Turnabout (partially lost NBC sitcom; 1979)

Series title featured in the introduction sequence.

Status: Partially Lost

Turnabout was a short-lived American sitcom created by Steven Bochco and Michael Rhodes that aired on NBC from January 26th, 1979, to March 30th of the same year. It was based on the 1931 novel of the same name by Thorne Smith, also adapted into a film in 1940.

Premise

The cast, clockwise from top left: Geoffrey St. James, Sam Alston, Penny Alston, Al Brennan, Judy Overmeyer, and Jack Overmeyer.

Married couple Sam (John Schuck) and Penny (Sharon Gless) both envy the other’s life; he’s a sportswriter, she’s a cosmetics executive. After Penny purchases a Buddha-like statue with magical powers, that night she wishes that they could change places with each other. The next morning, they discover that that wish has come true: they’ve switched places, but Sam is now in Penny’s body, and Penny is in his. The two try to live each other’s lives without anyone else finding out - confusing both her boss, Geoffrey St. James, and his boss, Al Brennan - in the process. The couple’s neighbours, the Overmeyers, are equally perplexed by the notable changes. Throughout all of this, the husband and wife try to discover how to reactivate the statue, so they can switch back to normal.

Reception

The series was one of 36 new shows released by the three major networks (NBC, CBS, ABC) during the infamous TV mid-season of 1979. It lasted 7 episodes, before being cancelled due to poor ratings.^[1]^[2] This was in part due to airing after the poorly rated Hello, Larry, and competing with CBS hit Dallas.

Avaliability

Out of the 7 produced episodes, 5 are available online, albeit in poor quality. Copies of every episode are currently held at the UCLA Film and Television Archive,^[3] but have not been released publicly.

Episodes

#	Episode Title	Air Date	Status	Notes
1	Turnabout (1 2)	Jan 26th, 1979	Found	No notes.
2	Penny’s Old Boyfriend	Feb 2nd, 1979	Found
3	We’re a Little Late, Folks	Feb 9th, 1979	Found
4	Cry Me a Touchdown	Feb 16th, 1979	Partially Lost
5	Til Dad Do Us Part	Mar 9th, 1979	Found
6	Crass Reunion	Mar 23rd, 1979	Lost
7	Statutory Theft	Mar 30th, 1979	Partially Found	Clips from this episode can be found on The Magic Statue.

TV Movie

“Turnabout”, “Penny’s Old Boyfriend”, “Till Dad Do Us Part”, and “Statutory Theft” were later re-cut and compiled in 1981 into a single TV Movie, titled The Magic Statue. Notable changes between the movie and TV series include an added voiceover for the statue, additional bridging segments, and the removal of the laugh track.

On September 30th, 2021, the full movie was discovered on a private tracker. 4 days later, the movie was uploaded to Youtube in its entirety by LMW user Toastghost.