Poster: Clint Eastwood Fan
(see this users gallery)
Take Five aired from April 1-8, 1987 on CBS.
Life was not going well for lanky Andy Kooper (George Segal). His wife had divorced him and her father had fired him from his public relations job. Andy tried to get a handle on things by picking and singing with his buddies in the Lenny Goodman Quartet, a semi-pro Dixieland jazz band in which he sang and played banjo, The others in the quartet were Lenny ( Jim Haynie), piano; Al ( Derek McGrath), saxophone; and Monty ( Bruce Jarchow), drums. The fact that Monty was dating Andy's ex-wife was a sour note but, hey, Andy could handle it. Andy did find a new job with Davis & Son public relations-where old Max Davis ( Eugene Roche) was retired and the new boss, his son Kevin ( Todd Field), was incompetent. Unfortunately the brightest person there, Laraine ( Melanie Chartoff), hated Andy because she had pitched for the job he had gotten. Dr. Wolf ( Severn Darden) was the psychiatrist to whom Andy told all.
Star George Segal, who played regularly with a Dixieland band much like the one in this series when he was not acting, managed to combine both his vocation and his avocation here-but not for long. Take Five never even got to five. It was canceled after only two episodes had aired.
A Review from The New York Times
By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: April 1, 1987
''Take Five'' (CBS, tonight at 8:30). Written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel and directed by Barnet Kellman, the premiere episode establishes one of the more unusual situations in sitcom land. Played with broad, bug-eyed hysteria by George Segal, Andy Kooper, a public-relations executive, has been dumped by his wife of 21 years and, inasmuch as he worked for his father-in-law, also finds himself unemployed. Not surprisingly, Andy spends a good deal of time seeking solace from his psychiatrist (Severn Darden).
Needless to say, the very real problem of increasing unemployment among middle-age executives has its comic limitations, so by episode's end Andy has found a new public-relations job after a wacky interview in which he demonstrates that in the image business he can pass an ''integrity test'' while still being able to ''turn on a dime and really fling it.'' When not trying to ward off piercing headaches, Andy plays Dixieland music with his friends, one of whom is already dating his former wife. Life can be treacherous, obviously. Funny? That's another matter.
|
