4.4 /10 1 Votes4.4
4.6/10 TV Final episode date 7 November 1973 Program creator Larry Tucker | 4.3/10 IMDb Genre Sitcom First episode date 26 September 1973 Number of seasons 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Created by Paul MazurskyLarry Tucker Written by James S. HenersonBernard M. Kahn Directed by Rick EdelsteinLeo Penn Starring Robert UrichAnne ArcherDavid SpielbergAnita Gillette Network American Broadcasting Company Cast Similar Paper Moon, The Danny Kaye Show, The Monkees, Jennifer Slept Here, Mr Merlin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice is an American sitcom broadcast in the United States by ABC as part of its 1973 fall lineup. It was based on the movie of the same title. It was produced by Screen Gems.
Contents
Synopsis
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice was of necessity somewhat different from the R-rated 1969 movie upon which it was based. The film involved sexual liberation, and featured the (short-lived) desire of the two title couples to engage in extra-marital affairs, mate-swapping and group sex, all of which would have been obviously unacceptable on U.S. broadcast television in 1973. Instead, it made do with plots which were attempts at titillation by the broadcast standards of the time, but which stood a chance of surviving the censors at the network's Division of Standards and Practices.
These included skinny dipping, premarital sex, and unmarried couples cohabiting, which were still thought by many to be racy topics for network television at the time. As with the film, Ted and Alice Henderson were more conservative than the "liberated" Bob and Carol Sanders. No members of the original film cast reprised their roles in the series.
Reception
Scheduled opposite CBS's Top 10 hit The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour and NBC's Top 30 hit Adam-12, the series earned very low Nielsen ratings, and was canceled less than two months after its premiere.
The show is perhaps best remembered for featuring a then eleven-year-old Jodie Foster as Ted and Alice's daughter. (This differed from the movie version, in which the characters had actually had a son, rather than a daughter.)
Cast
Episode list
*These episodes finally appeared on USA Cable Network, with the rest of the series, in 1984.