Thank you so much for uploading this! I've been wanting to see an episode of this series for some time just based on the contemporary reviews of the show: basically that it was an overly bleak premise for a sitcom but there was universal praise for the late Ms. Black - and I can see why. She definitely made the most of the material she was given. Would love to see additional episodes surface someday.
You're welcome. I'm glad you're enjoying them. Makes me wish I recorded even more back in the day than I did but who knew there'd be such a thing as RUclips?
Thanks as always. I'd never heard of this show. CBS seemed to be trying different styles with their sitcoms around this point, although many didn't stick. It's not bad, but seems very serious for a sitcom premiere (I guess this was the peak era of the attempts at dramedies). The cast has a ton of "I know these people but I'm not sure where from" faces - I always enjoyed Miriam Flynn in the National Lampoon Vacation movies. Michael Hagerty from Overboard and various shows. I remember seeing James Naughton in some trashy cable thrillers. Weird to see Bryan Cranston (who seemed to keep the same face for 20-25 years) doing what amounts to their version of Uncle Joey from Full House. He seems like he's just there because someone realized there wasn't enough comedy in the sitcom.
No way! Never expected to actually see an episode of this! It’s been a mini-holy grail for me for awhile. Thanks so much! Now I can see if it matches with how it is in my head. (I’m sure it won’t)
I just came across this show looking at a list of shows based in Wisconsin. Super cool that this one is based in my home town! Do you have the rest of the episodes available?
Why didn't they give this one to ABC instead? CBS had a dismal track record in the late 1980s/early 1990s. They only kept Newhart, Kate and Allie, Designing Women, Murphy Brown, Major Dad and Evening Shade because others had flopped badly. If they cancelled everything, the executives would've been thrown out on their keisters.
There's really no telling if ABC would have even wanted the show. CBS seemed to have a deal with GTG Entertainment that season, as that company also produced "The Van Dyke Show". I think this was the beginning of Kim LeMasters' stint as entertainment chief, although I'm forgetting if someone else greenlighted "Miranda" and "Van Dyke" before he got there. (Lone Wolf Attack has a great handle on these details!) In any event, CBS was faltering at this time, and their efforts to put Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore into new series in the fall of 1988 were all for naught.
Too funny. The only new half-hour comedy that made the fall schedule on ABC in 1988 was "Roseanne" -- and it was pushed from the prior season due to the WGA strike. They passed on most of the pilots they actually managed to make that spring, most notably "Cadets" (Soleil Moon Frye), which I seem to recall was an extremely high-testing pilot. Brandon Stoddard was too busy loading up the schedule with the biggest one-hour drama bombs in television history to have time for anything else. Not so coincidentally, "Roseanne" was the only new hit he launched that fall.
CBS had a first-look deal with GTG. It wasn't exclusive. Kim was just the one who wanted their crap more than Tinker's own former network. Kim developed those shows himself. He had so many jobs at CBS (never mind the disastrous year at Di$ney, after which he came crawling back to CBS), I couldn't even begin to remember them all at any given point in time, but I can tell you he was VP entertainment since April, 1986 when Harvey Shephard quit and then promoted to president in October, 1987 when Bud Grant got fired (about 5 years after he should have been). You know this because nobody else in the business had the terrible taste to order not one but two sitcoms in which Mom bails on the family to "go find herself." He seriously thought that was a great idea for a sitcom. Two of them. Did he really think the female audience were going to watch a show in which the mother abandons her family, daughter and all? If there's one thing women can't stand, it's homewreckers.
Thank you so much for uploading this! I've been wanting to see an episode of this series for some time just based on the contemporary reviews of the show: basically that it was an overly bleak premise for a sitcom but there was universal praise for the late Ms. Black - and I can see why. She definitely made the most of the material she was given. Would love to see additional episodes surface someday.
love these rare gems.thank u
You're welcome. I'm glad you're enjoying them. Makes me wish I recorded even more back in the day than I did but who knew there'd be such a thing as RUclips?
@@haveyouseenthis516 thanks god for youtube.i only watch retro stuff please keep diggin in your vaults
Thanks as always. I'd never heard of this show. CBS seemed to be trying different styles with their sitcoms around this point, although many didn't stick. It's not bad, but seems very serious for a sitcom premiere (I guess this was the peak era of the attempts at dramedies). The cast has a ton of "I know these people but I'm not sure where from" faces - I always enjoyed Miriam Flynn in the National Lampoon Vacation movies. Michael Hagerty from Overboard and various shows. I remember seeing James Naughton in some trashy cable thrillers. Weird to see Bryan Cranston (who seemed to keep the same face for 20-25 years) doing what amounts to their version of Uncle Joey from Full House. He seems like he's just there because someone realized there wasn't enough comedy in the sitcom.
No way! Never expected to actually see an episode of this! It’s been a mini-holy grail for me for awhile. Thanks so much! Now I can see if it matches with how it is in my head. (I’m sure it won’t)
You're welcome. This is exactly the sort of comment I enjoy reading. I hope the episode doesn't disappoint.
I just came across this show looking at a list of shows based in Wisconsin. Super cool that this one is based in my home town! Do you have the rest of the episodes available?
I'm sorry to say this is the only episode I recorded.
Bryan Cranston auditioning for Jesse.
Why didn't they give this one to ABC instead? CBS had a dismal track record in the late 1980s/early 1990s. They only kept Newhart, Kate and Allie, Designing Women, Murphy Brown, Major Dad and Evening Shade because others had flopped badly. If they cancelled everything, the executives would've been thrown out on their keisters.
Don't fitget me Belvedere
There's really no telling if ABC would have even wanted the show. CBS seemed to have a deal with GTG Entertainment that season, as that company also produced "The Van Dyke Show". I think this was the beginning of Kim LeMasters' stint as entertainment chief, although I'm forgetting if someone else greenlighted "Miranda" and "Van Dyke" before he got there. (Lone Wolf Attack has a great handle on these details!) In any event, CBS was faltering at this time, and their efforts to put Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore into new series in the fall of 1988 were all for naught.
Too funny. The only new half-hour comedy that made the fall schedule on ABC in 1988 was "Roseanne" -- and it was pushed from the prior season due to the WGA strike. They passed on most of the pilots they actually managed to make that spring, most notably "Cadets" (Soleil Moon Frye), which I seem to recall was an extremely high-testing pilot. Brandon Stoddard was too busy loading up the schedule with the biggest one-hour drama bombs in television history to have time for anything else. Not so coincidentally, "Roseanne" was the only new hit he launched that fall.
CBS had a first-look deal with GTG. It wasn't exclusive. Kim was just the one who wanted their crap more than Tinker's own former network. Kim developed those shows himself. He had so many jobs at CBS (never mind the disastrous year at Di$ney, after which he came crawling back to CBS), I couldn't even begin to remember them all at any given point in time, but I can tell you he was VP entertainment since April, 1986 when Harvey Shephard quit and then promoted to president in October, 1987 when Bud Grant got fired (about 5 years after he should have been). You know this because nobody else in the business had the terrible taste to order not one but two sitcoms in which Mom bails on the family to "go find herself." He seriously thought that was a great idea for a sitcom. Two of them. Did he really think the female audience were going to watch a show in which the mother abandons her family, daughter and all? If there's one thing women can't stand, it's homewreckers.