Reviews

I think many people were admirers or even fans of the work of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. That's probably because many of the programs they produced were continually being shown on various networks and local stations throughout the 1960s and 70s.

For the kids viewing these animated series during that era, the revelation came when they grew up, as they realized that just about everything Hanna-Barbera were responsible for was just a parody of somebody else's stuff. Case in point, :"Top Cat."

I'm not kidding when I say the biggest early television successes of Hanna-Barbera were ideas they swiped. Yogi Bear was taken from the name of Hall of Fame Yankees Catcher Yogi Berra. Huckleberry Hound was taken from Hall of Fame Yankees Shortstop, Phil Rizzuto's habit of calling people "huckleberry." And their most enduring series, "The Flintstones," was just "The Honeymooners" set during the Stone Age.

"Top Cat" was the story of a gang of alley cats (back when New York had alleys) and was loosely based on both "The Bowery Boys," a series of short comedy films (that ran very much like "The Three Stooges" shorts) about teenage street toughs who were out for themselves, and "The Phil Silvers Show," aka "Sergeant Bilko." On "Bilko," Silvers played the ringleader of his privates who were always doing something ridiculous on the sly, poker games, parties, having some kind of contraband (like booze, ladies or both) in the barracks, and always got away with everything because the superior officers never managed to catch them.

That's essentially the plot of "Top Cat," with T. C. in the Bilko role and the rest of his cat gang, his subordinates. Arnold Stang, who voiced the lead character, even did a Phil Silvers style vocal characterization, just in case somebody missed the connection!

Officer Dibble was constantly hounding the cats for whatever fun and games they were planning. And of course Top Cat had culture, class and extremely expensive taste, but never the money to afford it, so he was continually plotting ways for the gang to make it out of the alley and to some penthouse apartment building with a get rich quick scheme that always failed. The positive thing was, they never let it get them down. They just tried again, the next time!

New York played a part because the city has those dividing lines between the haves and the have nots, and it was never made more clear when these poor cats were just trying to eke out their survival and were harassed by The Man every step of the way.

Top Cat and his pals were never "bad," but they always managed to bend the rules a little just to get a meal, to have some relaxation from the rat race of the city or just keep their hopes and dreams alive. Dibble was occasionally sympathetic to the gang, but usually would just threaten them or chase them out of the alley when he saw them congregating and plotting their latest ploy.

Of all the shows on my list of 400 shows set in New York City, so far, this is the first one I could fully envision having a reboot, what with the authoritarian style policing and the poor, but intelligent and friendly collection of protagonists looking to have some success. We'd need to add some women cats to the gang, deal with the various elements like governmental interference in the lives of citizens, the patriarchy, the upper and lower class, even the immigration crisis would be topics worthy of exploring. Top Cat vs. The Fat Cats. Maybe current NYC Mayor "Cat-ams" would be more sympathetic to the group than the flatfoot on patrol?

It would be a really neat metaphor, and would have a lot more meaning for an audience than the shlocky plots lifted from a 1950s military sitcom. Imagine "Top Cat," becoming a vessel for sociological change and the discussion of societal problems? That would land the series a lot higher on this list!

The name Wilhelmina is one of the tops in the field of modeling. Named for Model Wilhelmina Cooper, a very prevalent cover girl in her time, who wasn't satisfied with her representation and broke away to form her own agency, they provide talent for runway shows, fashion shoots, commercials, music videos... and their models are constantly in demand.

Let's put this in context. The year was 2006. Film and television actresses were starting to get more magazine covers than their supermodel counterparts (back when magazine covers still mattered). I don't think anyone in the Industry was panicking yet, but it appeared that a shift was occurring in the fashion world, and designers suddenly wanted mannequins that had a different kind of recognition. That's a bit of the backdrop for the world of this reality series.

I think most casual observers of anything related to fashion might view it as a world of self-importance where things that "normal" people would never notice are glaring issues, here.

Enter the team of "The Agency." These intrepid bookers are tasked with finding new talent, getting current models hired, and making sure their agency remains THE Agency. And that's the point of this series. It isn't about the models, it's about the company they work for.

Model Agents are more than just the people who take their 20 and 20 (20 percent fee from the client and 20 percent commission on the model's pay). They are like parental figures, strict taskmasters, educators, and, of course, they have their own problems, which they might just take out on whomever is there at the moment. Freud could have had a field day with this group!

This show pulled no punches and showed some serious spats between Agents, between Models and Agents, even some ugly exchanges with the Agents and prospective models, all in the name of supposedly "getting it right." But a lot of the time, this came off like tantrum throwing, nit-picking, passive-aggressive comments, or just plain aggressive comments. Not everyone expects or would tolerate this kind of treatment from the people who are supposed to be finding them work, which is why there was an episode where a model quit!

That, to me, is why "The Agency" is unavailable to view anywhere in the US and why even the names of the agents at the time (the group's president, Sean Patterson, Pink Francis, Carlos Paz, Lorri Shackelford, Greg Chan, Lola Milligan, Anita Norris and most especially Becky Southwick) seem to have been obscured, too.

The style of how agents work has changed drastically in the past fifteen or so years (I don't believe any booker is telling a model to "lose weight" these days), and that kind of treatment by an agent isn't seen as okay. But it did provide a lot of drama for audiences in the Aughts, and was, generally, true to what was going on at the time, not just at Wilhelmina, but at most, if not all, of the major modeling houses.

New York is absolutely a part because this is the fashion capital of the nation and one of the three most important locations for clothing design in the world, the others being Paris and Milan. There is always big money on the table, with designers able to book a model for an ad campaign, or even making them the face of a clothing line, with paydays running in the four to five figures per job, per day. The glamor, the style, the anger, the fear... it all comes in when the competition is tough, when you're trying to reinvent your brand while still keeping it successful and when anything can set someone off to a tirade of misplaced rage.

Of course, today, Wilhelmina has their own Instagram account which you can peruse, and their minimalist and lovely website with the names and photos of their roster of models to view. The drama that this series blatantly laid bare, is gone now (or at least isn't visible to the outside world), and it seems like that's how they want it, moving forward.

Depending upon when you encountered her, Diana Rigg may have left a vivid impression on you. First she was the stylish, cat suit wearing super spy working with Patrick McNee on the British Import series, "The Avengers." Mrs. Peel was a revelation for the 1960s.

Much later, Rigg returned as The Queen of Thorns, Olenna Tyrell on "Game of Thrones" and was as convincing and incredible in that role as she was in her "Avengers" character.

But in-between those two iconic performances, we had this.

I guess you could say Ms. Rigg was ready to attempt a sitcom, as there were some humour included in "The Avengers" amidst the action and adventure. And certainly the fashion sense she showed would make her a natural to be involved in design.

"Diana" was the story of a London designer named Diana Smythe, who came to work in New York and her issues with what that all was about. Dealing with her new job, her low-key divorce, her new living space at home and the characters that populated each was a lot of what the stories focused on, throughout the run.

