| Holmes & Yo-Yo | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Situation comedy |
| Starring | Richard B. Shull John Schuck Bruce Kirby Andrea Howard |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Leonard Stern |
| Producer(s) | Arne Sultan |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | September 25, 1976 – December 11, 1976, August 1977 |
Holmes & Yo-Yo is an American comedy television series that aired on ABC for 13 episodes during the 1976-1977 season. The series follows Detective Holmes and his new android partner Yo-Yo, on their adventures and misadventures, as Holmes teaches Yo-Yo what it is like to be human, while trying to keep his quirky partner's true nature a secret from criminals and fellow cops.
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The executive producer is Leonard Stern, a former staff writer for Get Smart, which featured an android character named Hymie who was, in most respects, a prototype for Yo-Yo. Several episodes of Holmes & Yo-Yo were directed by John Astin, who played Gomez in The Addams Family.[1]
Richard B. Shull stars as Detective Alexander Holmes. John Schuck stars as his partner Gregory "Yo-Yo" Yoyonivich. Co-stars were Andrea Howard and Bruce Kirby. Jay Leno appeared in the pilot as a gas station attendant.[2]
Detective Alexander Holmes is a clumsy down-on-his-luck cop who constantly injures his partners. The department gives him a new partner, Gregory Yoyonivich. Yo-Yo, as he likes to be called, is good-natured, if a bit clumsy, and also surprisingly strong. During one of their first calls, Yo-Yo is shot and Holmes discovers that his new partner is an android, a sophisticated new crime-fighting machine designed by the police department as their secret weapon on crime. "You're not a person!" is Holmes' stunned response.
Besides super-strength, Yo-Yo's other abilities include speed reading, and the ability to analyze clues at the scene. Yo-Yo had a built-in Polaroid camera: each time his nose was pressed, a Polaroid photograph of his view would be taken and ejected from his shirt pocket. Yo-Yo's control panel was built into his chest, which could be opened by pulling his tie. The level of Yo-Yo's batteries was critical, because if they ran down his memory and, effectively, his being would be erased. In one episode his batteries came very close to running down completely, and he was charged by being pushed against an electric fence with his arms extended. Yo-Yo weighed 427 pounds, and his heavy build could absorb the shock of a bomb.
Much comedy was derived from Yo-Yo's constant malfunctions. Some of his common problems included:
Another running gag involved Yo-Yo's ability to read an entire book by simply fanning its pages; his invariable comment after doing so: "I enjoyed it!"
| Series # | Episode title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Pilot" | Jackie Cooper | Lee Hewitt, Jack Sher & Leonard Stern | September 25, 1976 |
| An experienced, but accident-prone, detective is paired with a new partner: a not-quite perfected humanized robot. | ||||
| 2 | "Funny Money" | Leonard Stern | Jack Sher, Lee Hewitt & Leonard Stern | October 2, 1976 |
| After Holmes unwittingly tries to pass a counterfeit $20 bill, officials throughout the police department discover their wallets are filled with bogus money. | ||||
| 3 | "The Dental Dynamiter" | Leonard Stern | Jack Sher and Lee Hewitt | October 16, 1976 |
| Holmes and Yoyo set out to investigate the bombings of dentists' offices all over town. | ||||
| 4 | "The Last Phantom" | Jack Arnold | Earl Barret, Arne Sultan, Jack Sher and Lee Hewitt | October 22, 1976 |
| Holmes and Yoyo have a difficult time finding a suspect who is attempting to kill a movie producer. | ||||
| 5 | "Yoyo Takes a Bride" | Reza Badiyi | Earl Barret, Arne Sultan, Jack Sher and Lee Hewitt | October 23, 1976 |
| Yoyo and Maxine go undercover as a pair of honeymooners at a resort hotel, but the computerized Yoyo isn't programmed to respond romantically and Maxine isn't aware he's a robot. | ||||
| 6 | "The Thornhill Affair" | Jack Arnold | Jack Sher, Lee Hewitt and Jonathan Kaufer | October 30, 1976 |
| Holmes and Yoyo go undercover to thwart a plot to steal a world famous gem. | ||||
| 7 | "The K-9 Caper" | John Astin | Jack Sher, Lee Hewitt and James Ritz | November 13, 1976 |
| Holmes and Yoyo go after a purse snatcher who is described as about 30 inches in height, weighing 80 pounds and covered with brown hair. | ||||
| 8 | "The Hostages" | John Astin | Jack Sher, Lee Hewitt and Bruce A. Taylor | November 20, 1976 |
| While Holmes and Yoyo are being held hostage, Yoyo realizes that his battery is going dead, his circuits have shorted and his cooling system has broken down. | ||||
| 9 | "Key Witness" | Richard Kinon | Jack Sher, Lee Hewitt, Earl Barret, Arne Sultan, Len Uhley & John Landis | November 27, 1976 |
| Holmes and Yoyo are sent to protect a frightened informant, but they end up scaring the witness even more than the prospect of a reprisal by the mob. | ||||
| 10 | "Dead Duck" | John Astin | Jack Sher and Lee Hewitt | December 4, 1976 |
| Holmes and Yoyo set up to break up an extortion ring by testifying against the leader, but Yoyo can't testify because he's a robot and Holmes is afraid of the Mob. | ||||
| 11 | "Connection, Connection II" | John Astin | Jack Sher, Lee Hewitt & Leonard Stern | December 11, 1976 |
| One of Holmes' reliable contacts reveals that an important person with City Hall connections is bringing in "stuff" from abroad. | ||||
| 12 | "The Cat Burglar" | Reza Badiyi | Jack Sher, Lee Hewitt, Richard Freiman and Stephen Young | August 1, 1977 |
| Someone is stealing precious felines for ransom from prosperous ladies and Holmes and Yoto set out to catch the catnapper. | ||||
| 13 | "Bye, Bye Bennie" | Noam Pitlik | Jack Sher, Lee Hewitt, Earl Barret, Arne Sultan & Jonathan Kaufer | August 8, 1977 |
| Holmes and Yoyo are waiting as "Big Bad" Bennie Brown, who is wanted by the Kansas City police, arrives in town. | ||||
Today, Holmes & Yo-Yo is considered one of the worst television series ever made. it ranked number 33 on TV Guide's List of the 50 Worst TV Shows of All Time.[4] Although the series lasted only 13 episodes (undaunted by the failure of the series, ABC green-lighted a similar concept the same season called Future Cop with Ernest Borgnine; it had the same success as Holmes & Yo-Yo), the influence of Holmes & Yo-Yo can be felt in other "robot cop" series and films that followed, most notably the RoboCop films and TV series, and the 1993 series, Mann & Machine which used the same premise as Holmes & Yo-Yo, only with more serious storylines and a sexy female robot instead of the stout Yoyonovich.