I have decided to try out some retro reviewing. I got this idea from Geof at ETMC. He reviewed an old movie, I decided to review an old, random tv show.
Harry and the Hendersons ran from 1991 to 1993, it aired about 40 episodes. I remember liking this show. Mainly because I was only 7 at the time and the show had a 7 foot tall Sasquatch as a main character. Things like that attract a liitle boy's attention. The show was based off the 1987 movie starring John Lithgow. I never saw the movie so I can't make any comparisons.
The show starred Bruce Davison as George Henderson (Senator Kelly in X-men) and Molly Cheek as Nancy Henderson (Jim's Mom in American Pie). Zachary Bostrom played the son Ernie and Carol-Ann Plante was Sara the daughter. I looked them up on IMDb but they haven't done much and I didn't recognize any of their other work so I didn't bother putting something that you may have seen them in. Zachary did win some young actor awards during his time on Harry and the Hendersons.
Two little nuggets I found out are that Scott Baio and Tony Dow were both Directors on the show. I don't have to tell you what Scott Baio has done. I did love Charles in Charge, good times. You may not have recognized Tony Dow's name. He starred as Wally Cleaver in Leave It To Beaver back in 1957-1963. Do you know what was one of the most controversial lines on that show? "Ward, you were really hard on the beaver last night." If you have never watched the show, Ward is the father, Beaver was the younger son's nickname and June (the mother) said that line a few times.
The show's basic premise was that the family had to always hide Harry from neighbors and people coming over. It was sort of a rip off of ALF but a 3 foot alien is easier to hide than a 7 foot Sasquatch. The show didn't do that well in the ratings and they ran out of stuff to do in the show. They tried some gimmicks but the show still flopped. I remember finding it amusing as a little kid. If I watched it now I would probably hate it. I need to find an episode on youtube or something. I wonder if they have any episodes on Netflix? I do remember the opening credits, they drove a station wagon and they were going camping when they found Harry.
This was fun to do. This show just randomly popped into my head the other day at work when I was playing some TVLand trivia with some coworkers. Next time I will have to pick a show that I remember more about. How would you rate the show?
3 comments:
I never knew there was so much to love about such a minor show. Hmmm, Davison went from Harry to Knight Rider (redux). Now I was really a Honey I Shrunk The Kids TV series myself.
I LOVED the Harry and the Hendersons movie! I used to watch it over and over again when I was a kid.
I loved the movie. I never knew they had a TV show. And you know what's really sad, I knew who Tony Dow was before I read his credits you posted. I am not that old either. LOL.
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