Here's the opening and the closing to It's About Time, a sitcom that lasted one unsuccessful year — from September of '66 'til August of '67. If the theme reminds you of the one from Gilligan's Island, there's a reason: Same producer, same songwriters. Back then, there was kind of an unwritten rule in network television. If you had a hit show on a network, your production company got pilot commitments for new shows and had a real good shot at getting one on the air. Sherwood Schwartz used whatever Gilligan clout he had to get this one on…with limited success.
In fact, the show inverted its premise mid-season to try and combat low ratings. Originally, it was about a couple of astronauts (played by Jack Mullaney and Frank Aletter) who somehow, via shaky science, wound up back in the Stone Age. There, they interacted with a clan of cave people played by Joe E. Ross, Imogene Coca, Mike Mazurki, Cliff Norton and others. The hilarity was supposed to be about these two modern-day guys trying to cope with prehistoric life. That didn't work…so after the first thirteen, they changed the storyline: The astronauts travelled back to present day and brought along a couple of the cave people to try and cope with modern life. That was a little better but it didn't save the series.
Another alteration was made earlier. As you'll notice in the titles, Imogene Coca's cave lady character was originally named Shag. At some point, CBS Standards and Practices decided that was a naughty word…so the name was changed to Shad.
The best thing about the show was probably Joe E. Ross, who was already well known from the Sgt. Bilko series and from Car 54, Where Are You? Mr. Ross was very funny in front of a camera and, from all reports, impossible to deal with off-camera. In fact, he was fired a couple of times from Car 54 and if the show had returned for a third season, it would have returned sans Ross because the producers couldn't stand him any longer. I have long been intrigued by Joe E. Ross anecdotes and when I met Imogene Coca, I asked her if she had any. She just blushed, muttered something about "that awful man" and changed the subject.
You will notice in the end titles, reference to "Gladasya Productions." That was pronounced like "glad to see ya" and that was Phil Silvers. Another aspect of TV deal-making back then — and this still goes on but not as often — is that stars get pilot commitments that wind up getting folded into others' deals. In order to sign Phil Silvers to star in The New Phil Silvers Show in '63, CBS not only let his company, Gladasya, produce that show but also gave Gladasya commitments for other, non-Phil shows. When Sherwood Schwartz pitched Gilligan's Island to CBS, the network agreed to commission a pilot on the condition that it be done under one of Gladasya's commitments…so Phil Silvers wound up being a partner in Gilligan's Island and made more money off that than he did off The New Phil Silvers Show. (The same principle explains why Bing Crosby was a partner in Hogan's Heroes and Robert Wagner had, you should excuse the expressison, a piece of Charlie's Angels. There are many other examples of this.)
Phil didn't make much, if anything, off It's About Time but I thought it was a fun show. And as you'll hear, it had a pretty catchy theme song. Here it comes…