It's somewhat obvious that NBC was packaging Ms. Rigg to be a new Mary Tyler Moore, only at an NYC locale instead of a Minneapolis TV station. Barbara Barrie, who appeared at 382 on this list as the aunt of the twins on "Double Trouble" season two, was here as Norma, Diana's buyer and was the absolute comedy star of the show.

Norma's husband, Norman (yeah, I don't get that either), played by David Sheiner, was the department store owner that Diana worked for, and oversaw Diana's work and scrutinized Diana as much as he could. Chauvinism and harassment was still a source of comedy in the 1970s. It goes to show that "Mary Tyler Moore" never went that route with its comedy, which is why that series is still a timeless classic.

New York plays a part because working late for a woman meant potential danger, the typical "men being men" of that era and the elements of creative flow and odd behavior from everyone was just part of the scene. The quirkier you were, the better for the comedy. And everyone knows that New York creative types are nothing but quirky people! It didn't matter, as long as you got the work done, right?

Ms. Rigg wasn't there to deliver the jokes; she was there to react to them. And while Mary Richards was also frequently required to respond to something weird happening around her, she was a brilliant comedienne, capable of landing a joke with anyone in that series. That may have been a drawback for "Diana" as Diana Smythe rarely got the funny lines to deliver.

Also, where Mary Richards had a whole host of brilliant characters surrounding her, so many, in fact, that she spun some off to their own series and didn't miss a beat, Diana struggled with some stock roles that weren't very inspiring. If "Diana" had a better ensemble, it likely would have worked.

Let me take you back to 1993. Here's a roster of people involved with this series:

Joe Morton

Philip Bosco

Eli Wallach

Melanie Mayron

Carl Lumbly

Carol Kane

Richard Lewis

Kevin Spacey (before the Oscars and the ugliness)

and executive produced by Robert de Niro.

You should realize that this show was not like anything on the air at the time; this was unique, even for basic or pay cable channels and definitely not like anything on the other broadcast networks.

Mr. De Niro's Tribeca Film Center had been up and running for a couple of years at this point, and that neighborhood is one of the oldest and most interesting in Manhattan. It was a no-brainer to make a show tailored to the area.

The concept of the program was different, too. This was an anthology series, meaning that the focus for the program changed to different characters and different stories. The two characters that held it all together were Philip Bosco, who owned a central coffee shop/diner called Zadie's, where everybody would eventually come for food and beverage, and a Mounted NYPD officer played by Joe Morton who responded to problems that arose. And I guess you can consider the neighborhood itself as another character that retained that continuity.

Another interesting element was how characters would just turn up - in one episode, they might have been buying a coffee and a sandwich at Zadie's like any rando, just as a matter of course, while another episode, the story was about them! It really attempted to give the feel of the people living in and around the neighborhood, and how a complete stranger one day can suddenly become the main focus on another.

I did leave one name off my roster of people above. Larry Fishburne (as he was still being credited, at this time), actually took home an Emmy Award for his appearance in the series pilot, titled "The Box." This was notable in that the show had been canceled several months before the Emmy Awards ceremony that year, yet Fishburne's performance was still the one the voters selected, a true tribute to both the performance and the writing of that brilliant episode.

New York was in every second of this series, as it was shot on location in the Triangle Below Canal Street. The geography was just as much a part of everything this series offered as those landmarks provided an authentic background for these genuine tales.

The trouble with an anthology series is that you never know what you're going to get. Besides that heavy drama with Mr. Fishburne, there was, for example, a comedy episode with Richard Lewis. And though our lives are mixed with ups and downs, we tend to like our television to be one or the other. It's sad that we couldn't adjust to a program that willingly showed the full palette of emotions, which I think was a major contributor to its early end.

Garry Marshall is a big, BIG name in comedy. He was responsible for a lot of shows that people found very funny throughout their runs. Notably, "Happy Days" and "Laverne & Shirley," were both number one rated shows in the 1970s and his fingerprints were all over those. But everybody has to start somewhere, and this program was Garry's very first TV sitcom.

Fish Out of Water. It's such an obvious place to begin if you want to do comedy. And there's nothing like New York City for a fish to be flopping around in, for some easy laughs.

In this case, Will Hutchins is the fish, a guy named Woody from a dot on the map in Ohio, who finds out his Uncle bequeathed him a Brownstone in Lower Manhattan. So, he pulls up stakes and comes to town to check out his new property.

Of course the building is populated with the quirkiest characters on the block, all of whom have issues with stuff breaking in their apartments. Woody has some fix-it skills, so this first time landlord becomes the live-in superintendent for the building.

Sandy Baron plays Chuck, a stand-up comic who shared his apartment with Woody, which is why he was around during the day, available to help Woody out with some of the patchwork. Michael Constantine played a fastidious and temperamental photographer who both lived and worked at home and served as a kind of mentor for Woody... a precursor for his role as Principal in "Room 222."

And there are a couple of love interests for Woody and Chuck living under that roof, with Pamela Rodgers, who eventually served as a body paint bikini dancer on "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" and her roommate played by Miko Mayama, who shouted the program's title at Woody whenever she needed help.

Also notable was that Woody had a kid sister back in the hometown, who came to visit for several episodes, a role taken by a young, unknown actress named Sally Field.

New York played a part because Garry Marshall was a quintessential city resident, who grew up here and knew the ins and outs and observed the humorous elements of life as presented by his friends, neighbors, parents and just random strangers all around.

The style, the humor, the elements that Marshall eventually would include in all his work, was already in place here. The jokes, when they landed, were legitimately funny, the comedy actually came from the situation and it doesn't seem nearly as contrived as a lot of other shows of the day. Plus the theme song may have been too cool for the show, written and performed by Quincy Jones.

On the down side, there were some stereotypical cheap bits as a part of some episodes, which is why this series isn't seen much (Marshall didn't write everything here). And there was a question of just how much control Marshall had, this being his first series. Still, when it came to character driven comedy, without any special effects or gimmicks, this was a definitely wasn't the worst.

Dudley Moore was a comedy superstar. He had been entertaining audiences across the pond with his partner, Peter Cook for years. Then he made his first big splash in the States with the Blake Edwards comedy, "10," which turned Bo Derek into a household name and made Ravel's "Bolero" appropriate foreplay music for the 1980s. That got immediately followed by the smash, "Arthur," which revived the career of Nepo Baby, Liza Minnelli.

By the early nineties, it seemed natural for television to want to tap that comic potential, which led to this, Mr. Moore's first American sitcom.

"Dudley" was the story of a very successful New York Cabaret performer and playboy (the titular star, playing Dudley Bristol), who was amicably divorced from his ex, Laraine (Joanna Cassidy). Their teenage son, Fred (Harley Cross), verging on the edge of delinquency, had to start living with his nightclub dad and Dudley's housekeeper Marta (Lupe Ontiveros) who only spoke Español (with subtitles so viewers could follow along). Let the NYC misadventures, begin!

Dudley had an issue with saying what he thought and letting the chips fall where they may. That always got him into trouble. For work, his candid comments forced his friend and lawyer Paul (Max Wright) to mop up the Public Relations mess, somehow. At home, his remarks forced Fred to have to deal with some ridiculous thing Dad said about him... either in the press, which became fodder for jokes by his classmates at school, or just around the house which created even more conflict with their already strained father/son relationship.

