Morton & Hayes aired from July until August 1991 on CBS.
This unusual series within a series was an attempt to pay loving homage to the classic comedy teams of the 1930's and 1940's -particularly Abbott & Costello and Laurel & Hardy. The premise was that there had been a great, but forgotten , comedy team-Chuck Morton and Eddie Hayes ( Kevin Pollak, Bob Amaral)-whose lost two-reel comedies had been found in the vault of their producer , Max King. Each week Rob Reiner , a great fan of the team , lovingly introduced viewers to a vintage black-and-white " film" starring Morton ( the hefty, trusing, clumsy one) and Hayes ( the cynical, conniving straight man). The situations and supporting casts changed from week to week with the team portraying everything from bumbling private eyes, to stowaways on a ship in the South Pacific, to surprised winners of $1,000,000 in a radio contest.
An Article from The New York Times
On CBS, Summer Will Be a Laboratory For 6 New TV Series
By BILL CARTER
Published: June 6, 1991
Every summer, network television executives watch the prime-time ratings plummet week after week and hope they can at least maintain a pulse until September.
The endless diet of summer reruns has become more unpalatable for viewers with each new year -- and each new cable channel and each new video alternative. And the network executives admit they need to do something to halt the summer exodus.
But these are tight times for the networks; most programmers say there is little or no money for original series in the summer.
Still, there are some indications that the summer might eventually be something more than television's second-hand season. The main exception, this year as last, is CBS , which is offering a reasonably full menu of new summertime entries. A Season of Opportunity
Between the start of June and the end of July, CBS will put on at least six series made up of fresh, previously unseen episodes. The network's motivation is only partly a desire to keep viewers away from the cable channels. Mainly, it seems to believe summer can be a season of opportunity.
Several of the shows CBS will introduce this summer qualify as the kind of experimental television that its executives -- as well as those from the other networks -- have indicated they are more reluctant to try in the intensely competitive battleground of the fall television season.
"September is for more traditional television," said Steve Warner, the CBS vice president for special projects, whose main project for the last two years has been turning the summer into a mini-laboratory. "We see summer as a time to put on the shows that need some special care and feeding."
Last year, CBS pulled off a coup of sorts by starting two series in mid-summer that wound up thriving as regular members of the schedule. One, "Northern Exposure," is probably the most talked about new program on television and has become the 10 P.M. anchor of the network's strongest night of the week, Monday.
The other series, "Top Cops," served CBS all year in several time periods, mainly as a counter to NBC's hit shows on Thursdays. The show played in both a half-hour and full-hour version and will return with new hourlong episodes in the fall on Thursdays at 8 P.M. Lower Costs for Both
In both cases, the series were produced for much less money than standard shows get. Mr. Warner said the network license fee for a summer show was only two-thirds of the standard fee, which is about $400,000 for a half-hour and about $1 million for an hour.
This summer CBS will try out several other shows Mr. Warner identified as "experimental" in format, including a suspense-horror series called "Golden Years," conceived and written by Stephen King; a comedy called "Morton and Hayes," based on the old two-reeler comedy films in the style of Laurel and Hardy; and a new half-hour from CBS News, called "The Verdict," which will go inside real courtrooms to document real cases. "The Verdict" begins June 21 at 8 P.M. The first two series, described by Mr. Warner as "perfect examples" of the summer species, will begin in July.
"Morton and Hayes" was a pet project of the film writer and director Rob Reiner, who first tried to sell it as a pilot for a fall series a year ago. When CBS pursued Mr. Reiner about other projects, he asked to try this idea again. The network agreed to let him have six episodes this summer. The half-hour show is an elaborate spoof on two-reelers, with Mr. Reiner serving as host, claiming to have found the old two-reelers made by the famous comedy team of Morton and Hayes in the 1940's.
Mr. Reiner's commentary, similar to that in his film, "This Is Spinal Tap," is in color, while the two-reelers themselves will be shot in black and white. Test Response Was Poor
Other CBS executives said the show was hilarious, but test audiences had responded very poorly to it. Mr. Warner said: "They didn't get it. But in summer it may have a chance to catch on."
Indeed, part of the allure of summer, he said, is the chance to grab a lot of press attention for offbeat ideas like this one.
The Stephen King series chronicles the adventures of a 70-year-old man infected in a military experiment gone wrong. He starts to get younger, and he is pursued by evil-doers out to dissect him for his secret to youth. Mr. Warner said the series was "typical Stephen King, which means it's compelling but something of a slow build."
CBS invited Mr. King to try out something for television. "He sent us this over the transom," Mr. Warner said. Mr. King submitted five completed scripts for "Golden Years."
The network has already started a run of a new comedy from Norman Lear called "Sunday Dinner," and later this month will try to find a new audience for original episodes of a comedy that ran briefly last fall called "Family Man." Discussions of Issues
A sixth new CBS series, another news production called "Whose Side Are Your On?," which examines controversial issues in confrontational discussions, will also have a three-episode run starting in July.
The other networks have much more limited summer lineups. NBC has no new series at all on its schedule. ABC will put on a series it has postponed several times called "Man in the Family," a comedy starring Ray Sharkey as a man who takes over his father's business. That will begin June 19 at 9:30.
But ABC's main summer experiment is a comedy called "Hi, Honey, I'm Home," scheduled to begin in mid-July. The comedy, produced by the cable channel Nick at Nite, will satirize changing roles of women by mixing a modern family led by a single mother with a 1950's Donna Reed-style television family.
