This was a groundbreaking show that is underappreciated. He and She combined the sophistication of the Bob Newhart-Suzanne Pleshette relationship with the physical comedy of I Love Lucy. Paula Prentiss opened the way for the strong, self-reliant woman in sitcoms.
The show was ahead of its time. It also won an Emmy in 1968. It had a combination of sophisticated humor and slapstick humor. Remember how Kenneth Mars’ character who was a fireman who lived at the fire station next door would visit them by ladder between his window and theirs? Why was the series cancelled?
I wished it did continue I always feel it was a hard act to follow after the dick van dyke show. However I always wanted to have happy marriage like that and I got it 🙂🙂
Paula Prentiss is soooooooooooooo underclebrated as the diva she is (in persona, not personality; there's probably nobody nicer. An edgy dramatic actress ('The Parallax View") to a camp heroine "The Stepford Wives") we have been blessed with her presence all this half century...and happily married for all of that - can one believe in such things anymore?
Richard Benjamin, Paula Prentiss, Jack Cassidy and Hamilton Camp made He And She one of the best sitcoms of all time. That it only lasted a single season staggers the imagination.
I was listening to Gilbert Gottfried's podcast this wk. Guests were Paula P & Richard B. They asked them why the show was canceled --it got great reviews. Richard B said that He & She 's lead in on CBS was Beverly Hillbillies & Green Acres. Those shows had very good ratings. But, the audience for He & She would be totally different. Their show was urban & different kind of humor. He also said someone from CBS called them & said--Your show is the best thing on the network--but it's canceled. BTW, the podcast was delightful and part 2 is next wk.
Star Trek only lasted 3 seasons, and was often (though not always--just look at the 3rd season) brilliant. But remember that the first Star Trek pilot, "The Cage," was rejected by NBC for being 'too cerebral.' I suspect the same thing happened here. Coincidentally, the pilots for Star Trek and He and She were shot at Desilu, Lucille Ball's studio.
I remember watching this show when I was in high school, and loved it. I couldn't figure out why most other TV shows weren't as funny and enjoyable as He & She. There were only a handful of television series back then that were really entertaining and actually had something to say, with great writing and skilled actors who were as watchable and appealing as Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss. God bless 'em. This suffered the same fate as Firefly-- a truly great show that was cancelled after only one season. Sad. And to quote several other commentators here-- highly underappreciated and underrated.
I was listening to Gilbert Gottfried's podcast this wk. Guests were Paula P & Richard B. They asked them why the show was canceled --it got great reviews. Richard B said that He & She 's lead in on CBS was Beverly Hillbillies & Green Acres. Those shows had very good ratings. But, the audience for He & She would be totally different. Their show was urban & different kind of humor. He also said someone from CBS called them & said--Your show is the best thing on the network--but it's canceled. BTW, the podcast was delightful and part 2 is next wk.
Boy, that takes me back. I remember watching that show and other sitcoms like LOVE ON A ROOFTOP about young married couples. Always loved Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss.
It was on the CBS schedule right after Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies. The audience that loved those shows would have been bewildered and put-off by He and She.
Great show, ahead of its time no question. Such a late-'60's feel, and all the tragedies of '68 had not yet scarred the country. RFK was still alive and serving as Senator from New York where this show was set.
Wonderful show that should NEVER had gotten cancelled!!!! 3 seasons, at least, of this would've been great! Those network heads canned a lot of good shows!
An interview with Allan Burns brought me here. You can see similarities to Mary Tyler Moore. The Jack Cassidy character very similar to Ted Baxter. This pilot was written by Arne Sultan and Leonard Stern from Get Smart. Allan Burns and Chris Hayward were brought on as writers and they won an Emmy which burns felt should have gone to Sultan and Stern.
MTM was a total ripoff of He & She and the cast was furious when Tinker axed it despite great ratings to revamp it for his wife "Mary". They even wanted Jack Cassidy to play Ted Baxter and Cassidy told them to f off. Tragic. This is one of the best sitcoms ever made.
I was 4 when it aired. But thanks to Harlan Ellison raving about it in his TV column The Glass Teat, I searched it out. So glad I did. Then I told two friends about it. And they told two friends. And so on, and so on, and so on...
This show HE & SHE imprinted on my 9 going on 10 year old mind! I Loved the two lead actors (they were married to each other then). The opening credits visual montage takes me back to that kid who wanted to be an actor then! I became a dancer instead, No Regrets!
I am shocked to hear anyone else remembers My World and Welcome to It. As a second-grader, this show disturbed me. It was a comedy, but there was no laugh track. I wasn't sure what to make of it.
The funniest part for me, knowing a little Greek, is when Paula tells Mr. Panopolis "ne ne no no" she is actually saying yes in Greek, ne is Greek for yes, haha.
Amazing. I vaguely think I may have heard of this show and seen it when I was about 8. I read where the Jack Cassidy character, Oscar, was used, with permission, as the basis for Ted Baxter on the Mary Tyler Moore show.
Is this an unedited version of the pilot? Notice that it runs more than 30 minutes, and there are NO commercials here. Granted, there were fewer commercials on TV then, but there were at least two or three minutes per half hour. I can't see how it could be more than 27 or 28 minutes long, while still fitting in some commercials.
This show was a comeback of sorts for Paula Prentiss. In 1965 she suffered a "nervous breakdown" while filming "What's New Pussycat?" in Paris that kept her out of movies for 5 years.
"He & She" won an Emmy in 1968 for best comedy writing. Allan Burns, according to Wikipedia, worked as a story editor for the series. He later do-created the "Mary Tyler Moore Show".
Oh my gosh you're kidding I can't imagine such a beautiful woman marrying such a short-haired squirrel like him even back then she's foxy and he looks so Sissy
In 1970 my high school class was in NYC on a field trip near the theatre district and Richard and Paula crossed the street in front of us like they were floating on a cloud. We all gasped.
