Response
Initially, Acting Sheriff was thought to have a good chance of filling the Saturday, 10:30 PM slot in the CBS 1991 fall television schedule. In addition to the draw of noted actor Robert Goulet, the show was developed by the writing team of Larry Strawther and Gary Murphy, who were the writers of Night Court, a then-widely popular American television situation comedy, and the writers of Without a Clue, a 1988 comedy film starring Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley. However, the one-time-only, August 17, 1991 presentation of Acting Sheriff received poor ratings.
In the August 21, 1991 Prime time ratings for the week of August 12 to August 18, Acting Sheriff received a 4.6 share and was ranked as number 83 out of a total of 90 prime time television shows. The 4.6 share represented 4.3 million TV homes out of a possible 93.1 million TV homes. Despite the poor showing by Acting Sheriff, CBS tied television network ABC for first place in the August 12 to August 18 network ratings battle. CBS eventually filled the Saturday 10:30 PM to 11:00 PM primetime slot with 48 Hours, a documentary and news program broadcast on the CBS television network since January 19, 1988.
Critic reactions were mixed. The Florida daily newspaper St. Petersburg Times rated Acting Sheriff a "best bet." However, the weekly entertainment trade newspaper Variety found the Brent McCord character too cartoonish to support the show as a series. In describing Goulet's performance as Brent McCord, Variety stated that it was "a goof on Ronald Reagan by way of Ted Baxter" and came across as a "trigger-happy, ACLU-bashing boob whose disregard for the law is equaled only by his vanity." Variety also faulted the show's appearance and other characters as too closely resembling the look, feel, and characters of Night Court. Fourteen years later, American actor Lee Tergesen, who was on Acting Sheriff with Robert Goulet, characterized Goulet's performance as "quite good."
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