Several months ago I began a quest to see whether I could watch one episode of every 1970s prime time series. Along the way I kept track of those I missed the first time around and have been unable to find since. Today, my first never-watched series can be removed from that list.
From 1971, Shirley’s World starred Shirley MacLaine as Shirley Logan, an American journalist and photographer who relocates to London to work for World Illustratedmagazine. A co-production of British ITC Entertainment and producer Sheldon Leonard (The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show), the series lasted just 17 episodes before being canceled. Appearing later on The Tonight Show, MacLaine described the show as “crap.” Was she right?
The answer, sadly, is yes.
There’s not a lot of background or history about the series available online, but I’m going to guess that this was a show that did not spend much time in the gestation phase. For you fans of bad puns, here’s a show about a photographer that was poorly developed.
Given more time and attention, one assumes someone would have asked the questions that should have been answered before any scripts were commissioned, including the most basic one of all:
Who is Shirley Logan?
Think about how much you knew about Ann Marie or Mary Richards after a handful of episodes. If someone asked you what those characters were like, you could provide a pretty accurate description. But after five episodes I still had no idea who Shirley Logan was.
Why did she become a journalist? Why would she move to London – was she running away from something? Was she just climbing the corporate ladder? And who was she before viewers first meet her? One episode reveals she is originally from Boise, Idaho, but no details are added about her family, or how she felt about living across an ocean from them.
The series itself is as oddly vague as its protagonist. In fact, it took me a few episodes to realize that this was a situation comedy. It wasn’t just the absence of a laugh track that confused me – it was the absence of any actual laughs.
In the premiere episode, she sets out on her first London assignment to interview an English lord. Her editor (John Gregson) tests the rookie by sending her to the man’s private club, not telling her that no women are allowed inside. After repeatedly being tossed out, Shirley rounds up a few strippers and leads an invasion into the club, taking pictures of the mortified members in embarrassing positions.
I guess that could have been amusing, but the way the scene plays you actually feel sorry for the distinguished men being accosted, and you probably won’t like Shirley for hatching that scheme. I know I didn’t. It also doesn’t help that the British stereotypes here are as exaggerated as what you’d see in a broad farce like Are You Being Served?
In episode two she is dispatched to cover the split of a celebrity couple, but instead schemes to get them back together. Next up is “The Defective Defector,” which is truly embarrassing. Stuart Damon plays a Russian soldier who wants to defect, and falls in love with Shirley when she tries to help him. The tonal shifts from silly to serious and back again would confuse anyone trying to invest in the story.
I gave up after ten episodes because all of them suffered from the same flaws. There’s nothing here for a viewer to follow that seems at all credible. Shirley MacLaine’s acting talent is unquestionable, from The Apartment to Sweet Charity to Terms of Endearment. Yet here she doesn’t seem to know what to do with the character or the situations she encounters. She laughs in serious moments - is that because she didn't know what else to do? Most of the dialogue is looped because of the extensive outdoor location shooting in every episode, but she doesn’t put any real effort into it – in fact it often seems like she’s rushing through the lines, perhaps hoping it will hasten her exit from this deeply troubled project.
I’ve been to London five times – it’s my favorite city outside of the US, and it’s usually a treat to see it again even within a disappointing production like this. But even the postcard shots of Tower Bridge and Big Ben couldn’t salvage this mess.
I get it – no one promised that trying to watch every 1970s series would always be fun. For every under-the-radar gem like Cade’s County and Bracken’s World, there are bound to be a few truly profound misfires like this one. But we’ll soldier on next week anyway with a look at Friday nights in 1971, featuring…The Chicago Teddy Bears? Oh, boy.