Mr. Terrific (TV series)

Mr. Terrific
Genre	Sitcom
Directed by	Byron Chudnow Arthur Lubin Jack Arnold
Starring	Stephen Strimpell Dick Gautier Paul Smith John McGiver
Voices of	Paul Frees
Theme music composer	Gerald Fried
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	17
Production
Executive producer(s)	Jack Arnold
Producer(s)	Budd Grossman
Running time	25 mins.
Production company(s)	Universal Television
Distributor	Universal City Studios
Release
Original network	CBS Television
Original release	January 9, 1967 – August 28, 1967

Mr. Terrific is an American TV sitcom that aired on CBS Television from January 9 to May 8, 1967. It starred Stephen Strimpell in the title role, and lasted 17 episodes. The show was similar to NBC's Captain Nice, which followed Mister Terrific on Monday nights during its run.

Riding the tide of the camp superhero craze of the 1960s, the show's premise involved gas station attendant Stanley Beamish (Strimpell), a mild-mannered scrawny youth who secretly worked to fight crime for a government organization, "The Bureau of Secret Projects," in Washington. All he needed to do was to take a "power pill" which gave him the strength of a thousand men and enabled him to fly, much like Superman, albeit by furious flapping while wearing the top half of a wingsuit. To the often-lamented misfortune of the Bureau of Secret Projects, he was the only person on whom the pills worked. It was established that, although the pill would give him high strength levels, he was still vulnerable to bullets. Furthermore, each power pill had a time limit of one hour (like Underdog and DC Comics's Hourman), although he generally had two 10-minute booster pills available per episode. Much of the show's humor revolved around the tendency of the amiable yet gullible Beamish to lose Mr. Terrific's powers at inopportune times, before he completed his given assignment.

Beamish's government employers were Mr. Barton J. Reed and Mr. Harley Trent, and his day-job partner at the service station was Hal Walters. Beamish was sworn to secrecy concerning his alter-ego and super-powers.

Alan Young, who had just completed his run as Wilbur Post on Mister Ed, was the original choice to play Stanley Beamish, and appeared in the original 1966 unaired version of the pilot, which featured a different supporting cast (Edward Andrews as The Chief, All Checco as Dr. Kramer, Dick Merrifield as Tony Lawrence, Sheilah Wells as Gloria Dickinson, and Jesse White as Mr. Finney).

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