Dudley didn't know anything about being a parent! He was just a guy doing his job and having fun. Suddenly, responsibility reared its ugly head. What's an entertaining entertainer to do?

The elements of understanding boundaries, revenge against those that wronged you and the music, which allowed Mr. Moore the chance to tickle the ivories, ever so briefly, were all included in the storylines. Bitter was absolutely a flavor used for this comedy.

What would have been great is having Moore always getting in a song, either as part of a performance or rehearsal, or related to the storyline somehow. That might have made for a friendlier reception to his patriarchal antics. But, then again, music would have required royalty payments; that would have been an additional cost for the show's budget. Still they could have picked tunes that were in the Public Domain, just to give a little more of the nightclub feel.

New York played a part because where else is a cabaret performer going to be? The press was constantly around, the late night lifestyle of boozing and playing that Dudley lived, the action and adventure of the city and Fred's prep school attendance provided the setting that the stories were set against. There definitely were a few moments that recalled "Arthur" in this program.

Unfortunately, Dudley Bristol wasn't quite as welcome or charming as Arthur, and though Laraine and Paul tried to wrangle him, neither one was Hobson, the absolutely brilliant Sir John Gielgud from that film. And without that ideal foil for Moore to play his comedy off of, that essential guardrail that restrained and focused the humor, this show sort of went off track.

It's helpful to know a little bit of backstory before we get into the facts about this show, because it directly relates.

Eric Schaeffer was an NYC cab driver who had show business ambition and was a talker. He would use his job of shuttling people around town to hone his craft: entertaining his rides with witty banter, which he then parlayed into a pitch to any producers, directors or stars who happened to land in the back seat of his taxi.

This somehow actually worked, as he and his friend, Donal Lardner Ward, were able to scrape up enough money and get enough help through Schaeffer's constant chatting and persistence to create an indie film called "My Life's In Turnaround," essentially their life story of wanting to turn their life story into an indie movie.

That film got some attention at a couple of festivals and did good enough B. O. to set up Schaeffer and Ward for a deal at Fox to do a sitcom... their life story, now as a TV series.

"Too Something" (as the program was originally titled) was about a writer named Eric (Schaeffer) who was too worried about negative criticism to do any writing. He lived with his friend Donny (Ward) in Donny's parents' vacated sprawling apartment (the only way these two could live in a place like that). Donny's ambition was to be a photographer, but, similarly, he didn't want anyone to see the shots he took.

Obviously, you can't make money from material that never gets created or seen, so these two slackers wound up working in the mail room of a Corporate Law firm, and have what would be a wacky neighbor (Mindy Seeger as the funniest, most bizarre and most New York character in the show) who is a professional dog walker, as a roommate to cover their expenses. Her uproariously caustic comments were always tempered with the cutest pooches around.

A new lawyer at the firm is Maria (Portia de Rossi in her first television role) who Eric is instantly smitten with... and it didn't hurt that they lived in the same building, too. Suddenly, this loser had a reason to try and become a success!

This program's main contribution to society was arguably "The Self High Five," which was extending your arms, bringing them up and hitting your hands together over your head, in celebration of something great you did, when nobody else is around.

Meanwhile, the show had the slot on the schedule right after Fox's Crown Jewel, "The Simpsons" (back when "The Simpsons" was still "Appointment Television") but people didn't understand the title. The producers decided to have a contest to let a viewer change the name of the show. That's how it became "New York Daze."

For the record, MY suggested new title for the series was "The Portia de Rossi Show." Technically, I was right, as she was the only one who extended and improved her career after this sitcom, with whichever title you like, got canceled.

"Did you know the human head weighs eight pounds?"

You might, if you saw the film "Jerry Maguire," where precocious Jonathan Lipnicki says that line; one of many quotable quotes from that movie.

But you may not have realized that three of those eight pounds is the human brain. That's where the title for this program originates.

Let's be clear. Television has trends and when a show becomes a hit series, every network wants a piece of that action. In this case, the show that this program was aspiring to be was Fox's "House, MD," which was the current hit medical drama of the day, about a team of doctors researching mysterious diseases, week to week.

It goes without saying that many people think that those who live in and around New York City have to be losing their grey matter. That's where this team of surgeons and physicians comes in!

Here, Stanley Tucci, as Dr. Douglas Hanson, the impatient, know-it-all, head of the the Neuro wing named for himself, and his team, including Hanson's newcomer assistant Dr. Jonathan Seger, played by Mark Feuerstein, were there to mind their patients as they dealt with their tumors, aneurysms and strokes.

Much like Dr. Gregory House on that other series I mentioned, Dr. Hanson here has a bothersome little problem with his own condition, which, of course, he keeps quiet, but the viewers can see the elements in his mind as he deals with his visions and demons when he's not mouthing off to his second, or flirting with his female coworkers, or the single moms of his daughter's (Addison Timlin) classmates.

The most interesting quality about this series is they were trying to expose what we know about how the brain works, what elements are connected and perhaps more importantly, what we still DON'T know about this organ of ours that controls most everything we think, write, say and do, and acts as a recorder and storage space for everything we encounter. That's a worthwhile effort, even if they had to simplify things so the jargon didn't get too technical for the non-medical student viewers.

Indira Varma provides a welcome relief from the not always friendly banter between Doctors Hanson and Seger as Dr. Adrienne Holland, the neurologist intent on solving problems and prepping those she encounters for what comes next. But even she rubbed Dr. Seger the wrong way.

New York plays a part, in that the name "Bellevue" has come to be associated with both mental disorders and The City, and though this hospital is clearly not THAT one, it shares the real life reputation of that other institution for being run-down and on the mend, with issues that create problems occasionally, like power outages at just the wrong moment.

As a bit of an aside, from a strictly behind-the-scenes perspective, Mr. Tucci didn't want to have to fly to Los Angeles to make this series, so the production accommodated him by shooting in NYC.

The special effects used were fascinating: when a patient has an episode, we see into their body, the brain stem, the spinal cord, the sinew and muscle that moves and get a glimpse as to what is happening, in real time. This was cutting edge stuff for 2006 and, in most cases, was cooler than the scripts for the stories being told.

But the problem was that those stories told were relentless, with some visual metaphors to help the audience understand what was happening to the patients, at least, and the embattled staff dealing with their temperamental and possibly cranially challenged leader. There wasn't much of a break between the patients' issues and Dr. Hanson's attitude and circumstances.

In the end, it seemed like the "3 lbs" was made up of two pounds, fifteen ounces of vinegar and only one ounce of honey, and that just seemed to give its viewers a headache.

William Shatner was a rising star in the mid 1960s. He had been making the rounds, doing guest shots on a lot of the prime time dramas of the day, including two separate and very memorable turns on Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone."

But here, he got his first chance to lead his own series. Shatner played David Koster, a cutting edge prosecutor -- Assistant DA for the City of New York, who was determined to find the truth and present it in court and to prosecute the toughest criminals in town and get them locked up, at any cost. His boss was played by Howard da Silva, who we see every July, permanently preserved as Ben Franklin in the motion picture version of the Broadway musical, "1776." Long time character actor Lonny Chapman was a plainclothes police officer frequently involved in the cases Koster attempted to mount.

