Tucker's Witch
| Tucker's Witch | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Starring |
Tim Matheson Catherine Hicks |
| Theme music composer | Brad Fiedel |
| Opening theme | Brad Fiedel |
| Ending theme | Brad Fiedel |
| Composer(s) |
Brad Fiedel (unaired pilot, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.8, 1.9, 1.10, 1.11, 1.12) Shirley Walker (1.6) J.A.C. Redford (1.7) George Kahn (co-composer on episodes 1.11, 1.12) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | One-third |
| No. of episodes | 12 (pilot not aired) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Hill/Mandelker Films |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Picture format | Color |
| Original run | October 6, 1982 – June 9, 1983 |
Tucker's Witch is a 12-episode comedy-detective series that aired on CBS television from October 6, 1982, to November 10, 1982, and again sporadically from March 31 to June 9, 1983. It starred 34-year-old Tim Matheson and 31-year-old Catherine Hicks as a charming married couple, Rick and Amanda Tucker, who own and operate their private detective agency in Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles. Hicks replaced actress Kim Cattrall, who was in the pilot but was removed from the show after the movie Porky's came out and showed Cattrall's racy scene in the gym.[1][2] In the story line, Amanda's psychic powers become an asset in solving cases but also tend to get the pair into various troubles.[3] In later rebroadcasts on the USA Network, the program was known as The Good Witch of Laurel Canyon.[4]
Catherine Hicks had previously been a soap opera actress on ABC's Ryan's Hope, and received an Emmy nomination for her 1980 performance as Marilyn Monroe in an ABC biopic, and later known to audiences for her role as Annie Camden, the sympathetic, discerning wife of the minister Eric Camden, played by Stephen Collins, in the Warner Brothers family series 7th Heaven.[5] Matheson starred earlier in Robert Young's Window on Main Street and two western series, NBC's The Virginian with James Drury and ABC's The Quest with Kurt Russell, and in various films, including Animal House. He was also the voice of the Jonny Quest cartoon character.[6]
Tucker's Witch aired at 10 p.m. Eastern on Wednesdays in its first run and proved unable to compete with ABC's Dynasty prime time soap opera starring John Forsythe, Joan Collins, and Linda Evans and with NBC's Quincy, M.E. starring Jack Klugman. The program was switched to Thursday for the second half of its brief run.[7]
The show was produced by Hill-Mandelker Films.
Cast
- Tim Matheson as Rick Tucker
- Catherine Hicks as Amanda Tucker
- Bill Morey as Lt. Sean Fisk
- Alfre Woodard as Marcia Fulbright
- Barbara Barrie as Ellen Hobbes
Episodes
The series pilot, in which Art Hindle and Kim Cattrall played Rick and Amanda, was never broadcast.
Ted Danson played an elevator killer in the 1982 premiere episode during the same season he began playing bartender Sam Malone on Cheers.[8][9] Danson first was seen as Sam Malone on the September 30th premiere episode of Cheers and then seen on Tucker's Witch on October 6, six days later.[10] The better known guest stars in Tucker's Witch included Barry Corbin, Simon Oakland, Ted Danson, Joe Penny, and Noble Willingham.[11]
| # | Episode | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Good Witch of Laurel Canyon | October 6 |
| 2 | Big Mouth | October 13 |
| 3 | The Corpse Who Knew Too Much | October 20 |
| 4 | The Curse of the Toltec Death Mask | October 27 |
| 5 | Terminal Case | November 3 |
| 6 | Abra-Cadaver | November 10 |
| 7 | Dye Job | March 31 |
| 8 | Psyche Out | April 7 |
| 9 | Rock Is a Hard Place | April 14 |
| 10 | Formula for Revenge | April 28 |
| 11 | Living and Presumed Dead | May 5 |
| 12 | Murder Is the Key[11] | June 9 |
References
- ↑
- ↑ Jicha, Tom (September 21, 2003). South Florida Sun-Sentinel. p. 42.
Long before Sex and the City, Cattrall was the victim of one of the most childish episodes in TV history. In the spring of 1982, she was cast to star in a CBS fall series called The Good Witch of Laurel Canyon. That summer Porky's featured Cattrall's racy scene in the gym. Nowadays, a network would do contortions to get a star like that on the air. Back then, the CBS brass ordered the series reshot with a new female lead, which turned out to be Catherine Hicks. It also was retitled Tucker's Witch. The show quickly cratered.
Missing or empty|title=(help);|chapter=ignored (help) - ↑ IMDB, Tucker's Witch, plot summary:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083497/plotsummary
- ↑
- ↑ "Catherine Hicks >> Biography". Variety. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
- ↑ TV.com, Tucker's Witch:http://www.tv.com/tuckers-witch/show/3306/cast.html
- ↑ 1982-1983 American network television schedule
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 IMDB, "Tucker's Witch" Episodes listing:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083497/episodes