Turnabout Buddha Statue - On the sitcom TURNABOUT/NBC/1979 a happily married couple made a casual wish in front of a magic Buddha-like statue. The wish? To change places with each other and see how the other half lived. Suddenly, their lives  were reversed. Waking the next day, Sam Alston, (John Schuck), a gruff sportswriter was inhabiting his wife's body while Penny Alston (Sharon Gless), a cosmetics industry executive, inhabited the body of her cigar-smoking husband. After the initial shock wore off, the Alston's found themselves living in a strange new world. Sam had to cope with cosmetics and wearing girly things; and Penny had to take on the sports world and all its groin itching jocks. When not trying to save each others jobs, Sam and Penny valiantly sought a remedy that would reverse the spell. But where was the gypsy who sold Penny the small statue? And would they ever find their way back to normalcy? The series is based on the camp black & white film Turnabout (1940) starring John Hubbard and Carole Landis as bickering husband and wife, Tim and Sally Willows. The original story for the film is based on the novel by Thorne Smith who also penned the classic ghost tale Topper.