The Corner Bar

The Corner Bar
Gabriel Dell as Harry Grant, 1972
Genre	Sitcom
Written by	Norman Barasch
Directed by	Peter Baldwin Rick Edelstein
Starring	Gabriel Dell Anne Meara Eugene Roche J. J. Barry Shimen Ruskin Bill Fiore
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	16
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	Alan King Productions
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	June 21, 1972 (1972-06-21) – September 7, 1973 (1973-09-07)
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The Corner Bar is an American television sitcom that aired as a summer-replacement series on ABC from June 21, 1972, to September 7, 1973.

The show, created by comedian Alan King and veteran comedy writer Herb Sargent, was co-produced by King and comedian Howard Morris. The center of activity is a New York City tavern called Grant's Toomb [sic]. The series is notable for its inclusion of the first recurring gay character on American television.^[1][2]

The show's producer, comedian Alan King, videotaped 10 half-hour episodes before live audiences, to be aired as a Wednesday-night summer-replacement series in 1972. Customarily, a summer series would return the following January as a mid-season replacement, but The Corner Bar did not return until the following summer, and then as a Friday-night miniseries.

Gabriel Dell, originally a member of the Dead End Kids, starred as affable New York bartender Harry Grant. Grant presided over a motley crew of staff members and regular customers: sad-sack 65-year-old waiter Meyer Shapiro (Shimen Ruskin), cook Joe (Joe Keyes, Jr.), kooky waitress Mary Ann (Langhorne Scruggs), tipsy executive Phil Bracken (Bill Fiore), roughneck cab driver Fred Costello (J.J. Barry), and flamboyantly gay designer Pete Panama (Vincent Schiavelli), "a dead ringer for Tiny Tim in manner and dress," according to columnist Kay Gardella.^[3] The building was owned by landlady Jennifer Bradley (Anne Meara).

The show was taped in New York City, much to native New Yorker Gabe Dell's regret: his dressing room was robbed while the cast was before the cameras. "We're off to a good start," grumbled Dell. "I'm missing my address book and wallet. If we were making the series in Hollywood this would never have happened. Why we're making the series here I don't know. I was a dedicated New Yorker once myself."^[4] Dell remarked that the name of the corner bar was supposed to be Grant's Tomb, but the sign painter misspelled it "Toomb." Dell offered to "let it ride", reasoning that a small businessman in the same position would just shrug it off.