the stories became more focused on the Alder household. In addition, various supporting characters were added in the apartment building where Larry and the girls lived; these included a neighbor, Leona (Ruth Brown), who usually did not approve of Larry's parenting; Tommy (John Femia), a purportedly worldly wise teenage boy who became a love interest for Ruthie; Larry's widowed father (Fred Stuthman), who moved in with the younger Alders; and former Harlem Globetrotters player Meadowlark Lemon as himself, running a local sporting-goods store in the series (believed to be an attempt to boost ratings with African-American audiences who had tuned in for Diff'rent Strokes). None of these changes, nor a two-part episode in which Larry's ex-wife Marian (Shelley Fabares) tried to reconcile with him, were enough to save the show. Cast McLean Stevenson as Larry Alder Kim Richards as Ruthie Alder Joanna Gleason as Morgan Winslow Donna Wilkes as Diane Alder (season 1) George Memmoli as Earl (season 1) Krista Errickson as Diane Alder (season 2) Ruth Brown as Leona Wilson (season 2) Fred Stuthman as Henry Alder (season 2) John Femia as Tommy (season 2) Meadowlark Lemon as himself (season 2) Broadcast history Reception Hello, Larry was greeted by viewers who had high expectations based on series star McLean Stevenson's previous M*A*S*H association, and was launched the year after Fred Silverman, a man known to launch television hits, had just joined NBC as its president and CEO. By January 1978, Stevenson already had two unsuccessful sitcoms under his belt since leaving M*A*S*H—The McLean Stevenson Show, which also aired on NBC, in 1976–77, and In the Beginning, which aired at the beginning of the 1978 season on CBS. The show immediately gained a reputation as a poorly written, unfunny sitcom. A month into its run, Hello Larry was being lampooned by Johnny Carson on the show's own network; and even after its early retooling toward the relationship with Larry and his daughters, the series was not gaining a strong ratings following. Television reviewers were baffled at Hello Larry's renewal for the 1979 season, citing its poor writing and a shallow supporting cast. Hello, Larry was described as a television series that (depending on the writing emphasis) tried either to be offensive or funny, and accomplished neither. It was negatively compared with WKRP in Cincinnati for its angle in radio and the early emphasis on racy humor, and then with One