Herbie the Matchmaker

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Herbie, The Love Bug
Genre	Sitcom
Starring	Kipp Lennon Dean Jones Patricia Harty Richard Paul Claudia Wells Douglas Emerson Nicky Katt Larry Linville
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	5
Production
Running time	60 Minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Original run	March 17, 1982 – April 14, 1982
Links
IMDb profile

Herbie the Matchmaker, also known as Herbie, The Love Bug, was a short-lived situation comedy that aired on CBS in the spring of 1982. The series was based on Walt Disney Productions' popular Herbie film series, about a Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of its own. Actor Dean Jones, who had appeared in two of the films, once again played the role of Jim Douglas. Here, he played Jim as an instructor at a driving school. He and Herbie had been looking out for each other's well-being, when one day, they happened upon a bank robbery in progress. They managed to thwart the crime and rescue a young divorcée named Susan MacLane (Patricia Harty), who worked at the bank and was a mother of three: Julie (Claudia Wells), Robbie (Douglas Emerson), and Matthew (Nicky Katt). Jim and Susan soon began to fall in love, much to the consternation of her ex-boyfriend Randy Bigelow (Larry Linville). Randy's attempts to break them up were all in vain, as Jim and Julie tied the knot in the episode that aired on April 7. (The marriage, however, seems to contradict Jim's previous marriage to Carole Bennett in the first movie, and, perhaps to a lesser extent, his romance with Diane Darcy in Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo).

In any case, Herbie the Matchmaker was cancelled after five episodes, and for the next fifteen years, would mark Herbie's last new appearance in either television or film.

The Herbie films
The Love Bug (1969) • Herbie Rides Again (1974) • Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977) • Herbie Goes Bananas (1980) • Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005) Made for TV: Herbie the Matchmaker (1982) • The Love Bug (1997)