240-Robert

I've been terribly busy the last few days, and haven't had much time to blog. To make it up to you, I'm working on quite an elaborate blog post that maybe I'll have finished by this time tomorrow. However, I feel I have to post something, so here's a preview of "next week's" episode of 240-ROBERT.

I was a big fan of this ABC hour series, which ran only a couple of (very short) seasons. Basically a ripoff of NBC's EMERGENCY! and CHIPS, 240-ROBERT starred a young Mark Harmon and John Bennett Perry as a search and rescue team that covered the Los Angeles area on the ground and Joanna Cassidy as their colleague in the air, a rescue chopper pilot. The CHIPS similarities should come as no surprise, considering 240-ROBERT's creator was CHIPS executive producer Rick Rosner.

Here's the preview for "Out of Sight," which aired October 15, 1979. And what an action-packed episode: a high-rise rescue, two car crashes, hysterical blindness and an exploding gas station!



Harvey Lembeck ("Why me all the time?") is the guest star in that clip. 240-ROBERT lasted only 16 episodes, but Harmon went on to television success on FLAMINGO ROAD and, especially, ST. ELSEWHERE. Perry is perhaps more interesting because of his more famous son: actor Matthew Perry of FRIENDS and STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP. Matthew actually appeared as a child on a 240-ROBERT episode, and later returned Dad's favor by casting John in a FRIENDS, a SCRUBS that he directed, and in his film FOOLS RUSH IN. If I remember correctly (and it's not a movie that tends to stay with you after it's over), they did play father and son in FOOLS RUSH IN.