Scott Bakula Starred In This Forgotten '80s Sitcom Based On A Michael Keaton Movie

A few years before his breakout role as the star of "Quantum Leap," Scott Bakula replaced Michael Keaton for a TV show that crashed and burned. The 1986 series, "Gung Ho," was based on a movie of the same name released earlier that year. The film follows an American employee liaison for a struggling car factory, Hunt Stevenson (Keaton), who must work together with the factory's stressed new Japanese manager, Takahara "Kaz" Kazihiro (Gedde Watanabe). 

While film critics of the time did not find the movie particularly funny or incisive in its social commentary, "Gung Ho" still earned back its budget at the box office. That modest success helped convince ABC that the relationship between its two leads could translate naturally into a sitcom. "'Gung Ho' is a movie that seems a perfect pilot for a television series," ABC Vice President Ann Daniel told The Akron Beacon Journal. 

ABC made clear from the start that Keaton, a rising movie star, would not be reprising his role as Hunt for the TV show. In April 1986, ABC announced that Ned Eisenberg would play Hunt, but by the time filming began in September, the role had been given to the little-known Bakula instead.

When the TV show premiered in December 1986, one Philadelphia Daily News critic lamented that Scott Bakula's performance failed to live up to Michael Keaton's. The bigger criticism, however, was that the show's depiction of its Japanese characters leaned too heavily on stereotypes. A major conflict in the first episode centers around the Japanese owners trying to force the American factory workers to take a communal bath together, which some critics found more absurd than funny.

The show never did well in the ratings, although Bakula noted that its unlucky time slot may have played a role. "Gung Ho" aired at the same time as "Dallas" on CBS and "Miami Vice" on NBC, both of which were massive ratings juggernauts. "It's a difficult time period," Bakula told Green Bay Press-Gazette before his show's premiere.

ABC canceled "Gung Ho" after only nine episodes, and it was not the last Bakula-led show to suffer that fate. A year later, he starred in "Eisenhower and Lutz," a CBS sitcom canceled after 13 episodes. "Knock on wood. The third time's a charm," Bakula told The Ann Arbor News after the first season of "Quantum Leap" and its renewal.