Ivan the Terrible

The Storyline

Ivan the Terrible is an American sitcom that aired on CBS for five episodes during 1976. The short-lived series parodied American attitudes toward the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. Set in Moscow, the sitcom starred Lou Jacobi as a Russian hotel waiter named Ivan Petrovsky, and the day-to-day misadventures of Ivan's family and their Cuban exchange student boarder, all of whom live in a cramped, one-bedroom apartment. Also appearing in this series were Christopher Hewett, Phil Leeds, Alan Cauldwell and, in her TV series debut, Nana Visitor. Harvey Korman appeared as a Soviet bureaucrat in an uncredited cameo at the close of each episode. The executive producer of this series was noted comic Alan King.