"I'm looking for any information about a sitcom from the Sixties called "Hank" -- it ran about the same time as "Camp Runamuck."

"'Hank' followed the adventures of a college "drop-in," who used various disguises to get into classes. He supported his younger sister by selling books from his van.

"Just curious if anyone else remembers this short-lived but wonderful show." - Cindy Wagner

We get a lot of requests for a show called Hank, a situation comedy run on NBC, Friday nights at 8:00 beginning in September, 1965.

Dick Kallman played Hank Dearborn, a young man determined to get a college education despite the economic hardship brought on when his parents were killed in a car accident, leaving him to raise his baby sister at age 15.

Hank would take all kinds of jobs on campus, in the laundry room, driving a self-serve general store/truck - whatever it took to find out who wouldn't be attending classes that day.

Resourceful Hank would then sit in on classes disguised as a student he knew would be absent, employing a number of elaborate deceptions to avoid detection by the school's staff.

Dr. Royal (Howard St. John) was Western University's registrar, he made it his obsession to track down whoever it was that was auditing classes illegally - never suspecting it was the boy his daughter Doris (Linda Foster) was dating.

'Hank' was one of the brightest sitcoms of the sixties that never found a large audience, a show just begging to be remade. It was up against a hit on CBS (Wild, Wild West) and a miss on NBC (Tammy).

'Hank' lasted only one season. Typical episode (and the plot of the pilot): Hank is seen dashing to class by assistant coach Gazzari and gets asked to join the University's track team.

DICK KALLMAN'S MURDER

After posting this page, TVparty received this letter:

"I knew Dick Kallman well... thank you for this page. No one ever touched me the way he did, he was the greatest personal love of my life. I must tell you that I have not talked about or even shared my feeling with just but a few close and intimate friends.

"Dick Kallman loved publicity. Dick was the most spontaneous person I ever encountered in my life, what a delicious ham he could be at times. Once his agent sent him to an audition and got the address confused with a voice over call and Dick ended up at a Mattel Toy voice over audition by mistake.

"Always one to make the most of where he was, he asked to audition anyway - the voice they wanted was that of a grandmother type... Yep you guessed it, he got the voice over and the checks came for years as that ad ran longer than any other Mattel ad ever...

"Did you know about the Batman episodes Dick was on? Dick had the lead in "Babes in Toyland" on Broadway at 17 and was one of the last contract players at Warners Bros.

"Dick was stabbed to death in 1980 during a "drug induced" robbery - while most of the articles mention he was murdered in his apartment, it is my belief that he was abducted by someone on drugs looking for money and forced him back to the apartment... clearly it was a robbery and a very violent one.

"I never sat foot in our apartment again. I left everything I owned in it to be sold. I could not bare to see it ripped and stained with Dick's blood.

"Frankly, when I saw this site last evening I cried uncontrollable for longer than I ever remembered. I was away from NY at the time on business... something that has haunted for 20 years... never being able to forgive myself.

"I do not know if you are fortunate enough to have someone special in your life... but friend know this... LOVE LAST A LIFETIME, SO THE SAGES SAY - BUT TREAT IT GENTLY, OH MY FRIEND, FOR A LIFETIME CAN LAST BUT A DAY."

- anonymous

Kallman and business associate Steven Szladek were found shot to death on February 22, 1980, in Kallman's Manhattan apartment. 27-year-old Charles Lonnie Grosso of Queens was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

Dick Kallman as Hank

"In my University years I actually shadow-audited an entire year's lectures on...guess what? subliminal seduction (prof. Wilson Bryan Key) at the University of Western Ontario. - great site!"

- J Lamb

In 1959, Desilu Playhouse presented a Special Christmas Show starring the whole 'I Love Lucy' gang.

In this special, Lucille Ball introduced the Desilu players to the TV audience. They were a hit in an LA stage revue and the group was a pet project of Ball's, who hand-picked each of the performers. Workaholic Lucille took on this project, in part, to keep her mind off of her impending divorce.

One musical number from the special featured some wild art direction and garnered excellent reviews for performances by Carole Cook and Dick Kallman as singing/dancing coffeehouse beatniks.

Carole Cook went on to become a lifelong friend of Lucy's, and Dick Kallman went on to do guest shots on various TV programs and to star as 'Hank' six years later.

I'm glad there are other people who remember the very entertaining -- because of a clever premise and fine character development -- "Hank."

Here are the lyrics to the theme song (lyrics by Johnny Mercer):

He's up with the sun
And he's got the college ringin'
As he goes upon another swingin' day;
With jobs to be done or errands to run
He's A-Number one OK.

He'll dry-clean your clothes,
Be a butler or a porter
If it means another quarter in the bank.
He'll get his degree, his Phi Beta Key --
And get 'em both for free.
That's Hank!

One of the things that made Hank a rarity among 1960's shows was that the final episode actually wrapped up and resolved the series! The registrar finally caught Hank, and because of his superior academic performance and talent on the track field, they awarded him a scholarship to the college.

The last line of the final scene of the final episode had his little sister watching Hank walking off hand-in-hand with his girlfriend (the registrar's daughter) and saying "There goes my brother -- the registered student".

This is the only '60s show I know of that ended in this way.

- Bill Smith

Dick Kallman and co-star Ann Elder from an episode of "Hank," entitled "My Boyfriend the Doctor."

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