Garry Marshall

Watching this is like going on a bender and mixing too many multi-coloured drinks

This Hollywood valentine unfolds as a red-carpet collection of expanded cameos

Another space-filling intro from an obscure ’70s show (that apparently got shown on TV Land back when TV Land didn’t suck). Remember Blansky’s Beauties? Well, after that show deservedly flopped, Garry Marshall didn’t give up on the idea of the story of hot showgirls living with Scott Baio. He sold NBC on a new show, loosely based on Blansky with three of the same leads: Caren Kaye, Linda Goodfriend and Scott Baio, and NBC bought it, first titled Legs and then Who’s Watching the Kids? By the time this version of the intro aired, Caren Kaye was off the show. And nobody cared one way or the other, because this version flopped too. However, this series can be thanked for introducing Jim Belushi as a sitcom star. Thank you Garry.

The year is 1977. Under the leadership of Fred Silverman, ABC has become the number-one network with a combination of family-friendly comedies (Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley) and titillating “jiggle” shows (Charlie’s Angels, Three’s Company). What next, Silverman asks himself? Why, how about combining the two — Get Garry Marshall to create a show that combines the family comedy of Happy Days with the titillation and frequent bralessness of Charlie’s Angels? And thus was born Blansky’s Beauties, starring Nancy Walker (Rhoda’s mom, the Bounty Towels lady) as the producer of a showgirl act in Las Vegas. The show was launched with a crossover episode of Happy Days, where Nancy Blansky was introduced as Tom Bosley’s cousin. And yet it bombed, and you will see why.