Something Wilder was a Syndication network sitcom starring actor Gene Wilder that was created by Lee Kalcheim and Barnett Kellman.
The series premiered on October 1, 1994 and the rest of the cast consisted of Hillary Bailey Smith, Ian Bottiglieri, Carl Michael Lindner, Gregory Itzin, Jake Weber, Cleavant Derricks and Raegan Kotz.
The series premiere was delayed by a few weeks in the fall of 1994 due to casting issues.
Jennifer Grey had originally won the role of Annie Bergman, and shot the first pilot; test audiences, however, disapproved of the age difference between her and Wilder. Grey was let go, but the search for her replacement proved more challenging than expected.
Almost down to the wire, NBC was then able to snag acclaimed daytime soap actress and current "One Life to Live" star Hillary Bailey Smith in for the role. Smith continued in her role as D.A. Nora Gannon on "One Life to Live" sporadically during the run of this series (despite the fact that OLTL was on a competing network, ABC), and resumed it full-time when "Something Wilder" was canceled.
After "Something Wilder" finally premiered on October 1, 1994, on Saturday evenings, but due to lackluster ratings, NBC pulled the show after only four episodes had aired and it was relaunched in December in a new Tuesday night slot.
The series continued steadily for another three months, but it didn't do any better in the ratings and by March of 1995, the network dropped the show from its line-up and cancelled it not long after.
One more original episode turned up in the same Tuesday time slot on June 13, 1995 with three unaired episodes remaining.
Cast[]
- Gene Wilder as Gene Bergman
- Hillary B. Smith as Annie Bergman
- Ian Bottiglieri as Gabe
- Carl Michael Lindner as Sam
- Gregory Itzin as Jack Travis
- Jake Weber as Richie Wainwright
- Raegan Kotz as Katy
- Cleavant Derricks as Caleb