Jessica Walter lightened things up both for Koster and for the audience as Koster's wife, Phyllis, as the program gave you the homelife of the Kosters in addition to the work issues, which was something that wasn't all that common at the time for a program of this type.

Another element that gave a lot of authenticity to this series was on location filming around town. The steps of the Supreme Court, the sidewalks and streets of the city, all on display to provide the backdrop for this program, and frankly, it's fascinating just to see the footage they shot of 1965 New York, the shops and storefronts, the vehicles negotiating the intersections and the clothing people wore to their jobs or for leisure.

As I implied, this show managed to mix in a bit of comedy with the drama, humanized the persons involved in the process and created both some genuine conflict and some legitimate questions about how the law worked and why our system of justice is important. In some ways, some people NOW should take a look at this series and learn a few things about how and why we bring cases to court!

The problem this show had was its timeslot. CBS scheduled "For The People," Sunday Night at 9pm Eastern. The good news was that meant the show followed one of the highest rated programs on television: "The Ed Sullivan Show."

The bad news was it got placed opposite one of the most popular shows on TV at the time, NBC's western family series, "Bonanza."

No matter why or how, "For The People" got the ax at the end of the season. If it had succeeded, Mr. Shatner would have stayed with that series and would not have been available to audition for a new program about the crew of a spaceship, traveling centuries from now, exploring the galaxy and visiting strange new worlds.

In that sense, "For The People" is especially notable in its cancellation for allowing William Shatner to accept the role of Captain James T. Kirk on NBC's "Star Trek," the following season.

"On Our Own" is about a couple of women who are doing advertising in the late 1970s and the other members of their Ad firm.

I don't mean to say that "Kate & Allie" is the center of the New York TV series universe, however, this program became kind of a template for that series.

The two stars: Lynnie Greene as Maria, the Art Director for the little agency and Bess Armstrong as Julia, the copywriter, were similar personality types to the leads in that future series. This show's creator, Bob Randall, went on to write dozens of episodes of "K&A." Both shows were set in and videotaped in New York, with a live audience, which was extremely rare for any sitcom during this era, and the programs also shared producers.

In addition to our two leads, Gretchen Wyler was the owner of the agency, Dan Resin played her second in command, the "Yes Man" ad agency character that perhaps was perfected by David White as Larry Tate on the magical 60s sitcom, "Bewitched," and John Christopher Jones was a fellow staffer, enamored with Dixie Carter, who played a very affected Euro-Model type, with an equally affected (and almost unbelievable) accent!

Since this still is the 1970s and since the show is about a female-led Ad Agency, the inevitable stories had to do with what we would now consider sexual harassment by male clients (and even occasionally among the men around the office), which is likely why you won't see this series getting any reruns. It's a little disturbing by our 21st Century standards to see these scenarios viewed as "humorous" or even as acceptable.

Despite that difficulty, "On Our Own" still stands as a high profile step to celebrate women having success in business at a time when there were few opportunities for them to climb the Corporate Ladder. And the women of "OOO" stood up for themselves when problems were caused by men in the room, which I have to believe helped nudge society in the right direction.

Showing women who were capable, intent on having success by their own standards and able to stand up for themselves was, perhaps, something audiences of the day weren't quite ready to embrace in the late 70s. But they should have been.

This series might have done a little better, ratings wise, if it was set in NYC for the entirety of its run. But, in its first season, it was the story of a couple of identical twin sisters, one fun loving and free, while the other was studious and serious, living with their dad in Des Moines. Those episodes were mostly twin swapping storylines, with the girls taking each other's places for various things. Not incredibly inspired.

Things slightly improved for the series when they shifted it to Manhattan (which is my point in reviewing 400 shows set in NYC in honor of the 400th Anniversary of the founding of New York).

In the first season, the girls, unfortunately named Kate and Allison (as there was already a "Kate & Allie" on TV, a month before this series began) were aspiring dancers and were constantly seen in their dad's studio, wearing typical 80's workout apparel. But that wasn't enough to interest viewers, so the network waited until the mid-season replacement to retool and bring the show back.

The dance storyline was as good an excuse as any to send the twins to NYC to live with their Aunt Margo, played by Barbara Barrie, and to explore and pursue the world of entertainment they seemingly sought.

Two guys, played by James Vallely and Jonathan Schmock, were living in the same building and were continually taking the oddest of odd jobs, usually something that required some sort of outrageous costuming, which provided them with a lot of sight-gag style humor.

And another source of laughs was Anne-Marie Johnson, who was a heavily accented West Indian worker who turned up frequently to provide even more ridiculousness.

New York played a part as a game board that the girls would negotiate, either auditioning for roles, exploring the city, and doing all of the typical things everyone has to do while trying to make their dreams come true. There were also the requisite unusual people they would meet, difficult characters that gave them a hard time and the challenges of getting work in their chosen field.

Finally, their dad came to town, and having seen how his daughters were living in such a decadent and worldly way, wanted to drag them back to Iowa! We never found out for sure if they stayed or left because the program was canceled after that episode.

Jean and Liz are still active in the business, only now, mostly behind the camera. Jean has been a director of episodic TV, most recently directing eps of the reboot of the Paramount+ series "iCarly," Apple TV's "Amber Brown" and the Bounce TV comedy "Act Your Age." And Liz has been working as a writer and story editor; she served as a producer for the award-winning Max series, "The Flight Attendant."

And many people know that the Sagal twins have a big sister, Katey, who has appeared in numerous films and TV series, but is probably best remembered for her portrayal of Peg Bundy in "Married... With Children" and for voicing the character Leela in the animated comedy "Futurama."

One of the things that television did, during the 1980s and 1990s, was seek out successful stand-up comedians and give them what they called a "development deal," where they would have a chance to create a sitcom, either from bits of their act or from a new premise, hoping their success in the comedy clubs would translate to a hit show.

Richard Jeni was one of those stand-ups that was gaining attention at the time (he had a hit HBO special), and he got to take one of his routines and expand it to a full series.

As Richard himself explained in the show's opening titles:

"Platypus: A small, egg laying mammal that attempts to mate frequently, but spends most of its time, alone.

Man: An adult male human.

Platypus Man: An adult male human that attempts to mate frequently, but spends most of its time, alone."

The concept is that Jeni, who plays a charming, sophisticated but somewhat awkward character named Richard Jeni and who hosts a nationally telecast food based show called "Cooking With the Platypus Man," has continual issues in looking for love in and around New York City.

A typical episode features Jeni hosting his show, cooking something an untrained bachelor might be able to prepare at home, as he explains some wise piece of advice he has learned during a recent dating experience. That becomes a flashback to the events that inspired the topic.

Denise Miller played his across the hall neighbor who commiserates with Richard, as she has problems finding someone to love, too. Ron Orbach was Richard's schleppy friend who happens to produce the cooking show, and has ideas aplenty, none of them good. And David Dundara ran the bar Jeni liked to hang out in and was the himbo who got every lady he wanted, usually without even trying.

