Tucker's Witch

Tucker's Witch is a comedy-detective series that aired on CBS television from October 6, 1982, to November 10, 1982, and again sporadically from March 31 to June 9, 1983. It starred Tim Matheson and Catherine Hicks as a charming married couple, Rick and Amanda Tucker, who own and operate their private detective agency in Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles. Amanda possesses psychic powers, which is an asset in solving cases but also tends to get the pair into various troubles.[1]

Tucker's Witch
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)
George Kahn (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)

Pilot

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

However, over the summer of 1982 the film Porky's debuted in the United States. The film contained a notably racy scene with Cattrall, and received negative critical attention overall, despite its box office success. CBS suddenly demanded that Cattrall be let go from the series, and that the pilot be reshot with a new female lead.[2][3] Catherine Hicks replaced Kim Cattrall, and the whole cast and even the show's title changed: Tim Matheson came in for Art Hindle (Hindle had also played a small role in Porky's), and the show was retitled Tucker's Witch. The original pilot was never aired, however it is now available on Amazon Prime along with the rest of the short lived series.

In a 1986 interview with the Toronto Star, Hindle told reporter Rita Zekas the following regarding 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.[4]

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.[5]

In later rebroadcasts on the USA Network, the program was retitled The Good Witch of Laurel Canyon—the series' originally-intended title.[6]

The show was produced by Hill-Mandelker Films.

Cast

US TV Ratings
Season Episodes Start Date End Date Nielsen Rank Nielsen Rating Tied With
1982-83 12 October 6, 1982 June 9, 1983 78[7] 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 1982 premiere episode during the same season he began playing bartender Sam Malone on Cheers.[8][9] Danson first was seen as Sam Malone on the September 30th premiere episode of Cheers and then seen on Tucker's Witch on October 6, six days later.[10] The better known guest stars in Tucker's Witch included Barry Corbin, Simon Oakland, Joe Penny and Noble Willingham.[11]

#EpisodeRelease Date
1The Good Witch of Laurel CanyonOctober 6
2Big MouthOctober 13
3The Corpse Who Knew Too MuchOctober 20
4The Curse of the Toltec Death MaskOctober 27
5Terminal CaseNovember 3
6Abra-CadaverNovember 10
7Dye JobMarch 31
8Psyche OutApril 7
9Rock Is a Hard PlaceApril 14
10Formula for RevengeApril 28
11Living and Presumed DeadMay 5
12Murder Is the Key[11]June 9

Releases

The entire series, including the unaired first pilot, is available for purchase through the Amazon Prime streaming service.

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)
  3. Jicha, Tom (September 21, 2003). "Long before Sex and the City, Cattrall was the victim of one of the most childish episodes in TV history. In the spring of 1982, she was cast to star in a CBS fall series called The Good Witch of Laurel Canyon. That summer Porky's featured Cattrall's racy scene in the gym. Nowadays, a network would do contortions to get a star like that on the air. Back then, the CBS brass ordered the series reshot with a new female lead, which turned out to be Catherine Hicks. It also was retitled Tucker's Witch. The show quickly cratered". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. p. 42.
  4. 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.
  5. 1982-1983 American network television schedule
  7. 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. 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)
  10. 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)
  11. "Tucker's Witch Episodes listing". IMDB.com. Retrieved 2015-07-29.
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