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Jack Somack

Jack Somack

Acting

Known For

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7.0

Ball Four is a 1976 American situation comedy that aired on CBS in 1976. The series is inspired by the 1970 book of the same name by Jim Bouton. Bouton co-created the show with humorist and television critic Marvin Kitman and sportswriter Vic Ziegel. Bouton also starred in the series. Ball Four followed the Washington Americans, a fictitious minor league baseball team, dealing with the fallout from a series of Sports Illustrated articles written by Americans player Jim Barton. Like the book, the series covered controversial subjects including womanizing players, drug use, homosexuality in sports and religion. The series included a gay rookie ballplayer, one of the earliest regular gay characters on television. The trio began developing the series in 1975, looking to other series like M*A*S*H and All in the Family as models. CBS expressed interest and the creative team developed a script. CBS shot the pilot episode and ultimately bought the series. Ball Four aired at 8:30 PM Eastern time, which was during the Family Viewing Hour, an FCC-mandated hour of early evening "family-friendly" broadcasting. Consequently the writers had some trouble with the network's Standards and Practices in their attempt to portray realistic locker room scenes, especially the language used by the players. Pseudo-profanity such as "bullpimp" was disallowed, while "horse-crock" and "bullhorse" were approved.

Ball Four

1976Series
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6.0

Getting Together is an American musical situation comedy, which aired on the ABC television network during the 1971-72 season. It stars Bobby Sherman and Wes Stern as Bobby Conway and Lionel Poindexter, a songwriting duo. The pilot for the series had aired the previous spring the first season finale episode of The Partridge Family named "A Knight in Shining Armor", where Lionel and Bobby were introduced to each other by the Partridges. Sherman and Stern's characters were reportedly based on the real-life songwriting team of Boyce and Hart, who had written hits for The Monkees, Jay and the Americans, and others. New music of course was a staple of the series, provided by much of the same team that created the Partridge Family songs and records. Most of these songs were from two Bobby Sherman albums -- Getting Together and Just For You.

Getting Together

1971Series