Busting Loose (TV series)
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| Busting Loose | |
|---|---|
 Title card, with Adam Arkin as Lenny Markowitz at right. | |
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by | Lowell Ganz Mark Rothman |
| Starring | Adam Arkin[1] |
| Theme music composer | Mark Rothman |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 25 (4 unaired) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Lowell Ganz Mark Rothman[2] |
| Producers | Lawrence Kasha (Season One)[3] John Thomas Lenox[2] (Season 2)[3] |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production companies | Hayadou Productions Paramount Television |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | January 17 – November 16, 1977 |
Busting Loose is an American sitcom starring Adam Arkin which centers on a young man in New York City who has moved out of his parents' house to live on his own for the first time. The show aired on CBS between January 17, 1977, and November 16, 1977.[1][2]
Twenty-four-year-old Jewish American Lenny Markowitz has recently graduated from engineering school, though his true aspiration is to be a sportscaster. Tired of his overprotective and meddling parents Sam and Pearl, he secretly moves out on his own for the first time — hence "busting loose" — into an inexpensive apartment in a rundown tenement in New York City. Lacking the money to even replace the duck-covered wallpaper in his new place and unable to find an engineering job, Lenny temporarily takes a job at the Wearwell Shoe Store owned by Ralph Cabell and befriends his co-worker Raymond St. Williams, a "hip" African American man.
Lenny's childhood friends — Lester Bellman, Allan Simmonds, Vinnie Mordabito, and Woody Warshaw — frequently hang out with him at his place, where they play poker together and get involved in various escapades. He becomes close friends with his neighbor Melody Feebeck, a tall and very attractive older redhead who works for an escort service.
While Lenny is unlucky finding an engineering job, he is also unlucky in love. In season 1 he dates several different girls, and even goes out on a date with Melody. By season 2 he manages to find a regular girlfriend, an attractive girl named Jackie Gleason (no relation to, and who bears no resemblance to, the real-life TV and film star Jackie Gleason).[1][2][4]
Cast and characters
- Adam Arkin as Lenny Markowitz
- Barbara Rhoades as Melody Feebeck
- Jack Kruschen as Sam Markowitz
- Pat Carroll as Pearl Markowitz
- Danny Goldman as Lester Bellman
- Steve Nathan as Allan Simmonds
- Greg Antonacci as Vinnie Mordabito
- Paul Sylvan as Woody Warshaw
- Paul B. Price as Ralph Cabell
- Ralph Wilcox as Raymond St. Williams
- Louise Williams as Jackie Gleason
Production notes
Mark Rothman and Lowell Ganz created Busting Loose and served as its executive producers, and Rothman composed the show's theme music. Lawrence Kasha was the producer for the first season; John Thomas Lenox produced the second season. Lenox also directed one episode; the other episode directors were Greg Antonacci, James Burrows, Mel Ferber, Norm Gray, Asaad Kelada, Harvey Miller, Tony Mordente, Alan Myerson, Bill Persky, Howard Storm, and Joel Zwick. Antonacci, Ganz, Rothman, Chet Dowling, David W. Duclon, Howard Gewirtz, Joe Glauberg, Sandy Krinski, David Lerner, Deborah Leschin, Babaloo Mandel, and Barry Rubinowitz all wrote or co-wrote one or more episodes.[3]
During its first season, Busting Loose aired on CBS on Monday at 8:30 p.m. from January to May 1977. The show then left the air until July 1977, when reruns of the first season began to air on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. The second season also ran at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the fall of 1977.[1]
In "Mr. Dennis Steps Out," broadcast on October 26, 1977, as the fifth episode of the second season of Busting Loose, Melody is afraid that her boss at the escort service, Roger Dennis – played by guest star Ted Knight – is going to fire her. The episode served as the pilot for Knight's first show of his own, the short-lived 1978 sitcom The Ted Knight Show, which centered on Roger Dennis's firm, the Mr. Dennis Escort Service. However, Barbara Rhoades and her Melody Feebeck character did not appear in The Ted Knight Show.[3]
