When Things Were Rotten

Humor

One-liners, sight gags and literal humor were hallmarks of the show's style, e.g., complaining villagers, commanded to "Hold your tongues!," obediently reach into their mouths. In another episode, the Sheriff asked to hang the banners, with an immediate cutaway to a husband, a wife, and their two children on a wall, saying "Hi, we're the Banners." There was also occasional breaking of the fourth wall: In one episode, as one of Robin's men (Renaldo) was being interrogated, with an accuser (Little John) asking, "Are you ready to tell that to your maker?", Renaldo turns his head, looks off-camera, and says, "Mel! I'm innocent!"

Much of the humour was anachronistic, such as the occasion where Marian's ladies-in-waiting burst into the 1960s Supremes hit "Stop! In the Name of Love"; when the Rock of Gibraltar had been destroyed, and a messenger brings Prince John the remaining chunk, to be told "I always wanted a piece of the rock," a reference to Prudential Insurance's successful slogan, "Get a piece of the Rock."; or when King Richard the Lionheart comes ashore after returning from the Crusades and reaches an American baseball home base, where an umpire cries out "Safe!", causing the Sheriff of Nottingham to shout, "Kill the umpire!".

Also notable was the show's lampooning of 1970s social concerns, e.g., in the episode "Those Wedding Bell Blues," Prince John was preparing to sign a deal with OOPEC, an OPEC-like cartel whose chief export was olive oil. Prince John: "I'll control all the olive oil! Anyone who wants to make a salad will have to come to me!"

Theme Song

During the opening show credits, a satirical song "Yay for Robin Hood!" was performed:

"Once upon a time when things were rotten,
Not just food, but also kings were rotten.
Everybody kicked the peasants,
Things were bad and that ain't good,
Then came Robin Hood (Ba-bahh!)

"Soon a band of merry men he'd gotten,
They wore outfits made of plain green cotton,
Helping victims was their business.
Boy oh boy was business good --
Good for Robin Hood!

"They laughed, they loved, they fought, they drank,
They jumped a lot of fences.
They robbed the rich, gave to the poor --
Except what they kept for expenses!

"So when other legends are forgotten
We'll remember back when things were rotten.
Yay for Robin Hood!"

Cancellation

The rapid-fire, Mel Brooks style of comedy was out of place on network television of the era, so despite critical acclaim, the series failed to find an audience and was canceled after 13 episodes, with The Bionic Woman being its mid-season replacement, which was a great success. Eighteen years later, Brooks produced another Robin Hood parody, the feature film Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Van Patten also appeared in the later film as an abbot.

The cancellation of When Things Were Rotten allowed Van Patten and Kopell to move on to more successful and long-running series — Eight is Enough and The Love Boat, respectively. Rifkin, meanwhile, would eventually become best known to modern-day audiences as the ambiguously villainous Arvin Sloane on Alias.

Home video and DVD

Several episodes of the series have been released on VHS in North America.

The complete series was released on DVD in 2013 as a manufactured-on-demand item exclusively available on Amazon.com's CreateSpace.