Calucci's Department - Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries

Calucci's Department aired from September until December 1973 on CBS.

This ethnic Situation Comedy created by Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna was scheduled at 8:00 on Fridays, opposite NBC's Sanford And Son, and thus it went nowhere.

Roly-poly comic James Coco, portayed Joe Calluci,the supervisor of a branch of the New York State Unemployment Office. Calluci had to cope with the problems of unemployed claimants, the frictions among various members of his staff ( who were carefully picked to represent every race, religion and creed imaginable), and the frustrations of government red tape. As if that wasn't enough, he was in love with his secretary Shirley ( Candy Azzara)-or at least infatuated with her-but the series was canceled before their relationship really developed. Apparently most Americans did not find an unemployment office very amusing.

A Review From Time Magazine

CALUCCI'S DEPT. CBS. Friday, 8-8:30 p.m. E.D.T. New York Stage and Film Actor James Coco (Last of the Red Hot Lovers) has the mournfully expressive eyes of a wise old beagle and the roundly appealing face of an anemone in full flower. As Calucci, the head of a local unemployment office, he mobilizes these attributes to create a sweet and believable character who does not need the script's occasional overkill in what the trade calls "heart" scenes. Samples: an oh-so-wistful, what's-life-all-about dialogue in a confessional in the first episode; a painfully prolonged avowal of friendship for Co-Star José Perez in another. The infectiously funny Perez, as one of Calucci's handful of oddball employees, is the show's second asset. He is a perfect foil for Coco's brand of gentle humor, and steals a star's share of the laughs himself with his ongoing search for "the Puerto Rican dream" —cars, girls, silk socks, "a big house overlooking San Juan harbor and golf every day with Trini Lopez and Cantinflas." It's a nice show.

Here's James Coco's Obituary from The New York Times

JAMES COCO, MOVIE, TV AND STAGE ACTOR, DIES

By JOHN T. MCQUISTON
Published: February 26, 1987

James Coco, who was proclaimed a Broadway star for a touching and flamboyantly amusing performance in Neil Simon's ''Last of the Red Hot Lovers,'' died last night at St. Vincent's Hospital of a heart attack. He was 57 years old.

Mr. Coco arrived at the hospital in an ambulance at 8:30 P.M. and was pronounced dead at 11:10 P.M., according to Paul Simonette, a hospital spokesman.

Mr. Simonette said he did not know where Mr. Coco had suffered the attack.

Mr. Coco had dreamed of becoming an actor while attending movies as a boy in the Bronx. He began his acting career as a teen-ager in the late 1940's, performing more than 100 plays before his big break came in the 1968 Off-Broadway production ''Next.''

As the fat, nearly bald Marion Cheever, mistakenly called for induction into the Army, he won not only glowing reviews, but also the lead in ''Last of the Red Hot Lovers.'' Born in Little Italy

He was born in the Little Italy section of Manhattan on March 21, 1929. While he was still an infant, his family moved to the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx, where he lived until his late teens.

With the help of generous servings of pasta, he was an overweight child and, except for periods of careful dieting, remained cherubic and heavy.

He became a stage manager of a touring children's theater while still in his teens, and appeared in his first role as Old King Cole.

''I was fat and balding at 19, but the impossible happened,'' he said in an interview following his success in ''Last of the Red Hot Lovers.''

He said that when his mother began taking him to the movies when he was 8, he ''got hooked on Hollywood.''

''In a sense, I was formed by the movies,'' he said. ''I got most of my ideas and fantasies from them and I think I must have started imagining what it could be like to be an actor when I was sitting in the darkness of a Loews movie palace. Thinking it must be pretty nice to hang yourself on a hanger and play somebody else for a few hours a day.

At the conclusion of ''Red Hot Lovers'' he portrayed Sancho Panza in the film verson of ''Man of La Mancha. And during the fall of 1973, he starred in his own television series, the short-lived but critically admired ''Calucci's Department.''

His other films include ''A New Leaf,'' ''The Strawberry Statement,'' ''Tell Me That You Love Me,'' ''Junie Moon,'' ''Such Good Friends,'' ''The Wild Party,'' and ''Murder by Death.'' His last film was ''The Muppets Take Manhatan.''

Me made numerous guest appearances on television shows, and was a regular guest on the ''Tonight Show'' with Johnny Carson. He also made many television commercials, includng that of Willie the Plumber for Drano.

For more on Calucci's Department go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calucci's_Department

For Candy Azzara's Home Page which has more pictures of Calluci's Department go to www.candice-azzara.info/