From the Rib of Madam

Okay, I promise to make this my last post on the late 1970s...for a while at least. A fleeting mention of Gary Sandy over at Joy's blog got me to thinking how few actors better embodied the late 1970s early 1980s vibe better than he -- tight corduroys, feathered hair, a certain swagger and all.

But I remember him better for the show he made just before WKRP in Cincinnati, All That Glitters, a Norman Lear syndicated sitcom from 1977 that lasted barely a dozen episodes but is seared clearly in my memory. Its mirror image of a world in which women are the smarter sex and run the world while men are there for, well, for one thing, made perfect sense to me. Its opening theme began with light percussion and then the lyric "Well, the Lord woke up one morning to say, 'I feel like I want to be creative today.' And from the rib of madam, he created Adam..." And that's all I can remember.

The show seemed to stir a lot of negative reaction at the time time despite an amazing cast that, in addition to Sandy, included Greg Evigan, Jessica Walter, Linda Gray, Barbara Baxley Eileen Brennan, Anita Gillette. Sandy played a secretary whose ass was the frequent topic of conversation at board room meetings after he'd left papers for the women in charge. I particularly remember an episode in which a group of Arab women were in town, and the guys realized that for all the lack of power they possessed, they had it better off than Saudi men. Then they went shopping for shoes.

While I'm encouraged that Maude and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman finally made it to DVD, I hope this one finally makes it some day, even if it's for a few seconds on YouTube. There is little out there to recall the series, only this short reference in a larger article on Lear's own website. I wonder if I am one of the few that actually recalls it.