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When Things Were Rotten
Robin Hood and his Merry Men
Genre	Parody Sitcom Adventure
Created by	Mel Brooks Norman Stiles John Boni
Starring	Dick Gautier Dick Van Patten Bernie Kopell Richard Dimitri Henry Polic II Misty Rowe David Sabin Ron Rifkin
Composer	Artie Butler
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13
Production
Producers	Mel Brooks Stanley Jacob Norman Steinberg
Running time	30 minutes
Production companies	Crossbow Productions Paramount Television
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	September 10 (1975-09-10) – December 3, 1975 (1975-12-03)

When Things Were Rotten is an American sitcom television series created in 1975 by Mel Brooks and set in 1197 as a parody of the Robin Hood legend. It aired for half a season on the ABC network. The series starred Dick Gautier as the handsome and heroic Robin Hood.

The series received mostly critical acclaim, though John Leonard wrote that watching it was "like being locked inside a package of bubblegum where the only card is Alvin Dark." It failed to find an audience and was cancelled after 13 episodes. The Bionic Woman was its midseason replacement, and became a great success. Eighteen years later, Brooks produced another Robin Hood parody, the feature film Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

The complete series was released on DVD in 2013 as a manufactured-on-demand item exclusively available on Amazon.com's CreateSpace.

Cast

• Dick Gautier as Robin Hood
• Dick Van Patten as Friar Tuck
• Bernie Kopell as Alan-a-Dale
• Richard Dimitri as Bertram and Renaldo
• Henry Polic II as Hubert, the Sheriff of Nottingham
• Misty Rowe as Maid Marian
• David Sabin as Little John
• Ron Rifkin as Prince John

Episodes

References

1. John Clute and John Grant (1997). The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997). Orbit. ISBN 978-1-85723-368-1.
2. Frank DeCaro (19 July 2013). "Borscht Belt Sherwood Forest". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
3. See, for example, "Review," by Cleveland Amory, "When Things Were Rotten," TV Guide, December 13, 1975, p. 18
4. Leonard, John. "The Worst Television Season Ever, Ever, Ever," The New York Times, Sunday, October 26, 1975. Retrieved September 30, 2021
5. "The Bionic Woman (1976): Season 1". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2014-09-03.
6. DVD release info Archived 2015-01-05 at the Wayback Machine at TVShowsOnDVD.com

External links

• When Things Were Rotten at IMDb

• 1970s American sitcoms
• Television series set in the Middle Ages
• Robin Hood television series
• Television series by CBS Studios
• 1975 American television series debuts
• 1975 American television series endings
• Television series created by Mel Brooks
• American English-language television shows
• Television shows set in London
• Robin Hood parodies
• American Broadcasting Company sitcoms