Car 54 Where Are You was a must-see TV show for us. The equine features of lanky, lugubrious Fred Gwynne as Muldoon (later to be Herman Munster) and the excited staccato bellowing of Joe E Ross as Toody were always welcome. Throw in Beatrice Pons as Toody's hysterical and piercing wife and the wonderful Al Lewis (Grandpa Munster) as Officer Schnauser, and how could it fail? Written and conceived by Bilko creator Nat Hiken, it only ran for two years, but, thanks to Channel 4 in the 1980s and Bravo and Sky 1 in the 1990s, I was able to build up an entire set of episodes, bar one. Now, the whole shebang is being put out on DVD in February, and should I inexplicably win the lottery, which I never enter, I shall immediately buy everyone a copy so they can enjoy this mild-mannered friendly dig at New York's finest.
All together now-
"There's a hold-up in the Bronx
Brooklyn's broken out in fights
There's a traffic jam in Harlem that's backed up to Jackson Heights,
There's a Scout troupe short a child,
Kruschev's due at Idelweild...!"
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