If you think this sorta sounds like another sitcom, where the star is named after himself, and is surrounded by wacky characters as he attempts to occasionally go on dates and make a living entertaining audiences, well, you're not wrong. "Seinfeld" was at the top of its form at the same time this show debuted, and that was NOT a healthy comparison for the Platypus.

New York played a part because the dating scene is always a little strange, amusing and heartbreaking and there are an endless number of women to potentially meet, each of whom had an interesting job and their own set of foibles and regulations when going out with some random guy who has a low rated TV series on some unheardof channel.

Speaking of that, I should mention that UPN, the United Paramount Network, the place where "Platypus Man" aired, literally started with the first episode of "Star Trek: Voyager" and then, this show, as the second series ever on their airwaves.

The program's biggest problem was the writing. There was no Larry David to have created funnier scenarios and bigger and better jokes for this show. And Jeni's observations about dating just weren't very inspired or really, all that amusing. All that meant: the platypus found neither a mate, nor an audience.

The motion picture "Baby Boom" was a hit with audiences, primarily because of the acting talents of Diane Keaton, who was convincing as a high powered corporate climber in the business world who was suddenly saddled with a kid that instantly, and completely unexpectedly (no pun intended) became her own. Ms. Keaton's actions and reactions to everything is what made the comedy. The reversals of having to be this cutthroat business professional and then this doting mommy, completely out of her depth in dealing with that, sold the concept.

When they decided to adapt the film to the small screen, Kate Jackson, who at the time was noted for being "The Smart Angel" on the ABC action adventure series, "Charlie's Angels," and who had just come back from battling breast cancer, a diagnosis she received at the end of her most recent series at the time, CBS' "Scarecrow and Mrs. King," stepped into the Keaton role.

Nothing against Ms. Jackson, who certainly had a homespun southern charm that she used to distinguish her version of the character from Keaton's, but she just couldn't do the kind of reversals that created the laughs in the film specifically and there weren't nearly as many laughs in this series as there should have been, especially when you consider that not one, but TWO successful stand up comics of the day: Joy Behar and Susie Essman, were co-stars, and long-time great actor, Sam Wanamaker as her corporate boss was there to create some friction.

Adorable twins Kristina and Michelle Kennedy reprised their roles as the titular baby from the motion picture to this series (the only actors who crossed over from the big to small screen), a year older and reciting dialog!

It was the end of the 1980s, and there was the question of business acumen leading to promotions in the boardroom and how that could jibe with the desire for motherhood that we are told that women supposedly had. That concept is interesting when you consider that neither the film star, Keaton nor the series star, Jackson ever gave birth themselves, with both of them choosing to adopt later in their lives.

New York plays a part in that you need the ambition and drive to succeed in the business world, and that was (and very much still is) more challenging for a woman dealing with the very real Glass Ceiling, especially now, when you consider how laws are changing and how restrictions on health care can create life altering decisions, forcing some women out of their jobs - one giant leap backward in our sociological evolution.

I don't think you could reboot this series for the 2020s, but, personally, I think it's time to launch a new film version to examine the concept of all of the elements that we are looking at in the wake of Roe v. Wade and how "The Boomers" (especially those in politics) need to simply stay out of the womb.

I suppose that would be a very different movie, though... and probably NOT a comedy!

This is one of those "what could have been" stories.

If you were watching the teevee back in the very late 1970s and the early 1980s, you might recognize four letters that were strung together to make a series title: "S C T V."

"Second City Television" was kind of the Mad Magazine of the boob tube, doing priceless parodies and scathing sendups of just about every show you could name with a cast of players that were sure to make you laugh out loud: John Candy, Martin Short, Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara among a bunch of savagely funny performers.

"SCTV" is directly related to this series because of the subject matter, and the star. Andrea Martin, in her guise as Edith Prickley, station manager and perpetual leopard print wearer, was one of a host of characters she played on that earlier series.

When CBS spun off a show from their hit sitcom "Kate & Allie" with Ms. Martin as the programmer for a local NYC UHF (remember that?) television station, it sure seemed like it was not only going to be a winner, it was going to be even zanier than "SCTV," with the potential for even stranger performers on this channel, set in a city known for its characters!

That wasn't how this went.

I mean, maybe, eventually that's what might have happened. But the storyline of "Roxie" wasn't that unique at all and used only a thimbleful of Ms. Martin's enormous comedic talents in a similar job description to her Prickley character. It was more about the standard, pleasing the boss, played by Jack Riley, gossiping with the co-worker, played by Theresa Ganzel. Trying to work well with the stage manager, played by Ernie Sabella. And figuring out her homelife with her beau, played by Mitchell Laurance. Yet none of Andrea's fellow actors got to be their innately humorous selves on this program, either.

And Roxie was simply no Edith, despite having essentially the exact same job: jumping in and wrangling the "talents" who showed up to perform, or fill in for them when they didn't.

New York plays a part because it is a magnet for people seeking fame, or who just want to share their talents with others, and get on a local station. This should have been a showcase for the truly bizarre acts that actually existed, a sort of modern day "Gong Show." That alone would have made this worth a look.

"Roxie" should have gone one step beyond "SCTV" but it tripped and fell, almost immediately.

When you hear the name "David Cassidy," you might think of the television series that bore his name: "David Cassidy: Man Undercover" which briefly had him doing detective work around Los Angeles.

But what you'd more likely think of was a sitcom titled "The Partridge Family," where David's actual stepmom, Shirley Jones, played his mom and the "Family" sang a bunch of songs, one of which, "I Think I Love You," actually hit Number One on the Billboard Hot 100.

What you'd probably NEVER think of is THIS: "Ask Harriet."

The year was 1998. Mr. Cassidy was creating a new sitcom with Jonathan Prince, who played the boss to the Diana Canova character on the record label sitcom, "Throb".

The brilliant concept these guys came up with was this: Obnoxious, chauvinistic sportswriter (Anthony Tyler Quinn) named Jack Cody (and was that name a slam of, or maybe tribute to, David's late father, Jack Cassidy?) gets canned from his newspaper job by his ex-girlfriend Melissa (Lisa Waltz).

Instead of slinking away into the darkness, he comes back to apply for the job of advice columnist, but, of course, he can't show up as "himself," so, he goes in drag as a woman named Sylvia Coco. Where's "Harriet?" That's just the byline for the column in the paper.

Of course, Sylvia is accepted and completely convincing as "her" self to everyone in this newspaper office, which creates all sorts of comedic mayhem and even fools Melissa into thinking she's found a new, wonderful friend.

The parallels to the Robin Williams/Sally Field film "Mrs. Doubtfire" are pretty obvious, as "Sylvia" has to keep the charade going in order to keep her job and stay close to Melissa, hoping to win her back. Willie Garson played a pal who was in on the secret, and there was an issue of attraction to Sylvia in the office, leading to more wacky circumstances, notably coming from the owner/publisher of the paper, Ed Asner, who didn't get used nearly enough for this to be a success.

