Something Streaming This Way Comes: "The Famous Teddy Z"
As anyone who reads this site with any regularity knows, I’ve interviewed more than a few folks over the course of my career, but only once have I ever actually gone to a celebrity’s house. Mind you, in this case, I was technically the one who was being interviewed: the house belonged to Alex Rocco, and he’d invited me to his place so that we could discuss the possibility of my helping him write his memoir. Alas, that project didn’t get any farther than about a dozen phone calls, every one of which was filled with stories, but at least I got some great memories out of it…and one of those memories is being at Rocco’s house and seeing his Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for The Famous Teddy Z.
Man, I loved The Famous Teddy Z. Created by Hugh Wilson of WKRP in Cincinnati fame, it’s a rather inside-baseball kind of series, one where it helps immeasurably to have a working knowledge of show business to fully appreciate all of the jokes, but Jon Cryer delivers a great performance as Teddy Zakalokis, the “kid” who starts in the mailroom of a major Hollywood firm and almost immediately stumbles into a gig as an agent, Jane Sibbett is great playing against Cryer, and Rocco is typically hilarious as Al Floss, one of the senior agents and the one who’s invariably the most frustrated about this young upstart coming in out of nowhere and getting clients.
It had been years since I’d seen The Famous Teddy Z, so I was psyched when I saw that it had arrived on Crackle. When it first showed up, all of the episodes weren’t on there, but now there are 19 of them. Mind you, they’re on there in a really weird way: the series only ran for one season, but Crackle has the episodes listed as two seasons, and some of the episode titles they have listed aren’t right, although their descriptions do correspond to actual episodes.
Anyway, I’m not really complaining, because I’m too happy to have the opportunity to revisit the show.
Check out The Famous Teddy Z by clicking right here…or else watch the credits below and decide if you think it might be something you’d enjoy. But since Crackle’s free, what’s it really gonna cost you to just click and watch the pilot?