Dharma and Greg: Showing Us It’s Not So Hard for Opposites to Attract

August 28, 2023August 21, 2023 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

As we wrap up our “Duos to Love” blog series, we finish with a couple that is always fun to hang out with: Dharma and Greg. This show aired for five years, teaching us that opposites do indeed attract.

Before we get into hearing more about this quirky show, I want to take a minute to thank all of you who read my blog. This month, I published my 365th article. That means many of us have now been spending time together every week for more than seven years. I’m not sure how long the run will last, but I can tell you that I have at least four more years scheduled, so just a big THANK YOU!

So onto Dharma and Greg. Created by executive producers Dottie Dartland and Chuck Lorre, this sitcom debuted on ABC in September of 1997. Chuck Lorre would go on to create other popular shows including Two and a Half Men, Mike and Molly, and The Big Bang Theory. Dartland had been a producer on Caroline in the City and Grace Under Fire.

Spontaneous free spirit Dharma Finkelstein (Jenna Elfman) is a yoga instructor; organized and conservative Greg Montgomery (Thomas Gibson) is an attorney. Educated at Harvard and Stanford, Greg’s family was very Republican and very wealthy. Dharma’s parents, who home-schooled her, sort of, are not wealthy and definitely not Republican, having lived as hippies.

Kitty (Susan Sullivan) and Edward (Mitchell Ryan) Montgomery are socialites who expected a very different type of woman for their daughter-in-law. Edward is a bit eccentric who deals with his wife by consuming martinis and Scotch. Abigail O’Neil (Mimi Kennedy) and Larry Finkelstein (Alan Rachins) are not married, although they have been together for decades. Abigail is a devoted vegan. Myron loves conspiracy theories; but he has a lot of other interests. He always tells people that he is wanted by the FBI.

Rounding out the cast was Jane (Shae D’lyn), Dharma’s friend who hates men and gradually disappears from the show by the last season; Peter, (Joel Murray) Greg’s best friend and colleague who is a bit lazy and is not a good attorney at all. Marcie (Helen Greenberg) and Susan (Susan Chuang) are friends of Dharma’s from the Co-op.

The theme song was written and performed by Dennis C. Brown. He created several other theme songs, including Grace Under Fire, Mike and Molly, and Two and a Half Men.

For the first three seasons, the show was in the top 25 on Wednesday nights. It had some competition from Beverly Hills 90210 on Fox for the first two seasons. It moved to Tuesdays during season three and ratings increased. However, in season four, ratings began to decline and never really picked up. Its competition that night was Will and Grace. Unfortunately, in season six it was on against Frasier; by the last season, they lost too many viewers but when Fraiser moved nights, they had to take on #14 JAG. The highest-rated show was during season three with 20 million viewers while the finale episode only attracted 6.8 million.

Dharma and Greg did make a return, however. In season nine, episode one, they showed up as Dharma and Greg taking a tour of Charlie Harper’s house after his death in Two and a Half Men.

Elfman received three Emmy nominations. In 1998 and 1999, she lost to Helen Hunt for Mad About You and to Patricia Heaton for Everybody Loves Raymond in 2000

The shows had a nice blend of humor and warm fuzzy moments. Eventually, the parents learn to respect and like each other even if they would not choose each other as friends. Let’s take a look at several episodes that show this blend of heart-warming and comic elements.

In season one, episode 9, “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Father,” Greg has to have background checks done on both his and Dharma’s family. The results come back revealing that Larry is not, and never was, wanted by the FBI. Dharma knows that this will devastate him rather than make him happy. So, the pair stages a “crime” where Larry steals his file and then assumes the only reason that he is no longer wanted is that his file is missing.

In season two, episode 8, “Like, Dharma’s Totally Got a Date,” Dharma accepts the invitation of a neighbor boy to go to a dance at his high school. Because she was home-schooled, she was never able to attend a school dance. Dharma convinces Donald to find someone his own age at the dance and then is a bit lonely, only to realize Greg has shown up and the two of them have a special moment dancing together.

And, in season two, episode 20, “Dharma Drags Edward Out of Retirement,” Dharma needs investing help in her job and convinces Edward to help her get things figured out. Kitty does not like the fact that he is spending all his time working again and tells Dharma know she is unhappy. At the end of the show, Kitty joins Edward on the project and the two of them enjoy working together.

These episodes display why the show was so good. While the cast could have so easily been stereotyped and shallow, everyone truly learns to like and respect each other despite their differences. That is not something we have become used to in our divisive society. Maybe we should all watch a few seasons and remember how easy that is to do if we give everyone a chance.

“Mad About You” . . . And Them

August 21, 2023August 10, 2023 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

For our blog series this month, we are looking at some of our favorite duos from the eighties and nineties in “Duos to Love.” Today we will meet Paul and Jamie Buchman and their daughter Mabel. Yep, it’s Mad About You. It’s not about you, it’s about them, but I am mad about you too—very thankful you are on this journey with me learning about the golden, and sometimes tarnished, age of television.