The Fox Broadcasting Company does not have any specific summer series but will begin two of its new fall entries, "The Ultimate Challenge," a compendium of staged stunts, and "Roc," a comedy about a garbage man, in mid-summer to try to get a head start on the season. Fox executives have said they intend to start introducing shows at all times of the year to avoid the programming log-jam in September. Economic Pitfalls
Mr. Warner of CBS said, "It's really difficult to put summer shows on because they pre-empt reruns." The economics of television still demand that shows be run twice for a network to make a substantial profit. Networks always buy two runs of each episode. The advertising sold in the first run usually pays off the network's license fee and the rerun is often pure profit.
"There's no way for a new show to improve the rating in the summer to make up for what's lost if we take off a repeat," Mr. Warner said. "But if we can get even one show to work and continue on through the regular season, it makes it all worthwhile."
Mr. Warner also pointed out that beyond the two successes from last summer, a third series, "Prime-Time Pets," paid off in a different way. "We sold that thing everywhere." Mr. Warner said. The series was owned by CBS Entertainment. "It even sold in Bulgaria."
A Review from The New York Times
Review/Television; A Tribute to the Past in New Rob Reiner Series
By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: July 24, 1991
Television's embracing of the past threatens to become a stranglehold these days. On one level, there is an element of nostalgia (although broadcasts of "The Best of Ed Sullivan" and reruns of "All in the Family" have done quite well financially for CBS, thank you). On another, there are purely business considerations (HBO's "Dream On" was developed by MCA as a vehicle for clips from its musty vaults of Universal films). One thing is clear: The past is hot on many programming fronts, perhaps because it offers audiences an opportunity to escape a present that many find troubling.
A good many producers are obviously convinced that the nation needs a laugh (get a load of next season's sitcom glut) and the uses of the past are getting more ornate. On the Comedy Central cable service, for instance, "Mystery Science Theater 3000" lets the comedian Joel Hodgson and his robotic friends watch some of the worst movies ever made, in their entirety, and simply make endless wisecracks about the content. For the repackaging business, the concept is fiendishly clever.
Heading in a more friendly but not entirely different direction is "Morton and Hayes," a new CBS series having its premiere at 8:30 tonight. Long a pet project of Rob Reiner, who serves as the Alistair Cooke-like host, the show purports to offer the old black-and-white two-reelers of a comedy team called Chick Morton and Eddie Hayes. Actually, Chick (Kevin Pollack) and Eddie (Bob Amaral -- he's the fat one) are fictitious creations, but they reflect Mr. Reiner's genuine fondness for the antics of very real comics. Think Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello. You can even throw in a bit of Gleason and Carney. This is a world in which silliness, inspired or not, reigns supreme.
The first "film," which Mr. Reiner describes as having been found in the vault of the legendary producer Max King, is a private-eye romp called "Daffy Dicks." Doing their inadequate best to resemble Sam Spade -- a mysterious falcon, looking vaguely Maltese, hovers around the office's windowsill -- Chick and Eddie are hired by Amelia Von Astor (Catherine O'Hara) to find out if her husband is having an affair. Following Dr. Von Astor (Christopher Guest) to a fancy restaurant, our worker heroes are given "a lovely table with a splendid view of better tables."
In no time at all, they are in the stately Von Astor home, being invited to put on evening dress for dinner ("Pate?" Eddie says sweetly to a stranger. "If you want to eat something that smells like damp schnauzer, be my guest"). The plot goes on to include an evil twin sister, a poison dart, thunder and lightning, fisticuffs and a sword fight. After the movie, Mr. Reiner reappears to tell viewers: "Drive carefully, eat slowly, keep a balanced checkbook and buy all the products you've seen in the last half hour."
Uninhibitedly sophomoric, "Morton and Hayes" cultivates a daffiness that prompts memories of the television series "Get Smart" (1965-70) which was written by Buck Henry and Mel Brooks. Mr. Brooks, of course, had worked with Mr. Reiner's father, Carl, on "Your Show of Shows" (1950-54) which, of course, was produced not by Max King but by Max Liebman. Rob Reiner's fond tributes to the past would seem to have roots fairly close to home.
In any event, Chick and Eddie are being played with remarkable skill by Mr. Pollack and Mr. Amaral, who get inspired support from Ms. O'Hara. The current limited summer run will decide their fates. Next week, in "The Bride of Mummula," Chick and Eddie end up in the castle of a vampire whose hunchbacked servant has a strange loping walk. "Maybe he's got a rash," Eddie says. "These old castles and damp and everything." Shameless, granted, but almost valiantly determined to get a laugh, and often succeeding. Morton and Hayes Created by Rob Reiner and Philip Mishkin; written by Mr. Mishkin; directed by Christopher Guest; director of photography, Jeffrey Jur; editor, Christopher Cooke; costumes by Juan de Armas; music by Hummie Mann; production designer, Catherine Hardwicke; produced by Steven Ecclesine for Castle Rock Entertainment; Mr. Reiner, Dick Blassucci and Mr. Guest, executive producers; Mr. Reiner, host. At 8:30 tonight on CBS. Eddie Hayes . . . Bob Amaral Chick Morton . . . Kevin Pollak Mimi/Amelia Von Astor . . . Catherine O'Hara Reginald . . . Ray Birk Ambassador . . . Monte Landis Ambassador's wife . . . Dale Raoul Maitre d'hotel . . . Henry Polic 2d Cop . . . Clive Rosengren Miss Abercrombie . . . Molly Cleator Dr. Von Astor . . . Christopher Guest
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