Acting Sheriff
Encyclopedia
Acting Sheriff is an unsold, half-hour television pilot
created by Walt Disney Television
for television network
CBS
that aired across the United States on Saturday, August 17, 1991 at 10:30 PM. Identified as episode number 895 in Walt Disney Television season number 35, the 30-minute comedy drama featured Canadian Grammy
- and Tony Award
- winning entertainer Robert Goulet
as B movie actor Brent McCord who is elected to the unlikely job of sheriff in a small Northern California
town. With only an actor's knowledge and experience of what a sheriff does, the McCord character clashes with the local district attorney, character Donna Singer, and eventually lets a bank robber-prisoner escape. Character Mike Swanson, a deputy who is loyal to McCord, captures the escaped prisoner and helps cover for McCord's mistake by informing news reporters that McCord made the capture.
, a then-widely popular American television situation comedy
, and the writers of Without a Clue
, a 1988
comedy
film starring Michael Caine
and Ben Kingsley
. However, the one-time-only, August 17, 1991 presentation of Acting Sheriff received poor ratings
.
In the August 21, 1991 Prime time
ratings for the week of August 12 to August 18, Acting Sheriff received a 4.6 share and was ranked as number 83 out of a total of 90 prime time television shows. The 4.6 share represented 4.3 million TV homes out of a possible 93.1 million TV homes. Despite the poor showing by Acting Sheriff, CBS tied television network ABC
for first place in the August 12 to August 18 network ratings battle. CBS eventually filled the Saturday 10:30 PM to 11:00 PM primetime slot with 48 Hours
, a documentary
and news program broadcast on the CBS
television network
since January 19, 1988.
Critic reactions were mixed. The Florida daily newspaper St. Petersburg Times
rated Acting Sheriff a "best bet." However, the weekly entertainment trade newspaper Variety
found the Brent McCord character too cartoonish to support the show as a series. In describing Goulet's performance as Brent McCord, Variety stated that it was "a goof on Ronald Reagan
by way of Ted Baxter
" and came across as a "trigger-happy, ACLU
-bashing boob whose disregard for the law is equaled only by his vanity." Variety also faulted the show's appearance and other characters as too closely resembling the look, feel, and characters of Night Court
. Fourteen years later, American
actor
Lee Tergesen
, who was on Acting Sheriff with Robert Goulet, characterized Goulet's performance as "quite good."
, Singer & Sons, and STAT to the ZEBRAS. Even though Acting Sheriff and the other projects were considered "dead dogs" by some, Disney presented ZEBRAS as a way for the public to buy into programming Walt Disney Television that was started in October 1988 and profiting from possible hits similar to Blossom
, Golden Girls, and Empty Nest.
The 15-year ZEBRA zero-coupon bonds carried a guaranteed yield of 4% with a promise of up to a 20% return if Acting Sheriff or any of the other included shows were sold into syndication. The bonds were seen both as innovative and controversial by tying their investment return to the performance of Disney's television shows. With analysts saying the deal was not a good one for investors, the ZEBRAS were not successful. Disney ended their offerings 23 days after the program started, citing falling interest rates as a reason for terminating the ZEBRA program.
Interest in Acting Sheriff largely remained dormant for the next thirteen years. However, in 2004, Acting Sheriff made its way onto the August 16, 2004 television show, The Best TV Shows That Never Were. As one of 40+ reviewed television pilots from a pool of thousands available pilots, clips of Acting Sheriff were used by The Best TV Shows That Never Were show to insinuate that it was one of the worst aired pilots. In reviewing The Best TV Shows That Never Were, the New York Post
ranked Acting Sheriff along the lines of the pilot for a "mellow John Denver
cast against type as a two-fisted FBI agent in the mountain adventure Higher Ground" and the pilot where Tom Selleck
and Robert Urich
co-starred in the cop drama Bun-co.