Oh my gosh, I became a fan of Richard Benjamin in 1978 with his short lived series Quark. (So sue me, I was 14.) Paula P. - I don't think I have ever seen her in anything until. I had never heard of this show until 30 minutes ago - if the quality of the writing and acting are as fresh as this pilot, I will remain A FAN! Oh, and Jack Cassidy is a scream. I think this is the first time I have ever seen him acting. I've only seen him on game and talk shows. Wish I could have seen him on broadway!!
Paula was a Southern gal, hot as hell, she was good as a hassled stewardess in the original Out of Towners with Jack Lemmon....one of the best movies ever made.
Hey! I imagine this is a shot in the dark but I'm curious where this version comes from? I've seen a different version that is shorter in length although still covers everything (maybe it was sped up), but then has totally different credits.
the show that changed television. return of live audience, one camera live filming, principle characters and many many secondaries of different type and personalities. And they took the Andy Griffin Show rule of No one is smarter than the hero, no one is better looking than the heroine, and the auxiliary characters are hilarious due to their quirkiness.
@@TinLeadHammer It's one of my favorite shows. It has a very sly sense of humor, particularly in Seasons 2-3 when it was helmed by Jay Sommars who went on to create "Green Acres". They, along with "Beverly Hillbillies", affectionately highlighted the absurdity of us humans. May not be your cup of tea.
@@AstralPixie "You got a telephone? You talk into it, and they hear you in Tulsa." - "How big a rock did you beat him with?" As Gilbert Seldes wrote in 1962: "The whole notion on which The Beverly Hillbillies is founded is an encouragement to ignorance." James T. Aubrey Jr., who was president of the CBS television network from 1959 to 1965, proclaimed: "Feed the public little more than rural comedies, fast-moving detective dramas, and later, sexy dolls. No old people; the emphasis must be on youth. No domestic servants, the mass audience wouldn't identify with maids. No serious problems to cope with," or a more succinct version of it, "broads, bosoms, and fun."
@@TinLeadHammer First off, it's OK that we have different perspectives. In hindsight, I think that the rural purge was a horrible step. As a society, we chose to marginalize an important part of the country, chasing after the dollars of demographics. It hasn't gone well. Again, I think that Beverley Hillbillies is very sly and clever. The "Giant Jackrabbit" is one of the most watched tv episodes of all time (and always will be). It's hilarious.
TRIVIA QUESTION: Was the program, "He & She" the first to feature a MARRIED COUPLE sleeping in their own FULL SIZE BED? Back in the dawn of TV, no network censors would allow and man and a woman ever sharing the SAME BED together. Remember how the all-time classic TV sitcom, I LOVE LUCY, always featured Lucy and Ricky sleeping in separate beds? I don't think Bewitched ever showed Darrin and Samantha sleeping in a full size bed, nor can I recall anything before 1967 showing couples in anything other-than twin beds. MORE TV Trivia. I was the Deejay who played at their daughter, Prentiss Benjamin's wedding reception. It was such a charming and groovy night. I was also the Deejay who played at a movie wrap party that KEVIN BACON had attended (He was one of the stars of the movie). Now you have some great info for the next time you decide to play "SIX DEGREES of Kevin Bacon".
Thank you for your memories of the Benjamins and for the Kevin Bacon link. :) As for the bed discussion, Herman and Lily Munster were definitely shown sharing the same bed, and "The Munsters" debuted in 1964. This predates both "He & She" (which started in 1967) and "The Brady Bunch" (which started in 1969).
I always had a woody for Paula Prentiss. Always liked Richard Benjamin, too, but not in the same way. The show had a live audience instead of an annoying, insipid laugh track. That was a big plus.
Often described as "unde-rappreciated," this series is appraciated just as much as it needs to be, The 1960s had a strange fascination for faux sophistrication. The Dick Van Dyke Show was called sohpisticated...remember the Twizzle? Then the Twazzle?
You know what-- Richard probably would have upstaged Elizabeth Montgomery in Bewitched. He would have been a great Darrin, but I think the producers wanted the focus to be on Montgomery. She was super cute and kind of funny, but not a great actress or a skilled comic like Benjamin.
Yes, just for starters, Ted Knight was friendly with Jack Cassidy in real life and the Ted Baxter character was patterned after Oscar North. And boy are the apartments similar.
Paula is sort of a married Mary Richards. The look, the dialogue, the delivery. A career woman. You can see the influence on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. I understand they wrote the Ted Baxter character for Jack Cassidy, but he felt it was too close to what he did here. You can see the resemblance.
He was actually the inspiration for Ted Baxter. When The Mary Tyler Moore Show was created, Leonard Stern knew they got Baxter from this show, but he didn't mind.
The tv network DECADES had a He & She marathon scheduled for today, then (apparently?) replaced it with a Fish marathon...yuck. When I was a kid I thought Paula and her sister were such knockouts, but I did have trouble remembering which was which. (Prefer Paula.)
Unbelievably, Paula’s sister Ann was convicted of attempting to hire someone to murder Richard Benjamin and members of her own family. She was sentenced to 19 years in prison! Wow.
Lot of pretentious comments here saying this show was "ahead of its time". Let it go. Sitcoms are supposed to be funny and wacky, not pretentious and serious.
funny, this statement is based on a report on a fake story. of course, the story was run by fox news and other ultra conservative fake news agencies. as usual, fox news and their ilk don't bother with checking facts.
True-- think about the theme song from the Mary Tyler Moore show; so many of us can sing a lot of it. It's such an iconic tune from a great series. The people who made He & She later created the MTM show (and spin-offs) with a lot of the same wit, style and terrific writing. And excellent cast.
