Love, American Style
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Love, American Style | |
|---|---|
 Opening theme of Love American Style |
|
| Genre | Comedy Anthology |
| Starring | An ensemble cast, changing from week to week. |
| Theme music composer | Charles Fox, Arnold Margolin |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 224 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes (1969-1970, 1971-1974), 30 minutes (1970-1971) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | September 29, 1969 – January 11, 1974 |
| Links | |
Love, American Style was an hour-long television anthology which originally aired between September 1969 and January 1974. For the 1971 and 1972 seasons it was a part of an ABC Friday prime-time lineup that included Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, Room 222, and The Odd Couple.
Each week, the show featured different stories of romance, usually with a comedic spin. All episodes were unrelated, featuring different characters, stories and locations. The show often featured the same actors playing different characters in many episodes. In addition a large and ornate brass bed was a recurring prop in many episodes. Charles Fox's delicate yet hip music score, featuring flutes, harp, and flugelhorn set to a contemporary pop beat, provided the "love" ambiance which tied the stories together as a multifaceted romantic comedy each week.
The show may be best known for its February 1972 episode "Love and the Happy Days" which became the pilot for the popular TV series Happy Days. That episode was written by Garry Marshall and featured Ron Howard (as Richie), Marion Ross (as Richie's mother), Anson Williams (as Potsie, Richie's friend), among others. Roles played in the episode by Harold Gould (Howard the father), Susan Neher (Joanie, Richie's sister), and Ric Carrott (Chuck, Richie's brother) were played by other actors in the spin-off.
The theme song was sung by the family pop group The Cowsills for the first season. A new version done by John Bahler, Tom Bahler, and Ron Hicklin, (billed as The Charles Fox Singers), starting in the second season carried on for the remainder of the series, as well as on all episodes in syndication.
The original series was also known for its 10-20 second drop-in silent movie style "joke clips" between the featured vignettes. This regular troupe featured future Rockford Files cast member, Stuart Margolin, and a young character actor, James Hampton (F Troop, original "The Longest Yard").
A decade later, a new version premiered on ABC's daytime schedule in 1985 entitled New Love, American Style but was cancelled after a few months due to low ratings against The Price is Right on CBS. A third edition, starring Melissa Joan Hart among others, was shot as a pilot for the 1998-1999 television season but was not ordered into a series. Nevertheless, ABC aired the pilot on February 20, 1999 [1].
[edit] Occurrences in pop culture
- It is featured in the movie Dick.
- The rock group Far had a song titled "Love, American Style" on the album, Tin Cans With Strings To You.
- The rock group The Mr. T Experience had a song titled "Love, American Style" on the album, Big Black Bugs Bleed Blue Blood, which contains a brief riff from the show's theme song.
- The movie The Running Man featured a future television studio as part of the set, where posters heralding "Death, American Style" were meant to reflect the cruel, twisted future.
- On That '70s Show, the character Kitty Forman baked three different kinds of fruit pie, to which she remarked, "It's like the opening of Love, American Style in pie!"
- The theme tune was featured in an episode of the American animated series Duckman along with a well executed parody of the opening credits.
- The series was parodied in a host segment during an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
- It is referred to in The Steve Harvey Show, where character Romeo Santana advises his teacher to "let me hip you to Love, Dominican Style."
- Parodied as Sexual Intercourse, American Style in Channel102.net's April 2006 prime time line-up.
- The episode Mom and Pop Art of the Simpsons has a museum called The Louvre: American Style.
- The song "More Human Than Human" by White Zombie contains the lyric "Love, American Style"
