Tucker's Witch

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tucker's Witch
Catherine hicks tucker's witch.jpg
StarringTim Matheson
Catherine Hicks
Theme music composerBrad Fiedel
Opening themeBrad Fiedel
Ending themeBrad Fiedel
ComposersBrad 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)
(co-composer on episodes 1.11, 1.12)
Country of originUnited States
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes12 (pilot not aired)
Production
Running time60 minutes
Production companyHill/Mandelker Films
Release
Original networkCBS
Picture formatColor
Original releaseOctober 6, 1982 (1982-10-06) –
June 9, 1983 (1983-06-09)

Tucker's Witch is a comedy-detective series that aired on CBS television from October 6 to November 10, 1982, and again sporadically from March 31 to June 9, 1983. It stars Tim Matheson and Catherine Hicks as a charming married couple, Rick and Amanda Tucker, who own and operate a private detective agency in Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles. Amanda possesses psychic powers that help the agency solve cases but sometimes lead the couple into trouble.[1]

Pilot[]

The show's pilot was first filmed in early 1982 as The Good Witch of Laurel Canyon and starred Art Hindle and Kim Cattrall. In May 1982, CBS announced that the series had been picked up with that title and cast.

However, Cattrall's racy scene in the 1982 film Porky's caused CBS to demand her replacement.[2][3] The show was retitled Tucker's Witch and the pilot was reshot with a new cast; Catherine Hicks replaced Cattrall and Tim Matheson was cast in Hindle's role (Hindle had also played a small role in Porky's). The original pilot never aired, but it is now available on the Amazon-owned IMDb TV streaming service along with the show's other episodes.[4]

In a 1986 interview with the Toronto Star, Hindle spoke of his and Cattrall's departures from the series:

All the networks show these pilots to members of the public they pick up on the street and they put push-button responses in their hands. They respond to whether they like the character, don't like the character; or they like the story, don't like the story; like the scene, don't like the scene. She (Cattrall) she didn't do too well with these reponses [sic] so they replaced her. And then I just walked. I had other things to do and I didn't really want to get involved with something they were going to start pulling strings all the time.[5]

Broadcast history[]

Tucker's Witch aired at 10 p.m. Eastern on Wednesdays in its first run, and proved unable to compete with ABC's Dynasty and NBC's Quincy, M.E.. The show was placed on hiatus after six episodes had aired; months later, it was brought back to burn off the remaining episodes. The program was switched to Thursday for the second half of its run.[6]

In later rebroadcasts on the USA Network, the program was retitled The Good Witch of Laurel Canyon, the series' original title.[7]

The show was produced by Hill-Mandelker Films.

Cast[]

Ratings[]

Season Episodes Start Date End Date Nielsen Rank Nielsen Rating Tied With
1982-83 12 October 6, 1982 June 9, 1983 78[8] N/A N/A

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 premiere episode, which aired just one week after the premiere of Danson's Cheers.[9][10][11] Others Tucker's Witch guest stars included Barry Corbin, Simon Oakland, Joe Penny and Noble Willingham.[12]

# 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[12] June 9

Releases[]

The entire series, including the unaired first pilot, is available on the Amazon-owned IMDb TV streaming service.[4]

References[]

  1. ^ "Tucker's Witch, plot summary". IMDB.com. Retrieved 2015-07-29.
  2. ^ https://news.google.com/archivesearch?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tab=wn&q=In+1982,+she+was+in+the+pilot+for+a+detective+drama,+%22+Tucker%27s+Witch+.%22+CBS+recast+the. Retrieved October 31, 2008. Missing or empty |title= (help)[dead link]
  3. ^ Jicha, Tom (September 21, 2003). "Defending Regis and Kelly; searching for Hills". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. A/E & TV. p. 42.
  4. ^ a b "Watch Tucker's Witch | Prime Video". www.amazon.com. Retrieved 2021-07-24.
  5. ^ Toronto Star, Rita Zekas. "Blowing the lid off Covert Action." Toronto Star, The (Ontario, Canada), sec. ENTERTAINMENT, 1 Mar. 1986, p. F3. NewsBank: Access World News, infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AWNB&docref=news/10B992398E83F140. Accessed 13 Sept. 2020.
  6. ^ 1982-1983 American network television schedule
  7. ^ [1][dead link]
  8. ^ Lina. "The TV Ratings Guide: 1982-83 Ratings History -- Soap Bubbles Rise, Several Veterans Part and NBC Renews Poorly Rated Masterpieces". Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  9. ^ [2][dead link]
  10. ^ https://news.google.com/archivesearch?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tab=wn&q=CBS%27+Tucker%27s+Witch+series+during+the+same+season+he+began+pl+aying+bartender+Sam+Malone+on+Cheers. Retrieved October 31, 2008. Missing or empty |title= (help)[dead link]
  11. ^ https://news.google.com/archivesearch?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tab=wn&q=He+was+first+seen+as+Sam+Malone+on+the+Sept.+30+premiere+episode+of+Cheers.+Six+days+later,+on+Oct.+6,+he+had+his+ups+and+downs+on+the+first+Tucker%27s+Witch+. Retrieved October 31, 2008. Missing or empty |title= (help)[dead link]
  12. ^ a b "Tucker's Witch Episodes listing". IMDB.com. Retrieved 2015-07-29.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""