Supposedly creators Abe Burrows and TV Guide critic Cleveland Amory contrived to scientifically design a situation comedy that would be perfect, but their calculations were way off the mark.
Often the characters Burl Ives played were of the friendly bumbling sort that Edgar Buchanan might play, but clearly here he is coming from the "Big Daddy" persona from "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" He's supposedly the richest man in the world, an Oklahoma Oil baron. He's not a lovable, masculine version of Auntie Mame, more like an arrogant, intimidating ignoramus like Donald Trump. He buys a supposedly super luxury hotel to live in and the series pretty much never leaves the woefully unluxurious sets representing it. He purportedly has just left the oil patch to now break into high society, but it seems more like he wants to break high society, using money to buy in, or to destroy anyone who disagrees with him. He has a far off location with a computer that knows who owns what, and how he might take it from them, like a comic book supervillian. He's devoid of a sense of humor. He's scary. He's stupid, too. The worst part is, most all the time, his tactics pay off- The bully wins. I don't know what it's supposed to say, unless it's that self-made capitalists are immoral. No wonder it was killed off in mid season.
Often the characters Burl Ives played were of the friendly bumbling sort that Edgar Buchanan might play, but clearly here he is coming from the "Big Daddy" persona from "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" He's supposedly the richest man in the world, an Oklahoma Oil baron. He's not a lovable, masculine version of Auntie Mame, more like an arrogant, intimidating ignoramus like Donald Trump. He buys a supposedly super luxury hotel to live in and the series pretty much never leaves the woefully unluxurious sets representing it. He purportedly has just left the oil patch to now break into high society, but it seems more like he wants to break high society, using money to buy in, or to destroy anyone who disagrees with him. He has a far off location with a computer that knows who owns what, and how he might take it from them, like a comic book supervillian. He's devoid of a sense of humor. He's scary. He's stupid, too. The worst part is, most all the time, his tactics pay off- The bully wins. I don't know what it's supposed to say, unless it's that self-made capitalists are immoral. No wonder it was killed off in mid season.