"Frank's Place"

Mark Mayerson asks in comments: I'd be curious if you have any thoughts on Hugh Wilson's next sitcom, Frank's Place, which starred Tim Reid. It only lasted a season, but I thought the show was one of the most interesting I'd ever seen in that the tone shifted radically every week. That may have been what prevented it from catching on, but I was fascinated to watch them constantly taking off in new directions.

Actually, I can't add much to Mark's thoughts on "Frank's Place"; it was a great show that was so unusual and sui generis that it couldn't fit in comfortably on a network schedule, and confused viewers and critics about whether it was supposed to be a comedy or a drama (the term "dramedy" was briefly used to describe this and other experimental one-camera half-hours of the time, like Jay Tarses's "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd" and "The Slap Maxwell Story"). In that sense, though certainly not in any similarity between the shows, it was the "Freaks and Geeks" of its time.

Several years ago the New Orleans Times-Picayune did a great in-depth article on "Frank's Place," how it came to be and how it came to be cancelled after only a season; fortunately that article is still on-line.

On a much sadder note, though, Austin Leslie, whose restaurant inspired the show, died last year not long after being evacuated from the city.

The DVD rights to "Frank's Place" are owned by Paramount, which has shown no sign of any interest in bringing the show out.