Rare Treats: Hamburgers (1974)

 Alan Blye & Chris Bearde (often stylized as Chrisbearde) had previously worked on the 2nd Andy Williams show for NBC, and were riding the success of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, which was ending its run on CBS amid the Bonos' divorce. The duo would also deliver The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show later in 1974, also for CBS, but that was a 1 year wonder.

Anyway, in April of '74, Blye & Bearde served up Hamburgers, which appears to be an unsold pilot set up as a sketch comedy show. Ted Ziegler (Sonny & Cher) is the announcer. Our cast includes Charles Nelson Reilly (Match Game, ex-Lidsville), Bobby Vinton, Jim Nabors (ex-Gomer Pyle, USMC), Julie McWhirter (Jeannie), Micky Dolenz (ex-The Monkees, Funky Phantom), Rod Hull, who, with his emu puppet, would turn up on the Hudsons' show five months later, Sid Caesar, Charlie Callas, and William Conrad (Cannon), who appears briefly in quick bookend skits.

All I remember seeing back in 1974 as an 11 year old was a superhero parody set in a hospital, The Patient, with Reilly in the title role, whose costume is a hospital smock and a beanie.

This is also a "You Know The Voice" grand slam (Reilly, Conrad, Dolenz, McWhirter). The sketches move at a faster clip akin to Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In than Sonny & Cher. I think my folks were a little curious (or, at least, my dad was). 

Check it.

This was after Reilly had donned a banana suit to sell a brand of BIC pens. Don't know if he plugged this show on Match Game, but this wasn't the low point of his career. That would come a year later (Uncle Croc's Block).

No rating. The "Patient" skit was all I remember.