Billy (1979 TV series)

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This article is about the 1979 TV series Billy. For the 1992 series of the same name starring Billy Connolly, see Billy (1992 TV series) .

Billy is the name of a short-lived situation comedy that CBS aired in the United States in 1979. The series was based on Tom Courtenay's turn-of-the-century British play Billy Liar.

Billy starred Steve Guttenberg as Billy Fisher, a mortician's clerk with a tendency to daydream. His Walter Mitty-like tendency would have him imagining that he was a famous surgeon, a rock superstar, a disk jockey, a television network executive, or a football star. Each episode of Billy had at least two of his fantasies, which included appearances by Suzanne Somers, Don Adams, Larry Csonka, Merv Griffin, and Lou Ferrigno.

Peggy Pope and James Gallery portrayed Billy's often-frustrated parents (she thought Billy had a vivid imagination; he viewed Billy as a chronic, compulsive liar). Paula Trueman played his grandmother, who believed that Billy was insane, and Bruce Talkington played Billy's friend Arthur Milliken, a fellow worker at Shadrack and Shadrack funeral home.

Billy replaced the ill-fated Co-Ed Fever in CBS' Monday night lineup in February 1979. It didn't fare much better as Billy was cancelled two months later. Its last episode was broadcast by CBS on April 28, 1979.

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