Damien Leake's role on the show was a homeless man who camps out in front of the newspaper offices and who seems to be a Zen Master and kind of Greek Chorus for the characters. Does knowing that help or hurt the concept?

A show like this would be dead in the water, now. Drag queens are seen as "groomers" and harmful by some (especially since Jack had a young daughter played by Jamie Renée Smith).

New York plays a part because Jack... er, Sylvia needed a wardrobe and cosmetics and there's no place like the fashion capital of the nation to find stilettos that fit a size 10 foot, and to get a wig that looked like real tresses.

Also, they tried to dress up Sylvia in as many frocks as Fran Drescher was wearing on "The Nanny," which made me wonder where Jack got the budget on his advice column salary to swing that. Really, the production stills for this show are funnier than the sitcom dialog!

David Cassidy's one on-screen claim to fame as a connection to this show was singing the theme song. Unfortunately, for him, audiences of the day were saying, "I Think I Don't Love You," to "Ask Harriet."

The basic facts of David Letterman's life story were pretty well known by the turn of the 21st century. Letterman grew up in Indianapolis, attended Ball State University and did a Radio Show on his college 10 watt station, then, after graduation, landed a job as a local weatherman, before arriving in NYC to start a career as a morning talk show host (yep, Letterman's first big gig was somehow a DAYTIME talk show).

Apparently, someone thought Letterman's bio would make a pretty good sitcom, because that's the basic plot of this series (presented by Dave's Production company: Worldwide Pants, Inc.)

"Welcome to New York" is about a TV Meteorologist named Jim Gaffigan (Jim Gaffigan) who left Ft. Wayne (a different city in Indiana) to take a job on a morning news program: "AM New York." The idea was to show how the layback midwest observations were so frickin' different from how everybody saw everything in The City. So, yeah, some of the elements included in the series were based on Gaffigan, but with those parallels to the Letterman story.

Christine Baranski is Jim's immediate boss, Marsha Bickner. Marsha really doesn't care about... or even know much about Jim, despite the fact that she hired him, and she continually got everything wrong about who Jim was and whatever he asked about.

It was Marsha's assistant Amy Manning (Sara Gilbert) the real brains of the operation, who knew everything, arranged everything and made everything work, with that withering NYC attitude, of course.

And Rocky Carroll was Adrian Spencer, the vain, pompous, know-it-all anchor of the "AM New York" show, which I HAVE to think was a full-on parody of Bryant Gumbel (someone with whom Letterman had had a feud with during their days at NBC AND who was the current host of CBS' "The Early Show" during this sitcom's run)!

New York plays a part because of all of the differences in culture and subculture, the rapid fire one-liners that everyone was landing, and the kind and gentle way Jim handled everything getting thrown (sometimes literally) at him!

The problem was that Jim Gaffigan (the real guy) was the actual stand-up comedian, and he was essentially reduced to the role of straight man, reacting to situations instead of cracking wise, himself. So the show's biggest comedy asset was simply not being used.

Letterman's name was never attached to this show. He didn't serve as an executive producer or producer and it's pretty clear his involvement in the series was minimal. That was another mistake. How can you do the Letterman story and leave Dave out?

Does anybody still read a newspaper, anymore? I mean, yes, you can go to the websites of just about every printed press still in business and, depending on if they demand you become a subscriber, look at today's top stories, read about the latest entertainment news... even get in a game of Wordle!

But I'm talking about going to a kiosk, plopping down your folding green and your silver, picking up a physical stack of printed paper and reading it.

The fact that we collectively don't do that much anymore, makes this series seem even more quaint than it otherwise might have been.

This is kind of a spinoff series from the "Law & Order" franchise. Series creator Dick Wolf wanted to produce a show that tackled the kinds of stories that were actually seen in the New York papers. Does that fact, in the year 2000, when this show aired, make this the first program that featured stories that were "RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES!" Maybe not, but perhaps it was the first to admit it, even as they ran the boilerplate disclaimer that "this story is fiction."

Oliver Platt, always moody, glib and intense, got to use his complete acting palette in the character of Wallace Benton, (he prefers "Wally," thank you very much) a journalist for a tabloid rag called The New York Ledger, which, if you get a good look at the newspaper's masthead, is clearly modeled after The New York Post.

I think they wanted to make Platt's character a kind of Jimmy Breslin type: a hardnosed, hard drinking honcho, who wrote hard hitting pieces with a bit of a hard head. Jimmy Breslin... Wally Benton... I'm not saying, I'm just saying.

There's plenty of reasons for Platt's writer to want to hit the bar. His wife, played by Hope Davis, is divorcing him but she's lingering around, because she continues to work at the Ledger. His editor, played by Bebe Neuwirth, is always against everything he says before he says it. And the the wealthy owner and publisher, played by Tom Conti (and obviously aping Rupert Murdoch - except he's Scottish, not Australian), has higher ideals for the paper, which maybe puts him in line with "Citizen Kane?" Suffice it to say, they didn't get THAT right!

New York is all over this series, top to bottom, and the stories were, like most of Dick Wolf's work, pretty worthwhile, if not a little far-fetched... Like the fact that Benton was also teaching a course on Journalism at Columbia University. He ropes his young interns into helping him investigate his latest story, including cub reporter Lili Taylor.

Even though this would have existed in the L&O Universe (The Ledger was referenced multiple times as a source for info and copies of the paper itself appeared on episodes in that group), this absolutely was a stand alone show and it featured a bit more humor than you would find in those other shows, even as the format of the program followed the standards of all of the other shows in that canon. But maybe that's why it didn't make the cut? If they added in more crossovers (and those would have been completely natural in the course of this series) it could have helped anchor the audience a bit more, early in the run, so they might have had a more solid foundation. A few years before, David E. Kelley did his infamous crossover with "Ally McBeal" and "The Practice" on two different networks, so there was precedence.

Finally, the message of the show might have put off some viewers - that being: print journalists are good-hearted seekers of the truth, wherever it leads them, and are working hard to get the story right. That seems difficult to deal with now, with so many newspapers shuttering their offices and fewer and fewer resources dedicated to that element of news gathering. Where have you gone, Wally Benton... our nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Woo-woo-woo.

New York is the home of the Brill Building, a place where songwriters worked their craft in the 1950s, 60s and 70s... and created the hits that would eventually spread across the country and around the world.

New York was (and continues to be) a headquarters for music publishing companies, so it was only natural that there would be a series that touched on that element, and maybe a bit of the flavor of the sound, if I can mix a metaphor.

"Throb" owes a lot to another sitcom. The template is mostly based on "WKRP in Cincinnati," which gave viewers a behind the scenes glimpse of what went on at a rock radio station. Here, we're seeing how things happen at a rock record label ( Throb Records: the Throb of "Throb"). Diana Canova plays Sandy, the person we're seeing the events through, much like Gary Sandy's character, Andy Travis was, for "WKRP:"

This Sandy is a newly divorced, first time hire for the company who is learning the ropes about the music business as she is negotiating New York and dealing with being a single mom.

