"Baby...I'm Back!" - 13 Week Theatre
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- Опубликовано: 13 окт 2024
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The top-voted episode in our recent poll, this week it's an extra-length episode looking at CBS' 1978 sitcom-with-a-purpose, "Baby...I'm Back!" featuring Demond Wilson, Denise Nicholas, Kim Fields, and Helen Martin.
"No. He's one of those dudes who makes the Pentagon look INTEGRATED."
Holy...and crap.
Actually, all three women went on to be on successful shows with NBC in the 80s: Facts Of Life, 227 and In The Heat Of The Night.
I’d forgotten that Denise Nicholas was on In the Heat of the Night. I mentioned Paper Chase because it was her first job right after Baby...I’m Back.
1:48, I remember that CBS Special intro in the 70s when a Charlie Brown holiday special was about to come on. Also too, Kim Fields did a couple of episodes of the last season of Good Times as one of Janet Jackson's school friends.
This looked like a GREAT SHOW!! Every other show I have watched (so far) from your channel has been a real stinker LOL
It actually was quite good. Demond Wilson was great and Denise Nicholas is always outstanding. It had a wonderful supporting cast. Not as good as Sanford and Son, but practically nothing is
Out of the cast you could already see that young Kim Fields was already shining!
She was adorable.
Yes she was!!
I'm guessing the pilot lawyer was too "Algonquin J. Calhoun" for modern tastes.
“OOOH YEEEEEEEAH!”
@@PabSungenis That was Timmie Rogers originating the role.
I was thinking the same thing!
The mother-in law reminds me of a cross between "Aunt Ester" and "Mother Jefferson."😂
I remember the theme song for this show. Kim Fields, pre-Tootie, played their daughter.
The grandma, Helen Martin, from 227 played the mother in law from hell.
If only these facts were mentioned in the video! Oh wait . . . 😄
So it was a HIT?!? I was always led to believe this show was one of the biggest flops of all time and a career-killer for Demond. This is why we need stuff like this, to set the record straight.
One of the reasons I created this show was to occasionally spotlight shows that were good but for one reason or another didn’t survive. Shows like “Committed,” “Defying Gravity,” and “Mr. Hell.” Ore one I hope to spotlight in upcoming weeks but don’t yet want to tease.
Baby...I’m Back! was between Good Times and M*A*S*H, and had respectable numbers compared to those two. There were some weeks when it out pulled its lead-in. But Norman Lear was still a juggernaut of TV and CBS wanted to appease him. It also probably doesn’t help that this show took Helen Martin away from her recurring role on Good Times.
Lila Garrett herself was the person who revealed the reason the show was cancelled and what CBS told her.
@@PabSungenis Well, when Norman said he could produce a CHEAPER show, he wasn't just whistling Dixie. The Baxters was as cheap as you could get and still be legally called a TV show.
@@TheTVsTim The Baxters was a very unique show, half acting and half audience debate. Was more successful in Canada in season 2.
The "oh yeah" guy was well known for those Kraft BBQ commercials in the 80s.
This is great! Love this channel! Please keep them coming. I was so happy when you did the one on Second Chance/Boys Will Be Boys, which was one of my favorite shows.
Watched this as a kid, enjoyed it. Also a big fan of THAT'S MY MAMA!
I'm glad the exposition theme songs died out sometime in the 80's, they were never necessary. I wish this had lasted longer, if only for Helen Martin and little Kim Fields.
Some suggestions for future episodes:
Whatever Turns you on (You Can't Do That On Television's first attempt at a national expansion outside of CJOH in Ottawa Canada before a more successful attempt at international expansion via Nickelodeon in the US under the Y.C.D.T.O.TV name)
Blackout (A game show notable for being the only one to be replaced by the show it replaced (The $25,000 Pyramid))
Blockbusters (1987 version)
Don't look Now (The PBS version of YCDTOTV with a different cast)
Little Muppet Monsters (A saturday morning show that only ran for 3 episodes due to the show being rushed out so CBS can strike while the Muppet Babies iron was still red hot)
I came across this show a few years ago and really enjoyed it. Demond Wilson put in great performance. Its not easy making a man who abandoned his family likable.
