When Things Were Rotten

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When Things Were Rotten
Robin Hood and his Merry Men
Genre	Parody Sitcom Adventure
Created by	Mel Brooks Norman Stiles
Starring	Dick Gautier Dick Van Patten Bernie Kopell Richard Dimitri Henry Polic II Misty Rowe David Sabin Ron Rifkin
Composer	Artie Butler
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13
Production
Producers	Mel Brooks Stanley Jacob
Running time	30 minutes
Production companies	Crossbow Productions Paramount Television
Distributor	CBS Television Distribution
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	September 10 – December 3, 1975 (1975-12-03)

When Things Were Rotten is an American sitcom television series created in 1975 by Mel Brooks^[1] and aired for half a season by ABC.^[2]

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 the handsome and heroic Robin Hood. The remaining series regulars included Dick Van Patten as the pious but feisty Friar Tuck, Bernie Kopell (another Get Smart veteran) as the smooth-talking sentimental jokester Alan-a-Dale, Misty Rowe as the deceptively ditzy-looking blonde Maid Marian, and David Sabin as the mighty Little John, with Ron Rifkin as the childishly petty tyrant Prince John and Henry Polic II as Hubert, the wicked, black-clad Sheriff of Nottingham. Richard Dimitri played a dual role as identical twin brothers: Bertram, the Sheriff's snooty and sniveling right-hand man, and Renaldo, a stereotypical Latino member of the Merry Men who had been stolen as a baby by Gypsies.

Brooks again spoofed the Robin Hood legend in his 1993 film Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

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 several episodes the Sheriff was shown to be literally barking mad, angrily yelling something only to be told that he had used no words in the sentence. In another episode, the Sheriff asked Bertram 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."

Breaking of the fourth wall often occurred. In many episodes Alan-a-Dale would turn to the camera to proudly proclaim to the audience what a truly unequaled hero Robin was like a typical Hollywood press agent, and in one episode Renaldo was being interrogated and pleaded his innocence, and when an accuser asked, "Are you ready to tell that to your maker?", Renaldo looks off-camera and says, "Mel! I'm innocent!"

Much of the humor was anachronistic, such as the occasion where Marian's ladies-in-waiting burst into the 1960s Supremes hit song "Stop! In the Name of Love". When the Rock of Gibraltar had been destroyed, 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", and when King Richard the Lionhearted comes ashore after returning from the Crusades and reaches an American baseball-style home base, an umpire cries out "Safe!", causing the Sheriff of Nottingham to shout, "Kill the umpire!"

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!"

Cast[]

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 forgotten
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[]

Despite critical acclaim, the series failed to find an audience and was cancelled after 13 episodes, with The Bionic Woman being its midseason replacement, which was a great success.^[3] Eighteen years later, Brooks produced another Robin Hood parody, the feature film Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Van Patten also appeared in that film as an abbot. Van Patten and Kopell moved on to more successful and long-running series — Eight is Enough and The Love Boat, respectively. Rifkin would eventually become best known as Arvin Sloane on Alias.

Home video[]

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.^[4]

Episodes[]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to When Things Were Rotten.

• When Things Were Rotten at IMDb