Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Acting Sheriff, which aired on CBS in 1991.  The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

Who is Brent McCord?

Why, he’s the acting sheriff!

Episode 1.1 “Pilot”

(Dir by Michael Lembeck, originally aired on August 17th, 1991)

At a small country jail in North Carolina, the staff is waiting the arrival of the new sheriff.

Dispatcher Helen Munson (Ruth Kobart) is grumpy and sarcastic, as all older characters were required to be in 1990s sitcoms.

Deputy Judith Mahoney (Diane Delano) is a blonde badass who can’t wait to enforce the law and lock up every criminal that she sees, despite the fact that there aren’t many criminals to be found in this small, rural county.

Deputy Mike Swanson (John Putch) is the smart, responsible deputy who ran for sheriff in the last election but lost, despite his years of hard work and his likability.

Who is the new sheriff?  Why, he’s Brent McCord (Robert Goulet), a former Hollywood star who went from starring in films like Get Al Capone and A Fistful of Courage to appearing in books with titles like Where Are They Now?  Brent once was a huge star but, after several failed television shows and a handful of divorces, he has returned home and …. run for sheriff, for some reason.

When he does show up at the jail, Brent swaggers around like John Wayne and says things like, “Is the slime infecting the streets waiting for me?”  Brent McCord doesn’t know anything about being a county sheriff but he does know how to act like a character in a movie.  He walks into the station, draws his gun, and accidentally fires it.

Deputy District Attorney Donna Singer (Hilary B. Smith) is not happy about the new sheriff.  She tells him that, “Someone should put a tent over you and charge admission!”  She’s even less happy when a banker robber (Lee Tergesen) escapes from the jail, largely due to the sheriff’s incompetence.  Fortunately, Deputy Mike remembers a scene from Get Al Capone where McCord’s character recaptured a bank robber by leaving more money around for him to steal.  Following the same strategy, Mike recaptures the bank robber but he allows Sheriff McCord to have all the credit.  Mike’s a good guy who doesn’t hold a grudge over a silly thing like losing an election to a B-actor.

This pilot, which was produced by Disney for CBS, aired once and that was it.  It didn’t lead to anymore episodes and, watching the pilot, it’s easy to see why.  The pilot struggles to combine the relatively realistic portrayal of a county jail with the over-the-top performance of Robert Goulet.  Occasionally, Goulet will get a laugh by delivering his pompous lines in the most self-serious manner possible.  But, far too often, the character is so cartoonish that the other actors don’t seem to know how to keep up with Goulet’s hammy performance.  (At times, Goulet seems to be copying William Shatner’s technique without any of Shatner’s charm.)  Probably the biggest problem is that pilot fails to answer the most obvious question that one would have while watching the show.  Why did Brent McCord run for sheriff?  Does he want to do a good job or was he just bored?  Does he care about the county or did he just want to see his name in the newspapers?  Is he well-intentioned or just buffoonish?  The pilot doesn’t seem to know and, as a result, audiences would never find out.