The New Odd Couple was good , but that was bad timimg. The original show had not been gone that long.
The New Odd Couple sucked
I remembered this show when I was 6 years old. Demond Wilson was this show after Sanford and Son. Kim Fields made her debut and the old woman was known as Weeping Wanda on Good Times. Then this show got canceled and forgotten.
What a shame. A well written show with interesting characters and an excellent plot gets the heave ho. Thanks for spotlighting this show, I always look forward to your videos!
Looking forward to seeing the review of "The New Odd Couple".
Ron Glass & Demond Wilson!
@@christophervaldez8746 RIP Ron!
I loved that show
These are the stories that make me sad. The shows that should have lasted but were cut short because of corporate shenanigans.
I agree though while it was the Network "bigshots" who never understood what they were doing sometimes the show idea was just there. This is an example of a great waste of talent.
That lawyer was channeling Algonquin J. Calhoun!
There was one episode where they were supposed to come into some money for some reason as I recall, and the Kim Fields character asked how to spell Lincoln. Her dad told her, thinking she was doing her homework. Then she said "And how do you spell Continental?"
This was the first show I've seen so far on TWT that I really wanted to watch! Well-written, a great cast, and actually funny! CBS goofed on this one...
The national version of _The Baxters_ aired through US syndication its first season. Lear was not attached to the Canadian season; that was Wilks + Close Productions and Hamilton, Ontario station CHCH, with WCVB's syndication arm BBI Communications distributing the second season for the US market. WCVB originated _The Baxters_ in its local form.
Given _Baby...I'm Back!_ later aired on BET, it ended up with a longer overall shelf life than a lot of Lear's post-mid-1970s output. I get why CBS wanted to continue its Lear association, but it was the old hits CBS kept renewing. CBS even floated _Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman_ reruns for late night at one point. The _Mr. Dugan_ fiasco in 1979 didn't help, either.
I loved this show!
This show was the precursor of what UPN and WB sitcoms were to become.
On god it was
15:01- "THE BAXTERS" was syndicated to local stations in the fall of 1979.The first half of each episode, produced at Metromedia Square in Hollywood, featured Larry Keith and Anita Gillette- and the Baxter family- tackling a problem without a resolution. The second half featured a local studio audience discussing possible solutions to the Baxters' latest dilemma, and a discussion of the situation behnd the problem. A second season was produced [without Norman Lear's participation] in Canada, featuring Sean McCann and Terry Tweed (and a different cast), with a studio audience in attendance, doing the same thing, including the local discussion in the second half of the show. It finally went off the air in 1981.
Baby I'm Back, a sitcom I heard recently but never got around watching, loved to see this one on 13th Week Theatre.
The whole ending of Sanford and Son fiasco lead to countless number of shows. Redd Foxx quit to work on a short-lived ABC variety show The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour.
Later they attempted to spin off Whitman Mayo's character of "Grady." While also planning on continuing the series with just Lamont, however due to the failure of a salary agreement it became the show "Sanford Arms."
Then they brought back Red Foxx again in the show "Sanford." still without Lamont.
Demond Wilson never really recovered being only on "Baby... I'm Back", "New Odd Couple", "Loveboat", until getting a reoccurring role much later on in "Girlfriends." for 4 episodes.
Red Foxx returned to television after the cancellation of Sanford. In the short lived ABC comedy "The Redd Foxx Show." After it's cancellation shortly made a comeback on the sitcom "The Royal Family" as the star vechile however ended up suffering a heart attack while rehearsing leading to the end of the show, and Redd Foxx's life.
Actually, I don’t mention this until next week’s episode, but after The New Odd Couple failed, Wilson quit acting to become a preacher. The brief guest appearances after that were as favors to friends.
@@PabSungenis The Sanford Arms would make a great episode. That show absolutely was putrid!
Baby I'm Back deserved another season.
BET used to show the reruns in the early-90s. I found a couple episodes on RUclips a few years ago and it was a pretty funny show.
I remember the intro... I do not have fond memories of this show... the intro was excellent.
Timmie Rogers--OH YEAAAH!
