Post by coolkevin54 on Apr 7, 2023 18:10:10 GMT
Hey everyone, hope you are all doing well!
Long time reader of the forum, but never gotten too involved other than commenting/editing on the wiki itself. Decided to finally post because I recently became fascinated with searching for this show from the 1960s that seems groundbreaking for its time.
He & She centers around real-life married couple Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss, who for the time would have stood in stark contrast to other programming, being a young "modern" pairing. Especially because the show took place in an urban setting, featured a "working woman," and had a comedy style that would become much more popular in the 1970s, it's clear why the show only lasted one season. Even the ratings reflect how people just weren't ready for this kind of content, as it didn't start well, but appeared to rise overtime. Additionally, even critics seemed to have been won over in time, with the series being nominated for five Emmy awards, and even winning one for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series. This was especially made possible thanks for the efforts of Chris Hayward and Allan Burns, the latter of which would go on to write The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which clearly takes inspiration from He & She in a lot ways. Even CBS Senior Programming VP Mike Dann apparently said this was “the best show I ever cancelled,” and reportedly network president Robert Wood was such a fan of the show that he scheduled reruns in 1970, with the hope of preparing audiences for the channel's upcoming shift towards “relevance."
Overall, as much of a cliché as it is, it really does seem like this show was ahead of its time and likely helped to inspire or establish the upcoming shift to modern 1970s programming. Yet, nowadays, people barely know this show even exists, and for the most part it is lost. I have heard that certain torrent website have most of the episodes, and I've even seen other websites trying to sell bootleg DVDs, but I've also heard that quality greatly varies, and that at least episode 15 is missing completely across the board. If you're looking to at least see some of the show, the first 12 episodes are available on YouTube, with the 11th episode being the one that won the Emmy. Additionally, I myself was able to dig up a different version of the first episode than the one in the previous link, with mine likely being a rerun version of the premiere that was slightly sped up. That all being said, it does seem like the series is fully available at the UCLA Film & Television Archive, and The Paley Center for Media has at least the first three episodes, but I would love to see this show publicly available for everyone online in the best possible quality.
Thus, I turn to all of you, the experts, as I'm looking for any support in finding all 26 episodes, ideally in color and in good condition, so that we can make them available to the public. I think the dream would be seeing them on a proper streaming service for everyone to see, but even if we could put them all on YouTube or make a wiki page for them, that would be amazing. Please let me know if any of you have connections to finding more episodes through private trackers or websites, and I'm happy to answer any questions about the show. Thank you!
Long time reader of the forum, but never gotten too involved other than commenting/editing on the wiki itself. Decided to finally post because I recently became fascinated with searching for this show from the 1960s that seems groundbreaking for its time.
He & She centers around real-life married couple Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss, who for the time would have stood in stark contrast to other programming, being a young "modern" pairing. Especially because the show took place in an urban setting, featured a "working woman," and had a comedy style that would become much more popular in the 1970s, it's clear why the show only lasted one season. Even the ratings reflect how people just weren't ready for this kind of content, as it didn't start well, but appeared to rise overtime. Additionally, even critics seemed to have been won over in time, with the series being nominated for five Emmy awards, and even winning one for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series. This was especially made possible thanks for the efforts of Chris Hayward and Allan Burns, the latter of which would go on to write The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which clearly takes inspiration from He & She in a lot ways. Even CBS Senior Programming VP Mike Dann apparently said this was “the best show I ever cancelled,” and reportedly network president Robert Wood was such a fan of the show that he scheduled reruns in 1970, with the hope of preparing audiences for the channel's upcoming shift towards “relevance."
Overall, as much of a cliché as it is, it really does seem like this show was ahead of its time and likely helped to inspire or establish the upcoming shift to modern 1970s programming. Yet, nowadays, people barely know this show even exists, and for the most part it is lost. I have heard that certain torrent website have most of the episodes, and I've even seen other websites trying to sell bootleg DVDs, but I've also heard that quality greatly varies, and that at least episode 15 is missing completely across the board. If you're looking to at least see some of the show, the first 12 episodes are available on YouTube, with the 11th episode being the one that won the Emmy. Additionally, I myself was able to dig up a different version of the first episode than the one in the previous link, with mine likely being a rerun version of the premiere that was slightly sped up. That all being said, it does seem like the series is fully available at the UCLA Film & Television Archive, and The Paley Center for Media has at least the first three episodes, but I would love to see this show publicly available for everyone online in the best possible quality.
Thus, I turn to all of you, the experts, as I'm looking for any support in finding all 26 episodes, ideally in color and in good condition, so that we can make them available to the public. I think the dream would be seeing them on a proper streaming service for everyone to see, but even if we could put them all on YouTube or make a wiki page for them, that would be amazing. Please let me know if any of you have connections to finding more episodes through private trackers or websites, and I'm happy to answer any questions about the show. Thank you!
