Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Charlie Hoover

Charlie Hoover aired from November 1991 until February 1992 on FOX.

Charlie ( Tim Matheson), was a 40 year old accountant, suffering a mid-life crisis when his alter ego , outspoken, hedonistic, Hugh ( Sam Kinison), materialized to offer him advice on how to spice up his dull life. Hugh was 12 inches tall, and visible only to Charlie, but his advice was certainly welcomed. Charlie's boss, Mr. Culbertson ( Kevin McCarthy), ignored him; his wife Helen ( Lucy Webb), and his 2 teenaged kids Paul and Emily ( Michael Manaserri, Leslie Engel), only cared about the money he provided; and Warren, the family Bulldog, regularly urinated on his shoes. Only his secretary Doris ( Julie Hayden), had any sympathy for him, and she had her own problems. Hugh wanted Charlie to be assertive, spontaneous, and adventuresome, but it wasn't easy for him to change.

Comic Sam Kinison's outrageous videos and appearances on Saturday Night Live and HBO, as well as his struggles with drugs and alcohol, had given him a wild-man image that was toned down so much for this series that, comparatively, he waas almost as dull as Charlie. Only 6 original episodes of Charlie Hoover were produced before FOX pulled the plug. A few months after the series had left the air, Kinison was killed in an automobile crash.

Here is Sam Kenison's Obituary from The New York Times

Sam Kinison, 38, Comedian, Dies; Wife Injured in Head-On Collision
By BRUCE LAMBERT
Published: April 12, 1992

Sam Kinison, a former tent preacher who gained fame as a shrieking and often insulting stand-up comedian, was killed Friday night in a head-on automobile crash on a desert highway near Needles, Calif.

He was 38 years old and lived in the Hollywood hills in Los Angeles.

Mr. Kinison's high-decibel routines became popular on the comedy-club circuit and won him film and television appearances. But his bitter jokes also provoked protest from women and homosexuals who found his ridicule of them more hateful than humorous. En Route to Performance

On Friday night, he was on his way to perform at the Riverside Resort Hotel and Casino in Laughlin, Nev., when his sports car collided with a pickup truck on U.S. Highway 95 about 200 miles east of Los Angeles. His wife, Malika, whom he married only last Sunday, was injured in the crash and was taken to Needles Desert Community Hospital in serious condition.

The California Highway Patrol said yesterday that it did not yet have a formal report but did not dispute the account by Mr. Kinison's spokeswoman, Florence Troutman, who said that Mr. Kinison's brother and manager, Bill, had been following in a van. She quoted him as saying that the accident occurred when the oncoming pickup tried to pass another vehicle and that the accident littered the road with beer cans that did not come from Mr. Kinison's car.

The pickup's driver was 17 years old and was under arrest for vehicular manslaughter, the authorities told The Associated Press. Evangelical Roots

Mr. Kinison was born in Peoria, Ill., into a family of traveling evangelists, in whose footsteps he initially followed. But after a few years he moved to Los Angeles and developed his comedy act.

He often appeared on stage in a beret, with an overcoat draped over his pudgy build. But his real trademark was his screaming outbursts. Critics described him as snarling, sneering, rude, outrageous and even poisonous. But offstage, Ms. Troutman said, he was "a big-hearted teddy bear."

A role as a high-strung professor in the 1986 Rodney Dangerfield film "Back to School" led to his own television special, "Breaking the Rules," on Home Box Office. He was also a guest on "Late Night with David Letterman" and "Saturday Night Live."

This season he starred on Fox in the situation comedy "Charlie Hoover." His music video, "Wild Thing," featured Jessica Hahn, the woman who brought down the television evangelist Jim Bakker in a sex scandal.

Mr. Kinison had acknowledged health problems because of drug and alcohol abuse and being overweight but said two years ago that he had quit drugs and was dieting.

He was previously married and divorced twice. Besides his wife and his brother Bill, he is survived by his mother, Marie, and a brother, Richard, both of Tulsa, Okla.

For a tribute to Comic Sam Kinison go to www.kinison.com/about.php

To watch the opening credits of Charlie Hoover and some other 1991 tv shows go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NgzOUnUfcE