When Things Were Rotten

When Things Were Rotten
220px Robin Hood and his Merry Men.
Genre	Parody Situation comedy Adventure
Created by	Mel Brooks Norman Stiles & John Boni
Directed by	Norman Abbott Bruce Bilson Peter Bonerz Marty Feldman Peter H. Hunt Jerry Paris Coby Ruskin Joshua Shelley
Starring	Richard Dimitri Dick Gautier Bernie Kopell Henry Polic II Ron Rifkin Misty Rowe David Sabin Dick Van Patten
Theme music composer	Artie Butler
Country of origin	USA
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13
Production
Producer(s)	Mel Brooks Stanley Jacob Norman Steinberg
Running time	30 min.
Production company(s)	Paramount Network Television
Distributor	CBS Television Distribution
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	September 10 – December 3, 1975

When Things Were Rotten is an American situation comedy television series created in 1975 by Mel Brooks and aired for half a season by ABC.

A parody of the Robin Hood legend, the series starred Dick Gautier (who earlier had played Hymie the Robot in Brooks' Get Smart series) as Robin Hood. Also in the regular cast were Dick Van Patten as Friar Tuck, Bernie Kopell (another Get Smart veteran) as Alan-a-Dale, Henry Polic II as the Sheriff of Nottingham (whose name was Hubert), Ron Rifkin as Prince John, Misty Rowe as Maid Marian, and David Sabin as Little John. Richard Dimitri played a dual role as identical twin brothers; Renaldo was one of the Merry Men, while Bertram was the Sheriff's right-hand man.

Humor

One-liners, sight gags and literal humor were hallmarks of the show's style; e.g., complaining villagers, commanded to "Hold your tongues!," obediently reach into their mouths. In another episode, The Sheriff asked to hang the banners, with an immediate cutaway to a husband, a wife, and their two children on a wall, saying "Hi, we're the Banners." There was also occasional breaking of the fourth wall: in one episode, as one of Robin's men (Renaldo) was being interrogated, with an accuser (Little John) asking, "Are you ready to tell that to your maker?" Renaldo turns his head and looks off-camera, and says: "Mel! I didn't do it!"

Much of the humour was anachronistic, such as the occasion where Marian's ladies-in-waiting burst into the 1960s Supremes hit "Stop! In the Name of Love"; or when the Rock of Gibraltar had been destroyed, and a messenger brings Prince John the remaining chunk, to be told "I always wanted a piece of the rock," a reference to Prudential Insurance's successful slogan, "Get a piece of the Rock."

Also notable was the show's lampooning of 1970s social concerns; e.g., in the episode "Those Wedding Bell Blues," Prince John was preparing to sign a deal with OOPEC, an OPEC-like cartel whose chief export was olive oil. Prince John: "I'll control all the olive oil! Anyone who wants to make a salad will have to come to me!"

Theme Song

During the opening show credits, a satirical song "Yay for Robin Hood!" was performed:

"Once upon a time when things were rotten,
Not just food, but also kings were rotten.
Everybody kicked the peasants,
Things were bad and that ain't good,
Then came Robin Hood (Ba-bahh!)

"Soon a band of merry men he'd gotten,
They wore outfits made of plain green cotton,
Helping victims was their business.
Boy oh boy was business good --
Good for Robin Hood!

"They laughed, they loved, they fought, they drank,
They jumped a lot of fences.
They robbed the rich, gave to the poor --
Except what they kept for expenses!

"So when other legends are forgotten
We'll remember back when things were rotten.
Yay for Robin Hood!"

Cancellation

The rapid-fire, Mel Brooks style of comedy was out of place on network television of the era, so despite critical acclaim, the series failed to find an audience and was canceled after 13 episodes, with The Bionic Woman being its mid-season replacement, which was a great success. Eighteen years later, Brooks produced another Robin Hood parody, the feature film Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Van Patten also appeared in the later film as an abbot.

The cancellation of When Things Were Rotten allowed Van Patten and Kopell to move on to more successful and long-running series — Eight is Enough and The Love Boat, respectively. Rifkin, meanwhile, would eventually become best known to modern-day audiences as the ambiguously villainous Arvin Sloane on Alias.

Home video and DVD

Several episodes of the series have been released on VHS in North America.

The complete series was released on DVD in 2013 as a manufactured-on-demand item exclusively available on Amazon.com's CreateSpace.

Episodes

Nº	Title	Air date
1	"The Capture of Robin Hood"	10.Sep.1975
2	"The French Dis-connection"	17.Sep.1975
3	"The House Band"	24.Sep.1975
4	"Those Wedding Bell Blues"	01.Oct.1975
5	"A Ransom for Richard"	08.Oct.1975
6	"The Ultimate Weapon"	15.Oct.1975
7	"Ding Dong, the Bell Is Dead"	22.Oct.1975
8	"There Goes the Neighborhood"	29.Oct.1975
9	"Quarantine"	12.Nov.1975
10	"Birthday Blues"	19.Nov.1975
11	"The Spy: Part 1"	26.Nov.1975
12	"The Spy: Part 2"	26.Nov.1975
13	"This Lance for Hire"	03.Dec.1975

See also

• Maid Marian and Her Merry Men - another comic retelling of the Robin Hood legend, for British television

External links

• When Things Were Rotten at IMDb
• When Things Were Rotten at TV.com
• Harry S. Anchan's television sitcom & comedy site (with When Things Were Rotten theme song)