“All in the Family.” “Sanford and Son.” “Maude.” “Good Times.” “The Jeffersons.” All of these were shows that were executive-produced by Norman Lear. All of them were huge hits. And then came “Hot L Baltimore,” a series which not only wasn’t a hit but which was considered so scandalous that its premiere didn’t even air in Baltimore.
Although produced by Lear, “Hot L Baltimore” was based on Lanford Wilson’s 1973 play “The Hot L Baltimore,” which centered on the residents of the decrepit Hotel Baltimore. Indeed, the building was so decrepit that the “E” in its neon sign had burnt out, hence the title. Among others, the play starred Judd Hirsch and Conchata Ferrell, who would later find sitcom stardom in “Taxi” and “Two and a Half Men,” respectively. It also was a smash hit, winning the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play and the Obie Award for Best American Play.
Lear was so taken with the play that he optioned the rights and executive-produced a sitcom adaptation for ABC. “Hot L Baltimore” was deemed controversial enough for ABC to feature a disclaimer at the top of each episode: “The following program deals with mature subject matter. Parental judgment and discretion are advised.”
Even with the warning, however, the series proved too controversial for the city in which its story was set.
Hot L Baltimore proved too hot for Baltimore
In January 1975, Baltimore’s ABC affiliate, WJZ-TV, banned the premiere episode of “Hot L Baltimore” and made decisions on whether to air future episodes on a week-to-week basis, with the station explaining that it was “concerned with the image of our city as shown in the program.”
Conchata Ferrell, however, later offered a more specific interpretation to the AV Club: “They wouldn’t admit to having hookers in Baltimore!”
The series starred James Cromwell as hotel desk clerk Bill Lewis, with Richard Masur playing hotel manager Clifford Ainsley. Ferrell — the only member of the play’s cast to make the jump to the TV adaptation — played April Green, one of two characters in the series who was a prostitute. The other was Suzy Marta Rocket, played by Jeannie Linero.
“April Green is my favorite character of all time,” Ferrell — who died in 2020 at age 77 — told the A.V. Club in 2014. “[The play] was a magic time for us all. And then, of course, Norman [Lear] took it and put it on television… and it was his first failure! We did 13 episodes, and I loved it. It was wonderful finding the balance between not being able to say ‘f***’ but knowing you were playing a hooker. You couldn’t go, ‘Oh, gee…'”
Hot L Baltimore starred a future Facts of Life star
Others in the cast of “Hot L Baltimore” included Charlotte Rae — soon to star in “Diff’rent Strokes” and “The Facts of Life” — as the eccentric Mrs. Bellotti, and Lee Bergere and Henry Calvert as middle-aged gay couple George and Gordon.
“‘Hot L Baltimore’ was a noble effort,” Norman Lear told the Television Academy in 2009. “It was a terrific show. Michael Eisner, to his everlasting credit, was running ABC at the time. Michael loved the show so much, and he’s such a passionate guy. He told me three shows in, ‘Norman, this show will never be picked up. The salesmen don’t like selling it [because of the characters].’ But I loved the show and Eisner loved the show…and he never missed a taping.”
Unfortunately, Eisner was right about the difficulty in selling the show. Six weeks into the run of “Hot L Baltimore,” The New Yorker noted how the series was causing “a degree of wariness on the part of network-affiliate stations, several of which appear to think that in populating his run-down inn so freely with prostitutes, homosexuals, and other social misfits, Mr. Lear may have been pushing his gift for jokey topicality farther than the mass audience will bear.”
In the end, those stations were apparently right: “Hot L Baltimore” ran for its 13 contracted episodes, but after Episode 13 aired, the series was canceled. Lear’s fondness for the show, however, remained strong: though he died in 2023 at the age of 101, as recently as 2018, he was still toying with the idea of rebooting it.