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
created by Walt Disney Television
Walt Disney Television
Walt Disney Television was the former name of the television production division of The Walt Disney Company.-History:It was formed in 1983, as the Walt Disney Pictures Television Division, the name was later shortened to Walt Disney Television in the mid-1980s...
for television network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
that aired across the United States on Saturday, August 17, 1991 at 10:30 PM. Identified as episode number 895 in Walt Disney Television season number 35, the 30-minute comedy drama featured Canadian Grammy
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
- and Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
- winning entertainer Robert Goulet
Robert Goulet
Robert Gerard Goulet was a Canadian American entertainer as a singer and actor. He played the role of Lancelot in the Broadway musical Camelot of 1960.-Early life:...
as B movie actor Brent McCord who is elected to the unlikely job of sheriff in a small Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
town. With only an actor's knowledge and experience of what a sheriff does, the McCord character clashes with the local district attorney, character Donna Singer, and eventually lets a bank robber-prisoner escape. Character Mike Swanson, a deputy who is loyal to McCord, captures the escaped prisoner and helps cover for McCord's mistake by informing news reporters that McCord made the capture.
Response
Initially, Acting Sheriff was thought to have a good chance of filling the Saturday, 10:30 PM slot in the CBS 1991 fall television schedule. In addition to the draw of noted actor Robert Goulet, the show was developed by the writing team of Larry Strawther and Gary Murphy, who were the writers of Night CourtNight Court
Night Court is an American television situation comedy that aired on NBC from January 4, 1984, to May 20, 1992. The setting was the night shift of a Manhattan court, presided over by the young, unorthodox Judge Harold T. "Harry" Stone...
, a then-widely popular American television situation comedy
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
, and the writers of Without a Clue
Without a Clue
Without a Clue is a 1988 British comedy film directed by Thom Eberhardt and starring Michael Caine, Ben Kingsley and Lysette Anthony.-Plot:...
, a 1988
1988 in film
-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:* Act of Piracy* Action Jackson, starring Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson, Vanity, Sharon Stone* The Adventures of Baron Munchausen* Akira* Alice...
comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
film starring Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
and Ben Kingsley
Ben Kingsley
Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE is a British actor. He has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...
. However, the one-time-only, August 17, 1991 presentation of Acting Sheriff received poor ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
.
In the August 21, 1991 Prime time
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...
ratings for the week of August 12 to August 18, Acting Sheriff received a 4.6 share and was ranked as number 83 out of a total of 90 prime time television shows. The 4.6 share represented 4.3 million TV homes out of a possible 93.1 million TV homes. Despite the poor showing by Acting Sheriff, CBS tied television network ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
for first place in the August 12 to August 18 network ratings battle. CBS eventually filled the Saturday 10:30 PM to 11:00 PM primetime slot with 48 Hours
48 Hours (TV series)
48 Hours is a documentary and news program broadcast on the CBS television network since January 19, 1988. The program originally presented documentaries of various events related to a particular subject occurring within a 48-hour period, and is credited as one of the first to air a "reality show"...
, a documentary
Television documentary
Documentary television is a genre of television programming that broadcasts documentaries.* Documentary television series, a television series which is made up of documentary episodes....
and news program broadcast on the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
television network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
since January 19, 1988.
Critic reactions were mixed. The Florida daily newspaper St. Petersburg Times
St. Petersburg Times
The St. Petersburg Times is a United States newspaper. It is one of two major publications serving the Tampa Bay Area, the other being The Tampa Tribune, which the Times tops in both circulation and readership. Based in St...
rated Acting Sheriff a "best bet." However, the weekly entertainment trade newspaper Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
found the Brent McCord character too cartoonish to support the show as a series. In describing Goulet's performance as Brent McCord, Variety stated that it was "a goof on Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
by way of Ted Baxter
Ted Baxter
Ted Baxter is a fictional character on the sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show . Portrayed by Ted Knight, the Baxter character is a broad parody of a vain, shallow, buffoonish TV newsman. Knight's comedic model was William Powell, and he also drew on various Los Angeles newscasters, including George...