In 1992, NBC aired Mad About You. The series was about newlyweds Paul (Paul Reiser) and Jamie (Helen Hunt) Buchman, He was a documentary filmmaker and she worked in public relations. They lived in Greenwich Village for seven years until they were canceled. Both Teri Hatcher and Valerie Bertinelli were considered for the role of Jamie. It’s hard to imagine anyone but Helen in the role. I think the critics agreed; Hunt was nominated for six Emmy Awards for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. In 1993, she lost to Roseanne Arnold for Roseanne; in 1994 and 1995, she lost to Candice Bergen for Murphy Brown; in 1996 and 1997 and 1998 she won. Overall, the show won thirty-four nominations, with twelve wins.

For seasons one through six, the two top stars received $250,000 per episode but in season seven they got a nice raise, landing $1,000,000 per episode.

Before Mabel (Alyssa and Justin Baric) came along, their “baby” was Murray their dog. Paul met Jamie while he was on a walk with Murray. They meet at a newsstand when they are both looking for The New York Times. In real life, the two stars met because Hunt was sharing a house with a good friend of Paul’s wife, Paula. After reading Reiser’s pilot, Hunt changed her mind about concentrating on her film career and wanted the role.

When Reiser pitched the idea to NBC he said it was about the life of a couple in their private moments. He compared it to a couple going to a party but this show was more about what happens when they leave the party and it’s just the two of them in the car talking on the way home. Reiser also compared it to the successful thirtysomething but “shorter and funnier.”

The rest of the cast included Lisa Semple (Anne Ramsay), Jamie’s older sister; Fran Devanow (Lelia Kenzle), Jamie’s best friend; Ira Buchman (John Pankow), Paul’s cousin and friend; Sylvia Buchman (Cynthia Harris), Paul’s mother-in-law who is not in the running for Best Mother-in-Law according to Jamie; Burt Buchman (Louis Zorich), Paul’s father; and Dr. Mark Devanow (Richard Kind), Fran’s ex-husband who is a bit eccentric but not too odd because he wins her back as his wife during the show’s run.

There were a lot of recurring characters on this show. Several showed up more often than others: Debbie Buchman (Robin Bartlett), Paul’s sister; Dr. Joan Golfinos (Suzie Plakson), Debbie’s life partner; Nat Ostertag (Hank Azaria), the Buchmans’ dog walker; Mr. Wicker (Jerry Adler), the apartment building superintendent; Dr. Sheila Kleinman (Mo Gaffney), the Buchmans’ therapist; Maggie Conway (Judy Geeson), their neighbor; Jay Selby (Tommy Hinkley), Paul’s college friend; and Sid (George O. Petrie), Paul’s colleague.

However, there were also a few very famous recurring characters. Mel Brooks showed up as Paul’s uncle Phil in four shows. Cyndi Lauper was Ira’s on/off again girlfriend Marianne in five episodes. Jamie’s mom was in 15 shows but played by three different women: Carol Burnett (10), Penny Fuller (4) and Nancy Dussault (1). Another interesting recurring character was Lisa Kudrow. She was Ursula Buffay, the waitress at their favorite restaurant, Riff’s. She appeared 24 times and when Friends was created, her twin sister Phoebe was written into the show. In one episode after not seeing Ursula much, Paul asks her where she has been and she says “I’ve been hanging out with friends.”

You can imagine how huge the guest star list is for this series. Get ready for auctioneer speed and I will list some of them; just know I am leaving out a lot of famous and fun people. Here goes: We have Ed Asner, Kevin Bacon, Christie Brinkley, Garth Brooks, Sid Caesar, Tim Conway, Ellen DeGeneres, Jamie Farr, Barbara Feldon, Al Gore, Seth Green, Billy Joel, Nathan Lane, Jerry Lewis, Yoko Ono, Regis Philbin, Carl Reiner, Jerry Seinfeld, and Bruce Willis.

Paul Reiser also composed the theme song, “Final Frontier,” with Don Was. Both Andrew Gold and Anita Baker versions of the song were used during the eight-year run. Reiser also played the piano for the theme recording.

In 2019, a twelve-episode revival series debuted. Both Reiser and Hunt returned for the sequel. The Buchmans are now empty nesters after dropping Mabel off at college. Other veterans returning included Ramsay, Pankow, Kind, Harris, Adler, Gaffney, and Carol Burnett. Abby Quinn was Mabel.