Demond quit acting for awhile to become a minister. I think he did eventually return to acting and even now is involved in some projects. I think he definitely had the charm and ability to become an A list TV actor or even a recurring supporting actor and it’s a shame that did not happen. I will always love Sanford and Son- one of the best shows ever
Kim Field's knew the Facts of Life
I never realized until I saw this show how impoverished and racially divided Washington DC.
I remember when this was reran on BET back in the early 90s
Not that I expect anyone to care but I was born during the period this aired. #BabyI'mHere
This show should have worked for so many reasons.
Was that a different actor playing the lawyer? First one sounded like a minstrel comic.
This seemed like a pretty good show. It should've been a hit n stayed at least 1 or 2 seasons
I really enjoyed this show. Another bad decision by the networks = a loss for the viewers.
That was a good show, and I always liked Demond Wilson. It's a shame it was cancelled so soon.
I think the minister in the pilot is the same one on Sanford and Son where Lamont got dumped at the altar.
Actually, I didn't think this show was too bad. Sure, it was conventional at times but this was the late seventies and you could only discuss serious issues at the network's discretion. I think Demond Wilson played a convincing (former) deadbeat dad who seemed sincere in mending his ways but once again, how long could they have carried this plot of (does he get her back/he doesn't get her back)?
I haven't seen this show since it aired. I can comment as someone who saw it at the time and as a Black person. At the time, Jet Magazine used to list actors and entertainers' appearances because they were in such small number. I am not a spokesperson for a whole race, but I can tell you that I found this show horrifically bad. The stereotypes and tropes flew at you at a breakneck pace: the fair-skinned square, the absentee Dad, the horrible Mother-In-Law...some of which I could have forgiven had it been funnier. I didn't like the show but, because at the age of 13, there weren't a whole lot of shows that featured folks that looked like me, I kept tuning in and it didn't get any better.
I watched because I liked "Sanford and Son" and "Room 222" and this was well below either of those shows. Looking at iMDB, I see a lot of names of people whose work I admire and respect, but this show is no lost classic and I did not cry when it went off the air.
Is it the worst thing I saw on TV? Far from it. However, imagine being someone who has experienced racism (nothing, blessedly that has caused me much bodily harm or mental torpor), i.e. kids saying, "You know who you look like?", which is a dreadful line to me, because the guesses were usually bad and it makes one feel more like an exhibit than a person. Imagine that and turning on YET another show that while employing my people is not dignifying them, with no real hope in sight...as I say, no tears at the cancellation.
Having said all that, is this a verbose demand to take this off RUclips?
NO. I feel that we should all see things like this, but please view it in context. It means more that way.
Thank you for your perspective.
Of course, this show expected us to side with a guy who just up and skedaddled one fine day AND is hunted by the mob because he cheated them for 7 years. Yeah, real nice work, guys....
It would've been funnier if Redd Foxx had been cast as the father-in-law instead.
Lamont finally quit being a dummy
Plz post more
Pretty short sighted to cancel the show for only 1 more season of Good Times. "Baby... I'm Back" could have gone for 5 seasons itself.
And Good Times was well past its prime by then too.
And for those who wonder, the source for the reason the show was cancelled was Lila Garret herself.
Someone else would've played Tootie on The Facts of Life because Kim Fields would've been on Baby I'm Back instead.
It seems like Good Times were going downhill also but luckily it was giving a 6th season
This show is some high-octane nightmare fuel for domestic abuse survivors.
No s--t! Holy smokes, this guy comes off more like the stalker husband from Sleeping With The Enemy
I remember the show. I thought the premise was awful. A man who left his family and wants to re-enter? I even remember the guy who was now dating the mom, Colonel Wallace Dicky...Why do I still remember that?
Baby I'm Back should've moved to ABC or NBC after its' cancellation by CBS.
NBC would be better, hosted Sanford and Son. But Diff'rent Strokes was debuting in 1978 and that was a hit.
@@teresapflaumer5717 NBC could've had Baby I'm Back and Diff'rent Strokes on the same night (Friday).
Facts. I mean at least another year
Finally!!!
Took me a while. This is the second longest one I’ve done and took a lot of work.
