Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (TV series)

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice was of necessity somewhat different from the R-rated movie upon which it was based. The film involved sexual liberation, and featured the (short-lived) desire of the two title couples to engage in extra-marital affairs, mate-swapping and group sex, all of which would have been obviously unacceptable on U.S. broadcast television in 1973. Instead, it made do with plots which were attempts at titillation by the broadcast standards of the time, but which stood a chance of surviving the censors at the network's Division of Standards and Practices.

These included skinny dipping, premarital sex, and unmarried couples cohabiting, which were still thought by many to be racy topics for network television at the time. As with the film, Ted and Alice Henderson were more conservative than the "liberated" Bob and Carol Sanders. No members of the original film cast reprised their roles in the series.

Scheduled opposite CBS's Top 10 hit The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour and NBC's Top 30 hit Adam-12, the series earned very low Nielsen ratings, and was canceled less than two months after its premiere.

The show is perhaps best remembered for featuring a then eleven-year-old Jodie Foster as Ted and Alice's daughter. (This differed from the movie version where the characters had a son.)

• Robert Urich as Bob Sanders
• Anne Archer as Carol Sanders
• David Spielberg as Ted Henderson
• Anita Gillette as Alice Henderson
• Brad Savage as Sean Sanders
• Jodie Foster as Elizabeth Henderson

*These episodes finally appeared on USA Cable Network, with the rest of the series, in 1984.

• Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows

• Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice at IMDb