Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Nearly Departed: Cast Photo

Nearly Departed aired from April until May 1989 on NBC.

Former Monty Python trouper Eric Idle stepped down to the world of the mundane sitcom in this update of Topper, which flashed on and off the NBC schedule like a fleeting apparition. Grant ( Idle) was a snobbish English professor who, with his wife, Claire ( Caroline McWilliams), was killed in an auto accident. As if that wasn't enough to ruin their day, they were then forced to watch ( as ghosts) while plumbing contractor Mike ( Stuart Pankin), his wife Liz ( Wendy Schaal), and obnoxious teenage son Derek ( Jay Lambert) moved into their elegant home and proceeded to " redecorate" the place.The irratable professor had only one contact with the world of the living; he was able to communicate with the Dooleys Grandpa Jack ( Henderson Forsythe), an old curmudgeon who gave him lip. It was enough to make one want to die.

A Review from The New York Times

Reviews/Television; 'Python' Alumnus Consorts With Sitcom

By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: April 10, 1989

What happens to top comedians when they are successful early in their careers? Most go on to repeat themselves endlessly in second-rate movies and television specials. Think of Bob Hope or Dan Aykroyd (''Ghostbusters'') or Chevy Chase (''Fletch Lives''). On the other hand, Woody Allen made the transition from stand-up comic to accomplished writer, director and performer in an acclaimed series of films. But Mr. Allen is clearly the exception. The rule, not a very happy one, is closer to the case of Eric Idle, once of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus.''

Tonight at 8:30 on NBC, and for the next several Mondays, Mr. Idle can be seen in an aspiring sitcom called ''Nearly Departed.'' With a quick nod to such otherworldly romps as ''Topper,'' ''Here Comes Mr. Jordan'' and ''I Dream of Jeannie,'' in addition to the gory sendup ''Beetlejuice,'' this half-hour exercise - created and written by John Baskin and Roger Shulman - gives us stuffy Grant Pritchard (Mr. Idle) and his mischievous wife, Claire (Caroline McWilliams). Both of them have been killed a few months ago in a ''falling rock'' car accident. ''I saw those signs,'' shrugs Grant, ''but you always see those signs.''

Now invisible but still proper enough to dress for dinner, the Pritchards return to their home only to find it taken over by new owners, the Dooleys and their young son. Mike Dooley (Stuart Pankin of cable's ''Not Necessarily the News'') has parlayed his plumbing talents into considerable wealth and now, his brash vulgarity in full vigor, wants to acquire the good things in life. One project involves replacing Grant's prized teak library with metal shelves to hold Mike's sports trophies.

At least in this pilot, the humor runs recklessly toward the obvious, dominated by lines like ''we're dead and we'll just have to live with it.'' Henderson Forsythe, now specializing in elderly eccentrics (his last oddball role was in the CBS series ''Eisenhower & Lutz''), shows up as Mrs. Dooley's irascible father, the only person who can actually see the Pritchards. This device is essential for just about any invisibility gimmick. Grandpa's application for a driver's license provides Mr. Idle with an opportunity, during the eye-chart exam, to contort himself cleverly into several letters of the alphabet.

Mr. Idle works very hard and does manage to come up with a respectable quota of giggles. But the effort still ends up looking like a waste.

A Review from USA TODAY

TV PREVIEW/BY MATT ROUSH

Deadly dumb 'Departed'

A comedy as inept as it is inane, Nearly Departed is an insufferable ripoff of Beatlejuice, Topper-heck, lets even through in Casper, the Friendly Ghost, which is no more cartoonish than this buffoonish bomb.

Star Eric Idle plays a grouchy snob of a ghost who despises the nouveau riche family that has moved into his old digs.

Idle has been anything but idle lately. He's in the captivating Adventures of Baron Munchausen on the big screen, in this weekend's Around the World in 80 Days miniseries on the small screen, and now this sitcom, which he should have passed on.

From the opening credits, with Idle awkwardly dancing among clouds and lip-syncing the saccarine title song, you can't help wondering if this is some post-modern Monty Python-esque joke.

" Nudge, nudge," you hope he'll wink at the camera as he did back in his Flying Circus heyday.

It's no joke. There are no jokes. At least none that work in a fresh or funny way. There's just a laugh track crackling wildly at all the familiar tripe. Alf, which this series follows for the next six weeks may be silly, but at least the alien has attitude.

Nearly Departed has to rely on shtick that's performed as broadly as sub-par community theater. Idle madly overdoes the boorishness of his spectral character, whose gags are on the level of " We're dead, and We'll just have to live with it." His dead wife is played by Caroline McWilliams who is charming, though given next to nothing to work with.

The still-living family would be better off dead. Comedian Stuart Pankin offers little more than smarmy swagger as the husband/father, and Henderson Forsythe as his grizzled father-in-law -the only character who can see the ghosts-is strictly old hat.

Even worse, the series doesn't even play by its own rules. It makes no sense that Idle could manipulate props, or would get soaking wet when he spies on the family in the shower. And during these antics, his reflection appears in the bathroom mirror.

" Is this how far we've come after millions of years of evolution?" screams Idle as he watches Pankin slurp syrup from a fruit-cocktail can. Such philosophical questions should be avoided in sitcom fare as deadly as Departed.

For a Website dedicated to Eric Idle go to http://www.eric-idle.com/

For a Page dedicated to Wendy Schaal go to http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Highrise/1068/wendys.html