When Things Were Rotten
When Things Were Rotten is an American sitcom television series created in 1975 by Mel Brooks and set in 1197 as a parody of the Robin Hood legend. It aired for half a season on the ABC network. The series starred Dick Gautier (who earlier had played Hymie the Robot in Brooks' Get Smart series) as the handsome and heroic Robin Hood.
| When Things Were Rotten | |
|---|---|
Robin Hood and his Merry Men | |
| Genre | Parody Sitcom Adventure |
| Created by | Mel Brooks Norman Stiles John Boni |
| 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 Norman Steinberg |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production companies | Crossbow Productions Paramount Television |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | September 10 – December 3, 1975 |
The series received mostly critical acclaim, though John Leonard wrote that watching it was "like being locked inside a package of bubblegum where the only card is Alvin Dark." It failed to find an audience and was cancelled after 13 episodes. The Bionic Woman was its midseason replacement, and became a great success. Eighteen years later, Brooks produced another Robin Hood parody, the feature film Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
The complete series was released on DVD in 2013 as a manufactured-on-demand item exclusively available on Amazon.com's CreateSpace.