Her boss (Jonathan Prince) is very much interested in her, her son Jeremy (Paul Walker) is hitting puberty, so he's starting to get interested in all the things related to rock, and her co-workers are there to add some texture and color to the proceedings, most especially Blue, played by Jane Leeves, who is apparently "a favorite" (or maybe I should say "favourite," since she's British) with a number of famous rockers and who eventually moves in with Sandy to provide more hilarity between their two very different lifestyles, with Sandy needing to be a good mom and Blue free to jet off to anywhere for whatever party is happening next!

New York plays a part because of the acts that blow through the office are oh so cutting-edge, there's the scene - nightclubs, restaurants, coffee shops, the fast pace and the action that it promises, all part of the landscape of this record label.

One reason "Throb" hasn't been seen much since the mid 1980s relates to something that also affected "WKRP": the use of music and the royalty rights to allow it as a part of an episode.

"Throb" used actual hit songs on its soundtrack and when it came to working out the rights to use that music on a home video release, that wasn't a consideration back in the 1980s, when the series first aired, but certainly is now, and that's cost prohibitive.

But the likely more important reason why "Throb" is seldom seen is that they didn't quite nail it. Where "WKRP" had a brilliant ensemble of comedic actors, any and all of whom could carry a scene with hilarious ability, "Throb" just didn't. The show's comedy star became Ms. Leeves, who always seemed to have a great line, or a brilliant delivery of a not-so-great line. Had the show centered on her character, I think it might have become a hit, or at least lasted a little longer than it did.

The term "Déjà vu" means a feeling that you have seen something before as you are watching it happen, now. And I have to say this series is the one that best sums up that phrase, for me.

Let's start with a basic fact. Bill Dana created a character that he was associated with for the bulk of his career. This character was first introduced to a national audience on "The Steve Allen Show," a kind of prime time spinoff of NBC's "The Tonight Show," which Allen also hosted at that time.

Dana's character, José Jiménez, got to be quite popular and landed an occasional appearance on "The Danny Thomas Show," where he was an elevator operator who dealt with the ups and downs of that job.

Eventually, the character became so popular, he even got one of the famed "window cameos" during a "bat-climb" on the 1966 Adam West series "Batman." But between Danny and The Bat, we had this series. It was the Autumn of 1963 and the Elevator Operator character got promoted to bellhop of a swank NYC hotel.

It's important to note that some people found Dana's characterization of this character offensive (Bill Dana's birth name was William Szathmary, and he was a Hungarian Jew, not Hispanic). But aside from a few malapropisms and an occasional mixed pronunciation of certain words, the character was intelligent, hard-working, honest and kind.

One of the co-stars that the Jiménez character had to answer to was the inept and staccato-speaking house detective, Mr. Glick, played by Don Adams.

Dana wrote comedy bits for Adams to perform on the show. And, as it turned out, when this series ended, Adams took the character of Mr. Glick (and clearly his dialog!) to Mel Brooks and Buck Henry and they created an even more inept spy to parody James Bond and the others on the scene at the time: "Get Smart."

Meanwhile, the other antagonist for Dana's bellman was the manager of the hotel, the booming, pedantic, and always annoyed Mr. Phillips, portrayed by Jonathan Harris. That character was the clear template for Dr. Zachary Smith from the sci-fi series "Lost In Space."

Those three characters: Jiménez, Glick and Phillips gave those three actors their careers!

The show's opening titles featured a cartoon avatar of Dana, with a photograph of his head, wearing a suit of armor, carrying a lance and riding a horse toward a windmill, a clear reference to the character of Don Quixote. Jiménez was a daydreamer, and would often imagine himself as someone important or famous, much like another character with an overactive imagination: Walter Mitty.

New York played a part because a big hotel always has important people coming through, new intrigue and always something for José fantasize about, plus, the stock responses of those aforementioned characters assured that there would be some interesting reactions to whatever was going on in and around their lodging.

I think this series provided a sort of comfort for viewers, in that they knew how the characters would respond to the circumstances and that knowledge provided a familiarity to how they received the situations.

Conversely, I think too many stock characters ruins the broth, and that's what you had here, before they all headed to their own shows. But, for one, brief shining moment, you had Dr. Smith shouting down Agent 86, and that has made all the difference.

Note: This is one of my list of the 400 Most Notable TV Shows Set in New York City, in honor of the 400th Anniversary of the founding of NYC - the full explanation and list of titles can be found by clicking my username (DeanNYC) and looking for the list on my Profile Page.

Reviews of each show are being posted under their respective titles.

//

Barry Kemp is a name you might know from comedy television. He created "Newhart," the series where Bob Newhart played a Vermont Innkeeper. Kemp was also responsible for the first ever comedy miniseries: "Fresno," a parody of nighttime soaps, which starred Carol Burnett, Dabney Coleman, Charles Grodin and Teri Garr.

"Newhart" had just ended its run and Kemp offered CBS a new series he co-created; the network snapped it up. "Princesses" premiered on Friday Nights at 8pm in the Autumn of '91.

But one of the worst kept secrets about the series at the time was the behind the scenes rifts happening during production.

Julie Hagerty was the star of the show, and for good reason. She had the comic pedigree, having been in such classic films as "National Lampoon's Animal House," and "Airplane!" and having worked well with directors Woody Allen and Albert Brooks in the 1980s. So, she received top billing. Hagerty played Tracy, college roommate and best friend to Fran Drescher's character, Melissa.

Tracy was to marry a businessman she only knew for six weeks, and who set her up in a gorgeous duplex apartment right on Central Park with skyline views.

Twiggy entered the scene, as the semi-actual Princess, Georgina, a woman who married into the title for an archipelago between Great Britain and France, and who was previously a "showgirl," now widowed from her royal husband. She also was promised the apartment and was already there when the others arrived.

When Tracy discovered her fiancé's philandering and multiple ex-spouse ways, she breaks off the engagement, but stays in the apartment along with Melissa and Princess Georgy. If this sounds a little convoluted, you're keeping pace with all of the television critics of the day!

Here's the point: Despite Julie Hagerty's wealth of comic experience, it was the little known Fran Drescher who was the breakout star, getting most of the funniest lines and just owning every scene she was in.

I tried to confirm exactly what happened, but I wasn't able to dig up the specific dirt. However, we could put one and one together and note that Hagerty walked off the show after the fourth episode aired. Princess, indeed. It was stated that this was a mutual agreement between the production company and Hagerty, but, come on! That's just the PR talking.

This obviously complicated matters for CBS as they were also dealing with the fact that the star of another sitcom, Redd Foxx of "The Royal Family," died of a heart attack the same week that Hagerty exited. But the network kept it simple. Instead of trying to find a replacement for Hagerty and to retool the program (that was doing really poorly in the ratings anyway), they simply canceled it outright.

New York played a part because of the glamor of the city, the odd jobs the characters were doing to make it, while living in a kind of palace and the need for the three characters to rely on each other.

In some ways, this program was a precursor for a more successful one coming a few years later about a group of ladies trying to have it all in NYC, "Sex and The City." For that, "Princesses" deserves a nod.

But, the other point is that Fran Drescher and Twiggy bonded and stayed friends long after the series ended.

