POLLY HOLLIDAY IN CHARGE?

[pscisme]

I recently read (and vaguely remember) that once Eileen Brennan was put out of commission due to her horrible accident, Polly Holliday was brought in to replace her, if only temporarily.

Does anyone know if she played the same character ala Darrin Stevens or if she was someone else?

According to the source, only 1 episode with Holliday aired before CBS pulled the plug on the show altogether.

Does anyone know if other episodes with Holliday were filmed?

AND DOES ANYBODY HAVE EPISODES OF THIS SHOW TO TRADE?

[Stuck In The '70's]

She played a different character. I believe she only appeared on one episode but I'm not absolutely sure. I haven't seen the show since the late 80's.

[TV Knowledge Fan]

....on "PRIVATE BENJAMIN", before the show was cancelled (January 1983). The episode was VIDEOTAPED instead of filmed, and she did play a different commanding officer. Perhaps this was how the show was to have been presented (as "NEWHART" converted to film after its first taped season) if had been renewed.

:tv:

[TV_on_the_Porch]

I must add something here: I watched Private Benjamin when first run and vividly remember the supposed last broadcast in January of 1983. In the week leading up to that broadcast, the network refrained from any mention of it whatsoever--it was not featured or mentioned in any produced plug or even in a voice-over during the Square Pegs closing credits. So when "the lights went up" on videotape it was rather startling, although not unprecedented, as Harper Valley had also aired one lone videotaped ep the previous season.

The episode which aired that night didn't in any way introduce Miss Holiday's character as far as setting up a reason why suddenly she was there and Eileen Brennan's character wasn't. But I guess it didn't seem to matter because the show wouldn't be continuing anyway. Several weeks later I was perusing the weekly Nielsen ratings as published in the newspaper. Down in the lower third (I actually remember it was #57) of the list I was stunned to see Private Benjamin! It certainly had not been listed in the TV Guide for the week of that particular rating period, so it must have been used as some kind of filler at the last minute. I don't know what day or time the episode aired . . . but I'm fairly confident that I know which episode it was.

In the mid 80s syndicated reruns of Private Benjamin aired on WGN channel 9. I knew the third season would flash by over the course of a couple weeks, but the day following the last Eileen Brennan episode brought a surprise: a filmed episode which explained the absence of Captain Lewis and set up the introduction of Major Allen! Why on earth CBS had been in such a hurry to end the original run that they omitted this episode, only to toss it in non-sequentially as filler a couple weeks later, is something that those of us who are capable of logical, rational thought will surely never grasp!

[Scoobiedoo30]

I sure wish I could have seen that episode with Polly Hollday