@@PabSungenis I am so glad I'm off today. I will be glued to your show tonight.
@@PabSungenis Last question and an observation. Then I will move on. Any thoughts on the passing of Richard Gilliland "Just Our Luck" last month? Also the TV show "Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice" had a future two time Oscar winner Jodie Foster in it as one of the kids.
I watched the first few episodes of this show because Helen Martin. My main problem with it is the premise. He literally disappeared on his family one day and the only reason her returns SEVEN YEARS LATER is when he hears his wife is engaged to another man (AKA moving on with her life). Then he comes back expecting everyone to be happy to see hi. Only Kim Fields is happy to see him though as she is too young to remember him walking out so he uses his own daughter as a wedge. He also moves into the apartment above his family after his wife tells him his presence makes her uncomfortable. Oh, and he also deliberately ruins his wife's engagement. And the wife... starts to come around? It's a big case of something that was regularly played for laughs decades ago not aging well, but I suspect the concept gave enough people an icky feeling that it played a part in the show's failure. Helen Martin is kind of written as the bad guy, a lot of the jokes are at her expense at least, but she's absolutely justified in her low opinion of Lamont (or whatever the character's name is supposed to be).
Great writing?
Damn, that story behind the show getting cancelled was fucking gut- wrenching. It's sad, this was honestly good tv, about a man who made some mistakes but is trying to rebuild his life, and, while I'm not black, I do feel like it handled a serious issue well...a serious issue which is now just an insult hurled by racists who think they're being funny online...life sucks sometimes.
This series must curse people. When you did Just Our Luck, Richard Gilliland died. Now with this one, Charles Fries just died.
And Lila Garret died while I was doing the research on this one.
Not to mention that Jerry Lewis died a week after I did the episode on his show.
@@PabSungenis And now the curse continues- your recent Goodtime Girls ep and Peter Scolari
Has anyone seen My Favorite Wife (remade as Move Over Darling) where the wife has been absent for seven years and the husband has her declared dead so he can wed his new girlfriend. Then the wife shows up and meets her two kids who don’t remember her. I guess nothings really original.
Sacrificial lamb for Jimmie Walker. Smh.
We will have to agree to disagree on this one. I thought this played into various stereotypes:
The no-good gambler and more sexually desirable "real Black man" as opposed to the light-skinned "Whiter-acting" man. The "impossibility" of a two-parent household...
Also, I felt then as I do now that the series' writing was by and large horrible, saved somewhat by talent. Behind the scenes, the only African-American was Asaad Kelada, which is to say that he was born in Egypt and moved to the USA. Also, it looks like the bulk of the writing staff was in their 50's. (..."what a heel I was", "Who is this mouthpiece?") Arbitrarily throwing people of color is not necessarily the solution, but the fact that there were none given a shot to succeed or fail, was not a good thing.
In a time that Jet Magazine was able to list the appearances of African-Americans on TV in a weekly half-page column, BIB was a rare bird in its day...and It laid an egg.
The dialogue was atrocious.
Every Show That I Liked 2 Watch Got Cancelled B4 The Show Took Off InCluding This One ... That's Why I Don't Watch TV AnyMore !!! I Read A Books 📖 InStead ...
Well, English is not my first language and I may be missing some cultural background here, but the pilot seems atrocious to me.
Real bad we have that problem now so forgiving we can be in poverty by areselves I remember the show but I was real young and didn't really understand what was going and I like lomant on Sanford and son like cheecho the man I did not know was going on I think they tried to be honest with the problems a wayward father was but it just wasn't a good idea just when we find somebody who cares gonna do right we find excuses to go back to the one who left us he comes back sees his wife and kids are happy and he wants to come back that's somebody pulling us down black or white they had tobe thinking evil on this one and a few others know that was not a good idea we don't need know help because they make it a stereo type and the government caused it and a few of us helped especially now and it's 2024 not good at all it even made a little mad when I thought about it
this seems like another commited / mr hell situation sadly.
Seen it and it doesn't have any memorable episodes to me.
Good writing? Really?
I thought this was rather funny.
This show was not bad.... had potential. Good actors for the most part.
Was that old lady the model for the Madame puppet? 0:42