And it was on a plane flight to England, several years later, that Fran was making to visit Twiggy, that she coincidentally met a CBS programmer. They started talking, touched on this series and the exec offered Ms. Drescher a chance to create her own show. The program she eventually pitched to the network was a little sitcom that was titled: "The Nanny."

One final notable thing - the show's theme song, "Someday My Prince Will Come," was lifted from the first Disney animated feature length film, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and covered by The Roches!

Note: This is one of my list of the 400 Most Notable TV Shows Set in New York City, in honor of the 400th Anniversary of the founding of NYC - the full explanation and list of titles can be found by clicking my username (DeanNYC) and looking for the list on my Profile Page.

Reviews of each show are being posted under their respective titles.

//

The series "Party of Five" was a big deal in its first couple of seasons. It was intriguing because the Salinger family of San Francisco, essentially kids (though granted most of the actors were playing a lot younger than their actual ages), were orphans and trying to both put food on the table (quite literally, as they ran a restaurant), and get through their scholastics while holding their tenuous family circumstances together.

It had elements of a soap opera to it with the drama of Child Protective Services possibly coming in to end it all if eldest sibling Charlie wasn't living up to their requisite expectations, in addition to all of the standard teen issues you would expect with junior high and high schoolers under normal conditions.

Eventually younger brother Bailey, played by Scott Wolf, got into a relationship with a girl named Sarah, and it looked like they might be headed to an engagement. But it broke off. And Sarah, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, did something drastic. She left San Francisco for New York.

We were told that the reason why she left was because she was in pursuit of information about her birth parents, who were New Yorkers - she was chasing her roots.

There also was a question about whether this might have been an "absence makes the heart grow fonder" situation. After all, we were told this was only going to be a temporary exploration and Sarah seemed to want to get back with Bailey.

To be sure, there were a few episodes where that search for parental facts was the focus. But it seemed like that took a back seat to most of the actual stories we got.

For the late 1990s early 2000s, maybe Sarah wasn't completely prepared for the culture shock the move she made would create. More importantly, neither were the writers of this series. Sarah fell into a bohemian lifestyle with an apartment, new friends, new co-workers at her waitressing job just down the block from her dwelling, her attempts to become a recording artist (which may have been a nod to Hewitt's actual, and mostly unsuccessful, attempts to get her own singing career going in the US) a few love interests and all of the elements of randomness, oddities and potential trouble that come with life in The City.

Part of the problem was that Sarah wasn't particularly well-developed... as a CHARACTER, so she wasn't really an ideal candidate to be the star of this show. No offense to Ms. Hewitt, who has had a pretty decent career and can currently be seen on "9-1-1" (after Fox canceled it, the Alphabet Network snapped it up). But her acting at the time was not of the same level as "Felicity" star, Keri Russell, and that hurt the program, certainly by comparison.

It also didn't help that a couple of co-stars, Jennifer Garner, who was actually playing an aspiring actress, and Pauley Perrette, who was an up-and-coming model on the series, were very poorly used. But, don't worry about them too much; they both found better opportunities relatively soon after this series.

New York played a part because of the flavor of the city, that sense that anything could happen, the connections of wealth and fame, seemingly just within your reach and the compromises one is willing to make to be able to be there.

Ultimately though, "Time of Your Life" was a case of a central character not having a central focus and without that, it was like a boat without a rudder. That's really why this didn't work out.

Prom Pact is supposed to be a little cliché, by design. It's a movie that is doing a tribute to (and a send up of) all those classic movies of the 1980s (with a few hints of films from the 1990s in the mix as well).

Peyton Elizabeth Lee is Mandy, the focused high school brainiac who never really had a social life because she's too busy saving the planet and fighting the patriarchy to bother. Oh, and she's absolutely intent on getting into Harvard so she can continue her crusades.

Margaret Cho, as Ms. Chen, Mandy's guidance counselor, tries to loosen Mandy up, to little success, but is her typical hilarious self every time she appears.

Mandy's bestie, Ben, played by Milo Manheim, is also just as socially awkward as she is (okay, he's much more awkward), except when they're together. They spend their off time in school clowning the popular people, which include captain of the basketball team, Graham (Blake Draper) and head cheerleader LaToya (Monique A. Green).

When Mandy gets waitlisted for Harvard, she tries to discover a way to get an edge. That's when she learns that Graham's dad, a prominent politician, was a Crimson grad and maybe could write her a letter of recommendation?

Then it becomes a scramble for Mandy to get in good with the guy she mocked so his father could make her dream come true, and for Ben to try to be near LaToya, who he had been crushing on since junior high.

The most fun here is in all of the references to classic 80s pop culture, as most every "promposal" features a moment taken from one of those films as a part. The parents will get a kick out of that. And the soundtrack of featured music is a playlist of hits of the era from start to finish!

But the "pact" part of Prom Pact was Mandy and Ben's agreement to go to prom together, as sort of a joke, but as kind of protection for each other since neither one of them fit into the whole "High School Popularity" concept. However, what happens when other things happen and maybe they each discover things they never knew about themselves and about the people around them?

This is a knowing film that references the 1980s in a way to make it feel current and charming and it all is retrofitted brilliantly into the 2020s. Director Anya Adams deserves full credit for balancing these two disparate decades so deftly, it doesn't feel contrived.

Definitely cute, relatable and with a high LOL factor, Prom Pact is totally tubular and pure guava. (That means it's very worth watching!)

There have been a number of series, both dramatic and comedic, in a school setting. One of the ones with the highest of aspirations was "Room 222."

The campus of Walt Whitman High School in Los Angeles was the location (just to hint at the level of reason and fairness), and the students, but mostly the faculty, is the focus as we watch these teachers and their charges both learn and instruct each other through the events and the lessons that take place.

The title location is the homeroom for Pete Dixon (Lloyd Haines), who teaches History. Two elements that made this show very unique for its time were the fact that Mr. Haines, being African American, was the de facto star of the show, and that he was having a subtle romance with another faculty member, Liz McIntyre (Denise Nicholas) which was something very rare on television in the late 1960s and early 70s.

Michael Constantine made a name for himself here as the principal, who, more often than not, really listened to his staff and didn't dictate. Karen Valentine as a teacher's aide, also became a favorite for her intelligence and care. Both of them won Emmys for their performances.

The fact that the student body of this school was so diverse was another unique element of the program, with no one making a big deal about that factor - surely something that was surprising for audiences of the day.

I think part of the reason this show hasn't been seen in reruns is that some episodes don't play very well anymore and certain episodes really don't make sense, generally - like one where the high school kids intended to do a performance night with a nude scene ending (a clear reference to Broadway's hit musical at the time, "Hair'), knowing their parents would be in attendance!

But, more often than not, "Room 222" examined issues that were important to kids at the time, and may still have some resonance for students today. And, when you look at the constant debates about learning, about what is appropriate to teach, about trying to give the next generation a good start and to help them become citizens that could uplift our society, there's no doubt that we could use a similar show with the same kinds of virtues and values as this one, now.

Of all the programs that have been considered or have received a reboot, we are overdue to get a brand new 222.