The Funny Side is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 sketch comedy

Sketch comedy

A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...

 program that aired on NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 as part of its 1971 fall lineup

1971-72 United States network television schedule

This was the television schedule on all three United States television networks for the fall season beginning in September 1971. All times are Eastern and Pacific, with a few exceptions, such as Monday Night Football. This season would be the first time the prime time schedule would be shortened to...

.

Synopsis

The Funny Side was hosted by Gene Kelly

Gene Kelly

Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...

 and starred five pairs of actors and actresses who were presented as married couples (although only one was married in real life). Each week was an examination of the "funny side" of a potential issue in real-life marriages, such as health, money, sex and the like. Each couple was a stereotype

Stereotype

A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...

. Kelly also appeared as an actor in the sketches, and there was also a musical aspect with production numbers.

Cast

• John Amos
  John Amos
  John Amos is an American actor and former football player. His television work includes roles in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Good Times, the miniseries Roots, and a recurring role in The West Wing. He has also appeared on Broadway and in numerous motion pictures in a career that spans four decades...
  
   and Teresa Graves
  Teresa Graves
  Teresa Graves was an American actress and singer. As the star of Get Christie Love!, Graves is credited as being the first African American woman to star in her own hour long drama television series....
  
   as the Black
  Black people
  The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
  
   couple
• Warren Berlinger
  Warren Berlinger
  Warren Berlinger is an American character actor, with both Broadway runs and over a thousand television appearances to his credit.-Personal life:...
  
   and Pat Finley as the blue collar
  Blue-collar worker
  A blue-collar worker is a member of the working class who performs manual labor. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled, manufacturing, mining, construction, mechanical, maintenance, technical installation and many other types of physical work...
  
   couple
• Dick Clair and Jenna McMahon as the wealth
  Wealth
  Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem...
  
  y couple
• Michael Lembeck
  Michael Lembeck
  Michael Lembeck is an actor, television and film director.Lembeck was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Caroline and Harvey Lembeck, an actor and comedian. He began acting in the late-1960s and directing in the 1970s. His most notable acting role was as Julie Cooper's husband, Max Horvath, on...
  
   and Cindy Williams
  Cindy Williams
  Cynthia Jane "Cindy" Williams is an American actress best known for starring in the television situation-comedy series Laverne & Shirley, in the role of "Shirley Feeney", and for her role as Laurie Henderson in the classic film American Graffiti.-Early life:Williams was born in Van Nuys,...
  
   as the teenage couple
• Burt Mustin
  Burt Mustin
  Burton Hill "Burt" Mustin was an American character actor.-Early life:Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to W. I. and Sadie Mustin, Mustin was a 1903 graduate of the Pennsylvania Military College , earning his degree in civil engineering...
  
   and Queenie Smith
  Queenie Smith
  Queenie Smith was an American stage, television, and film actress.-Biography:Smith got an early start, being trained in ballet and dance and spent her teen years performing as a dancer with the Metropolitan Opera Company in operas such as Aida, La Traviata, and Faust...
  
   as the elderly
  Old age
  Old age consists of ages nearing or surpassing the average life span of human beings, and thus the end of the human life cycle...
  
   couple

Cancellation

The Funny Side received poor Nielsen 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...

and was cancelled after less than three months on the air.