Question: There was a sitcom back in the 1980s with Park Overall as a nurse. Who was the doctor, and what was the name of the show?
Answer: That was "Empty Nest," which ran on NBC from 1988-95.
It was a sort of spinoff from "The Golden Girls," about neighbor Harry Weston (Richard Mulligan), a recently widowed pediatrician.
Dinah Manoff, Kristy McNichol and Lisa Rieffel played Mulligan's daughters and David Leisure was the nutty next-door neighbor, Charlie.
Question: My husband and I remember a show called "Here Come the Brides." We also remember that teen idol Bobby Sherman played one of the brothers, and Mark Lenard was the "bad guy." Can you tell us please who played the other roles? Also, when was it on?
And if you can sing us a few bars of the theme song ... something about "the bluest skies and greenest hills are in Seattle"?
Answer: "Here Come the Brides" aired on ABC from 1968-70. It concerned the brothers Bolt, who ran a Seattle logging operation in the late-1800s. To keep their lumberjacks happy (because no one likes a testy lumberjack), the Bolts went to New Bedford, Mass., and brought back a bunch of marriageable young women.
The Bolts were charismatic oldest brother Jason (Robert Brown), good-looking middle brother Joshua (David Soul) and sensitive-yet-dimpled brother Jeremy (Bobby Sherman).
Stempel (Mark Lenard) was the sawmill owner who wanted the Bolts' plan to fail. Lottie (Joan Blondell) ran the local watering hole. Candy (Bridget Hanley) was Jeremy's bestest girl.
The lyrics to the song included the following:
The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle
And the hills the greenest green, in Seattle
Like a beautiful child, growing up, free an' wild
Full of hopes an' full of fears, full of laughter, full of tears
Full of dreams to last the years, in Seattle ... in Seattle!
An' that's enough of that.
Question: When I was a kid growing up in the 1960s, I seem to remember waking up early on Saturday morning and watching a show about a kangaroo called "Skippy." I don't remember much about it, but everyone my age that I have asked doesn't remember it. Did really exist, or am I dreaming?
Answer: Well if you are dreaming, then wake up and smell the kangaroo ... "Skippy the Bush Kangaroo," that is, for that was the title of the show. It was a 1966-68 Australian series (duh) that was syndicated here in America, which means it was shown in some cities, but not in others, which may explain why no one you know remembers it (or else they just don't want to talk to you).
The human cast members included Ed Devereaux as park ranger Matt Hammond and Garry Pankhurst as son Sonny, whose pet was Skippy.