" and came across as a "trigger-happy, ACLU
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
-bashing boob whose disregard for the law is equaled only by his vanity." Variety also faulted the show's appearance and other characters as too closely resembling the look, feel, and characters of Night Court
Night Court
Night Court is an American television situation comedy that aired on NBC from January 4, 1984, to May 20, 1992. The setting was the night shift of a Manhattan court, presided over by the young, unorthodox Judge Harold T. "Harry" Stone...
. Fourteen years later, American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
Lee Tergesen
Lee Tergesen
Lee Allen Tergesen is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Tobias Beecher in HBO’s prison drama Oz and as Evan Wright in Generation Kill.-Early life:...
, who was on Acting Sheriff with Robert Goulet, characterized Goulet's performance as "quite good."
Reaction to response
The August 17, 1991 airing of the show was its only airing. In a December 1991 effort to raise more than $200 million to finance Disney's network television business, Disney created Zero Coupon Based Rate Adjustment Securities ("ZEBRAS") as promissory notes to be used to obtain money from the investing public. Disney added Acting Sheriff and other television projects such as Lenny, The Fanelli BoysThe Fanelli Boys
The Fanelli Boys is an American sitcom that aired on NBC as part of its 1990-91 prime time schedule. The series was created by the team of Barry Fanaro, Mort Nathan, Kathy Speer, and Terry Grossman, all of whom previously worked on The Golden Girls....
, Singer & Sons, and STAT to the ZEBRAS. Even though Acting Sheriff and the other projects were considered "dead dogs" by some, Disney presented ZEBRAS as a way for the public to buy into programming Walt Disney Television that was started in October 1988 and profiting from possible hits similar to Blossom
Blossom (TV series)
Blossom is an American sitcom broadcast on NBC from January 3, 1991 to May 22, 1995. The series stars Mayim Bialik as Blossom Russo, a teenage girl living with her father and two brothers. It was created by Don Reo.- Synopsis :...
, Golden Girls, and Empty Nest.
The 15-year ZEBRA zero-coupon bonds carried a guaranteed yield of 4% with a promise of up to a 20% return if Acting Sheriff or any of the other included shows were sold into syndication. The bonds were seen both as innovative and controversial by tying their investment return to the performance of Disney's television shows. With analysts saying the deal was not a good one for investors, the ZEBRAS were not successful. Disney ended their offerings 23 days after the program started, citing falling interest rates as a reason for terminating the ZEBRA program.
Interest in Acting Sheriff largely remained dormant for the next thirteen years. However, in 2004, Acting Sheriff made its way onto the August 16, 2004 television show, The Best TV Shows That Never Were. As one of 40+ reviewed television pilots from a pool of thousands available pilots, clips of Acting Sheriff were used by The Best TV Shows That Never Were show to insinuate that it was one of the worst aired pilots. In reviewing The Best TV Shows That Never Were, the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
ranked Acting Sheriff along the lines of the pilot for a "mellow John Denver
John Denver
Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. , known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer/songwriter, activist, and humanitarian. After growing up in numerous locations with his military family, Denver began his music career in folk music groups in the late 1960s. His greatest commercial success...
cast against type as a two-fisted FBI agent in the mountain adventure Higher Ground" and the pilot where Tom Selleck
Tom Selleck
Thomas William "Tom" Selleck is an American actor, and film producer. He is best known for his starring role as Hawaii-based private investigator Thomas Magnum on the 1980s television show Magnum, P.I.. He also plays Police Chief Jesse Stone in a series of made-for-TV movies based on the Robert B....
and Robert Urich
Robert Urich
Robert Urich was an American actor. He played the starring roles in the television series Vega$ and Spenser: For Hire...
co-starred in the cop drama Bun-co.