OF MY ALL-TIME FAVORITES.

BUT WHEN I HEAR IT COMPARED TO THE MUNSTERS AND GILLIGAN'S ISLAND (MY APOLOGIES TO JIM BACKUS AND MS. HOWELL WHO WERE FABULOUS), I REMEMBER THAT EXPLAINING TASTES IN COMEDY IS THE OLD CHOCOLATE VS. VANILLA DEBATE.

DOES ANYONE REMEMBER THE EPISODE WHERE TOODY IMPRESSES THE ABSTRACT ARTIST BY UNDERSTANDING HIS "LOWER MANHATTAN FROM THE NEW JERSEY SIDE" MASTERPIECE? DID A PRE-SCHNAUZER'S BROTHER IN LAW CARL BALLANTINE PLAY THE ARTIST?

The tv show never jumped. It's hardly fair to list the movie as a possible shark-jumping point, since they were entirely different entities

This is one of the best sitcoms ever to air. It had great characters and terrific writing. It never jumped because it didn't have time. What a terrible tragedy to have lasted only two years. My family rolled on the floor every week. When I saw it again decades later, it was still just as hilarious. One of my favorite episodes was when Toody taught Captain Block's parrot to say "I hate Captain Block." I was disgusted was disgusted when years later "The Love Boat" stole this routine ("I hate Captain Stubbing"). Lucky for "The Love Boat" people there was nobody left to sue them. Was I the only TV viewer to see both shows? That should tell you something about my pathetic life.

This show jumped the shark on the 1st episode. I used to watch it when it on Nick-At-Nite on Nickelodeon. The most annoying thing about the show was the goofy patrolman constantly saying, Ooohh, ohhh. I mean that was just stupid and annoying.

Never jumped, and the reason the show was cancelled? According to a biography on Nat Hiken, the shows creator, he quit the show because creatively he was burned out. I guess the network didn't want to continue it without his guidance. The book also says that Joe E. Ross was very difficult to work with, and that if the show had gone on for a third season, his character would have been written out of the show and Al Lewis' character would have taken his place. Had Hiken stayed on, the show certainly would have gone onto a third season.

Car 54 was on for only 2 years, so it never really had a chance to jump. As to speculation over why it was cancelled, it ran opposite the Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday night. That was a time slot for sure death. No show EVER survived running opposite Ed Sullivan. Now, someone speculated that maybe the fact that the show had ethnic characters made it unpopular. I doubt this, but it may be the reason the network put it in that time slot - they didn't WANT it to survive.

This was classic 60's comedy! Everything on this show just clicked...great writing, great characters, excellent acting...totally off the wall! This kind of show existed in an incredibly hilarious era that also brought us the likes of Rocky and Bullwinkle, The Phil Silvers Show, and F Troop. Car 54 was based on the Norman Feld type of humor that is steeped in a New York, Yiddish background with snappy comebacks and outlandish rhetorical questions like "what am I, a poodle psychiatrist?" The rapid fire plot progression with the entirely zany cast of characters produced maximum yucks. Captain Block always had the stern, authority figure exterior, hiding the inner dufus, while Toody simply oozed stupidity. Ooh, ooh... don't forget the fabulous theme song that placed the show in it's historical context with.."..there's a scout troop short a child, Khruschev's due at Idlewild...Car 54 where are you?" Totally funny plot lines and dead on comedic delivery! I actually do wonder where Car 54 is because it is sorely missed!

The jumping moment was season 2. Not quite as great, funny, and lively as season one. BTW to the above poster Charlotte Rae did NOT play Rose. She played Sylvia Schnauser, Officer Schnauser's wife. In an early ep Rae also played a bank teller. Now for some other problems. The closing credits often neglected to put down the names of all the ep's guest stars. The eps were very episodic. Hardly character driven comedy was this. In one ep Officer Ed Nicholson has a wife and kids. In another ep he's a swinging bachelor. Inconsistent!

NEVER jumped! Consistently good ratings during the two year run, this show was, and is, a blueprint for a comedy. Character driven, with stories that everyone could relate to, dealing with jealousy, insecurity, ego, paranoia, all of the human traits and characteristics were used. Stories weren't just set ups for the jokes - these were STORIES about people, about our difference, our similarities, about what makes us run! Amazingly talented and diverse cast - Nipsey Russell...Bruce Kirby...Ossie Davis...Carl Ballantine (that's all Rose)..and the best "scene stealer" I've ever seen, the diminutive Paul Reed (capt. Block). And, I haven't even touched the amazing list of guest stars - Molly Picon, Rocky Graziano, Shari Lewis, Floyd Patterson, Larry Storch (watch him get drunk without touching a drop - pure genius), Jan Murray, etc. As to why it left the air, remember this was the early 60's and even though ratings were good, the diversity and ethnicity of the cast and stories were NOT universally accepted. Ratings not withstanding, sponsorship issues and problems helped erode network corporate support. It was on the local NY area Cablevision system on their "Metro" channel until about a year ago, including a Christmas Day marathon, but it seems to have disappeared...Wish someone would bring it back, or put the thing out on *****. And, finally...."Take me to boom boom land!"

Never, ever jumped, never could. If Gilligan's Island was my favorite sitcom of childhood, CAR 54 is definitely my all-time favorite sitcom. I only wish I could watch it today, but can't find it on TV anywhere. I'd never seen it until I started watching it on Nick at Nite back in the late 80's. I watched it every night, never missed it, I saw every episode they aired at least twice, watched it until they stopped showing it, loved every character. Every episode would have me wondering--why can't they write characters, plots, and scripts like that for sitcoms today? All the episodes would have me laughing out loud, and just enjoying every minute of it, wondering how they were able to come up with something so silly, offbeat and FUNNY, and so GOOD, and wishing that the show somehow wouldn't end. Some of my all-time favorite episodes: When Toody tries to teach Captain Block's parrot to talk, but despite his best efforts it remains silent. Then, completely by accident, he teaches it to say "I hate Captain Block"; The one when everyone at the police station tries to fool one person there that it's a different day/date than it really is (for surprise party purposes), only to end up with everyone at the station completely confused as to what day it is; The time a bunch of old (really old) bank-heist gang members try to re-do their famous heist of decades before---the scene with the old guy trying to run from the safe before the dynamite blows it open is simply priceless; The one when the men from the station and their wives preview a Broadway musical "Little Miss Pioneer", to see if it is "morally correct" for them to go see; When Charles Nelson Reilly plays an urban developer who wants to build a new high-rise and tear down an old tenement, and the little old lady who lives in the tenement and thwarts his efforts--- I could name so many episodes that I enjoyed. I guess I'll have to buy some of the episodes on VHS if I ever want to see them again, but it seems the selection of episodes available is somewhat limited.