When you hear the name "David Cassidy," you might think of the television series that bore his name: "David Cassidy: Man Undercover" which briefly had him doing detective work around Los Angeles.
But what you'd more likely think of was a sitcom titled "The Partridge Family," where David's actual stepmom, Shirley Jones, played his mom and the "Family" sang a bunch of songs, one of which, "I Think I Love You," actually hit Number One on the Billboard Hot 100.
What you'd probably NEVER think of is THIS: "Ask Harriet."
The year was 1998. Mr. Cassidy was creating a new sitcom with Jonathan Prince, who played the boss to the Diana Canova character on the record label sitcom, "Throb".
The brilliant concept these guys came up with was this: Obnoxious, chauvinistic sportswriter (Anthony Tyler Quinn) named Jack Cody (and was that name a slam of, or maybe tribute to, David's late father, Jack Cassidy?) gets canned from his newspaper job by his ex-girlfriend Melissa (Lisa Waltz).
Instead of slinking away into the darkness, he comes back to apply for the job of advice columnist, but, of course, he can't show up as "himself," so, he goes in drag as a woman named Sylvia Coco. Where's "Harriet?" That's just the byline for the column in the paper.
Of course, Sylvia is accepted and completely convincing as "her" self to everyone in this newspaper office, which creates all sorts of comedic mayhem and even fools Melissa into thinking she's found a new, wonderful friend.
The parallels to the Robin Williams/Sally Field film "Mrs. Doubtfire" are pretty obvious, as "Sylvia" has to keep the charade going in order to keep her job and stay close to Melissa, hoping to win her back. Willie Garson played a pal who was in on the secret, and there was an issue of attraction to Sylvia in the office, leading to more wacky circumstances, notably coming from the owner/publisher of the paper, Ed Asner, who didn't get used nearly enough for this to be a success.
Damien Leake's role on the show was a homeless man who camps out in front of the newspaper offices and who seems to be a Zen Master and kind of Greek Chorus for the characters. Does knowing that help or hurt the concept?
A show like this would be dead in the water, now. Drag queens are seen as "groomers" and harmful by some (especially since Jack had a young daughter played by Jamie Renée Smith).
New York plays a part because Jack... er, Sylvia needed a wardrobe and cosmetics and there's no place like the fashion capital of the nation to find stilettos that fit a size 10 foot, and to get a wig that looked like real tresses.
Also, they tried to dress up Sylvia in as many frocks as Fran Drescher was wearing on "The Nanny," which made me wonder where Jack got the budget on his advice column salary to swing that. Really, the production stills for this show are funnier than the sitcom dialog!
David Cassidy's one on-screen claim to fame as a connection to this show was singing the theme song. Unfortunately, for him, audiences of the day were saying, "I Think I Don't Love You," to "Ask Harriet."
