WEB*STAR

WEBSTER
ABC 1983-1987
SYNDICATED 1987-1989

WEB*STAR
MAD #251, December 1984
w: Larry Siegel
a: Angelo Torres

Alex Karras, football player turned actor, went out of his range to play a football player turned sports announcer, George Papadopilus. Together with his wife Katherine (Susan Clark, his real-life wife) they're a newly wed couple in Webster who are the godparents of the child of the title (Emmanuel Lewis) that get custody after the death of Travis Short, the child's natural father. The show was inspired by the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes which had a similar premise of a rich white man acquiring custody of small black children, the star played by someone with a kidney disease that made the character eternally five years younger than the real actor. ABC saw this and said “Hold my beer”.

Alex Karras' most famous role before this was Mongo in Blazing Saddles and the parody makes a few background references to it.

Merlin Olsen was one of the first known football players-turned-actors with Father Murphy. Marv Thornberry, Dick Butkiss, Bubba Smith, and John Madden were other athletes-turned-actors who did commercials.

Jerry Silver (Henry Polic II) was Katherine's secretary.

WEBFOOT
Cracked #205, August 1984
a: O.O. Severin (John Severin)

Eventually Diff'rent Strokes moved to ABC and the two shows were teamed together.

From If TV Shows Were Combined, same issue.
George Peppard was Hannibal and Mr.T. was B.A. Baracus.