Shirley's World - The Complete Series [DVD] [1971]

Just about all of the ITC Entertainment programmes were fabulous but this is possibly the weakest of the lot. However there are some good points that make it worth investigating.

ITC Entertainment had been successful through the end of the 1950s and the whole of the 1960s with shows such as "The Adventures of Robin Hood", "Ghost Squad", "The Saint". "Danger Man", "Gideons way", "The Baron", "The Prisoner", "Department S", "man in a suitcase", " Randall and Hopkirk" and "Strange Report". They had all been adventure based. In 1969 ITC experimented in comedy with a series called "From a Birds eye view".
The series had a helping hand from American actor and producer Sheldon Leonard as Executive Producer. The show had starred Actress and comedienne Millicent Martin as Millie, and American actress Patte Finley as Maggie, with Peter Jones as their boss. It was a comedy series about two air stewardesses. This show had copied the successful formula of having Anglo American ingredients. But it had only been a moderate success.

Shirley's World was a second attempt at producing a comedy show that would appeal to both an American and British audience.
Once again it featured Sheldon Leonard as Executive Producer. This time Shirley's world starred Shirley Maclaine and John Gregson. (Who had starred in another ITC show called Gideons Way)
To date it is the only time Shirley Maclaine has appeared in a TV show. She plays Shirley, a globetrotting photojournalist for a glossy Magazine. Her boss is London editor Dennis Croft. They work at "World illustrated magazines"
Shirley gets into all sorts of problems trying to get her photos and her story. She helps people along the way and gets them and herself out of trouble. There is a light and gentle feel to the programme.

British composer Laurie Johnson who had been successful with other TV shows such as The Avengers composed the music for the show.

The premise of the show is a good one. The other good thing about watching it now 40 years later is that there is a lot of location shots around London England and the show has an atmosphere of the early 1970s when the show was made. Also there are a lot of other international location shots. The series also has some impressive guest appearances. These include Ron Moody, Brian Blessed, Dandy Nichols, Stuart Damon, Joss Ackland and Burt Kwouk.

Just about everything about the show should work. The cast is strong, the premise is good and it has a lighthearted feel to it. But it doesn't work as well as it should. This is because it is trying to be a comedy without any real laughs.
It is more like a very light weight set of humorous dramas. The comedy just is not there and the stories seem a bit silly as a serious drama. It is neither a comedy nor serious drama. I think the problem rests with the writers that have not injected any real laughs.

Other ITC shows had worked because they were British shows with very British factors. They just simply copied the stronger American production values. With this show, everything feels American. There are location shots both in London England and International but this doesn't stop the show feeling like its in America. Shirley is obviously American but even her editor (who is English) seems more like I would have expected an American editor to be. The production editing mirrors American comedy shows of the 70s like "The Mary Tyler Moore show" or better still the later "Rhoda" and countless others.
There is nothing wrong with this but I can see how some people may feel it is a bit disjointed. I feel that the American and British elements together are what gives the show a uniqueness and it is not a bad thing.

The show was a massive flop and it is generally regarded as a failure. However it is entertaining as a set of dramas and it has nostalgic interest.
This show is not as bad as some people would have us believe despite its weaknesses.
Generally speaking this is a reasonably good lightweight harmless set of fun dramas.

After years of knowing who Shirley MacLaine is yet relating to her as an afterthought (if at all), I've recently become smitten with the young SM, probably because I realize the most passionate women I've met were often both smart and a little off-center. Anyway, that's the only reason I bothered purchasing this series -- well, that and the fact that it's a bit of a novelty to see SM sporting her own hair in something other than a bob. This show, in as much as it's remembered by anyone, has a horrid reputation in America and there's no doubt a handful of the episodes are flat awful. But on the whole this isn't as bad as I was expecting. The problem I see is it's a comedy/adventure show that can't figure out when it should be funny or when it should be adventurous, so often it's neither. It's also badly edited, but that might just be an early-'70s TV thing. What it has going for it are foreign locales (to a Yank) and Shirley. And the fact that it's not "John Goldfarb, Please Come Home", which is even worse.