Here we have an interview with one of my favorite actors, William Daniels. I am most interested in his remembrances of the musical 1776, which I regard as one of the ten-or-so (maybe five-or-so) best musicals ever written. And it's amazing that I feel that way because I don't feel most of the songs in it are very good yet I still think the show's terrific.
The article can't cover all that Daniels has done and one of the things it doesn't mention is his role on The Nancy Walker Show, a 1976 situation comedy that lasted 13 weeks and then disappeared forever. It was one of the first jobs for the then-new writing team of Mark Evanier and Dennis Palumbo and we disappeared before the series did, along with the producer who'd hired us and other folks involved in what was not a happy experience for anyone, viewers included.
Dennis and I figured out the problem early, which is not to say we were in a position to solve it. Nancy Walker was popular because of her role as Rhoda Morganstern's mother and she probably should have stayed with that character and done a spin-off on CBS. ABC offered more money and the chance to star in a series with her name in the title so she took that offer.
It still might have worked if they'd teamed her up with a simpatico producer but at the time, ABC owed Norman Lear a series and someone erred by giving him The Nancy Walker Show. Nancy wanted to do a show with physical comedy and a fast pace and zany characters — something more like Laverne & Shirley, whereas Mr. Lear was then interested in issues and current affairs.
He didn't want to do the kind of show she wanted to do and she didn't want to do the kind of show he wanted to do. So they compromised and did a series that neither of them wanted to do. If you saw it — and the odds are you didn't — you probably sensed that no one really knew what the show was about. We were in the writing room and no one in there did.
I mention this because William Daniels played her husband. I never met him but he was enormously professional and no matter how weak his lines were, he always managed to find something funny (or at least, interesting) to do with them. That was quite an accomplishment because, as one of the producers told us, Mr. Daniels hated the show he was in. The showrunners — the series had two and they were running in opposite directions — couldn't please him because they were spending all their time trying unsuccessfully to please Nancy.
It was all quite the mess but Daniels managed somehow to look good in it…or at least to not be noticed, which is often preferable. He really is one of our great actors.