The Nutt House is an American sitcom television series that aired for five episodes on NBC from September 20 to October 25, 1989.[1]
The Nutt House was the creation of executive producers Mel Brooks and Alan Spencer and was a broad farce about a once-prestigious New York City hotel, which had of late fallen on hard times, due in part to it being named for the proprietress, Edwina Nutt (Cloris Leachman). Other characters included manager Reginald Tarkington (Harvey Korman), and head of housekeeping Ms. Frick (also portrayed by Leachman). Frick appeared in every episode, Mrs. Nutt only in the pilot.
The Nutt House was a broad satire, described by cast member Molly Hagan as "Police Squad! meets Fawlty Towers"[2]. The main storyline for each and every episode was periodically interrupted by short, unrelated, often surreal gags. Its audience was quite a narrow one, and it was cancelled within 6 weeks of its premiere. However, all 11 of the produced episodes were broadcast on BBC 2 in the United Kingdom, where it became a moderate success being shown on Saturday evening following Clive James' Saturday Night Clive. Brooks appeared on this program to promote the first episode of The Nutt House on 14 October 1989. However, to the dismay of viewers, the BBC did not give the show a fixed airtime. Usually shown around 23.00 hours (but sometimes as late as 23.30), the final episode inexplicably aired at 19.30 on 16 December 1989.