Following their excruciatingly funny sitcom Buffalo Bill creator/writer Jay Tarses and star Dabney Coleman reunited for The 'Slap' Maxwell Story, which once again flew in the face of conventional US sitcom wisdom by having a thoroughly unlikeable and mean-spirited character as its lead.
'Slap' Maxwell is a gifted but heartless sportswriter working for Midwestern newspaper The Ledger. A cranky, impatient individual with absolutely no regard for the feelings of his fellow man, Maxwell is nevertheless hurt and amazed when people rail back against him. His ex-wife Annie is plagued by his unwanted attentions - they are divorced but Slap endlessly attempts reconciliation, usually in a cringingly embarrassing scene. Otherwise he courts Judy, a secretary at the newspaper, and makes life miserable for his editor, Nelson Kruger, and the copy-boy, Charlie Wilson. For recreation, Slap hangs out at a bar, tended by 'the Dutchman'.
In the USA the show was described as a 'dramedy' in an attempt to explain the seriousness of the comedy (such programmes were becoming commonplace at the time). Once again, though, while the critics raved the public ran, The 'Slap' Maxwell Story disappearing after just one season.