This was a popular show that was always discussed around the water cooler. It’s first year on NBC it aired Wednesday nights against In the Heat of the Night and Coach; Coach was in the top twenty. The next season it was moved to Thursdays nights and oddly was still up against In the Heat of the Night but was also on against The Simpsons. Season three found it with little competition and it was ranked eleventh place for the year. As networks do, now that it had a dedicated audience, it was moved to Tuesday nights where it dropped out of the top forty. The show remained in the Tuesday slot, still up against Roseanne but its audience returned and it crept into the top twenty again. It remained in the same spot for its final two years, one year competing with JAG and the next year against Home Improvement which was a top-ten show. I know this was a lot of detail, but I think it helps to think about how much the schedule moving can potentially hurt a show. Fans get used to a certain night and sometimes clear their schedule for that evening and when shows continue to move around, it is frustrating for everyone. Now, we can just DVR shows and it’s not such a big deal.

This was a well-written show, and the producers and writers spent a lot of time on character development. It had some quirky moments and did some fun plot twists that kept it fun and fresh. Of course, both Hunt and Reiser were amazing actors and went on to great success in the movies. I did not see much about how the 2019 reboot was received by viewers. Considering the competition that the show faced as the network moved it around, it did very well for its seven years. The critics loved it and it was certainly recognized by the Emmy committee every year. I am hoping it will come to Antenna or ME TV soon and we can again spend some time with the Buchmans.

We Love Spending Time with “Perfect Strangers”

August 14, 2023August 10, 2023 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

Linn -Baker and Pinchot Photo: tvfinales.com

We are talking about our favorite duos from the eighties and nineties in our blog August series. Although most of these shows feature husband and wife teams, today we are turning the dial back to a show about two cousins: Perfect Strangers. I am always envious of my husband because they have a group of first cousins who are very close and grew up together. While I have scads of second cousins, once removed and such, I have no first cousins and always missed those relationships. Perfect Strangers is about two cousins who develop that type of relationship.

Perfect Strangers is another one of those shows that was quite popular when it was on the air, and it was for eight years, but it doesn’t get much recognition any longer.

The series was created by Dale McRaven for ABC; McRaven was also the creative force behind Mork and Mindy. Bronson Pinchot had appeared in Beverly Hills Cop as Serge, a gay art gallery employee who had a foreign accent. ABC signed on to the project based on Pinchot starring. However, in the meantime, Pinchot had signed on to Geena Davis’s sitcom, Sara. Sara was quickly canceled and Bronson became available, so a pilot was made with Louie Anderson in the role of the American cousin. It was obvious that this was not the best pairing, and eventually the role was offered to Mark Linn-Baker after an appearance he made on Moonlighting. He and Pinchot had great chemistry and the show was placed between Who’s the Boss and Moonlighting, very popular shows, on Tuesday nights.

The short first season of six episodes debuted in March of 1986. The show was about Larry Appleton (Linn-Baker), a Wisconsin boy, who moved to Chicago and was enjoying life on his own after growing up in a large family. His utopia is shattered when his cousin Balki Bartokomous (Pinchot), arrives from Mypos, a Mediterranean island, intending to move in with him. Balki’s name was originally Vev, but Pinchot suggested Balki based on his sister’s nickname for her dog. Larry Appleton got his name because Lawrence University is in Appleton, Wisconsin, where I graduated from high school. Neither actor went to Lawrence, but both of them are Yale alumni. Both Linn-Baker and Pinchot got not only their BA degree from Yale but also both received their Masters of Fine Arts in drama.

Larry tells Balki he needs to live somewhere else. Balki had been a shepherd, and most of his impressions of what America was like were taken from pop culture, television shows, and commercials. Larry, a photographer, relents and invites Balki to live there, thinking of himself as more worldly and able to teach Balki the truth about American life. Ironically, it is often Larry who is more inept and gets the pair into some interesting situations.

Season two found the show on Wednesday nights. The cousins begin dating flight attendants–Jennifer (Melanie Wilson) dates Larry and Mary Anne (Rebeca Arthur) dates Balki. They meet the girls at the gym and realize that they live in the same building.

In season three, Balki is able to stop sleeping on the living room sofa and gets his own room when the pair moves into a much larger apartment. Somehow Jennifer and Mary Anne still live in their building but no one ever talks about moving. Larry is hired as a reporter for the Chicago Chronicle, and Balki is hired for the mail room. For some reason, halfway through the season the show was moved from its successful spot on Wednesdays to Fridays.

During season five, Harriette (Jo Marie Payton-France), the elevator operator, was given a new show, Family Matters which was also on Friday nights. That show, which for better or worse, introduced America to Steve Urkel, was on the air for nine years. Larry and Jennifer are still going strong while Balki and Mary Anne are lukewarm. Larry proposes to Jennifer during season six.

Season seven finds Jennifer and Larry in a large Victorian house. Of course, they realize they need renters to afford the expensive Chicago mortgage and who moves in but Balki and Mary Anne. Balki becomes an animator with his own comic strip at the newspaper. Eventually, Mary Anne moves out but in the finale, they reconcile, marry, and travel to Mypos for their honeymoon. The show retained its viewers but then it was moved to Saturday nights in February of 1992 before returning to Fridays. The TGIF campaign for ABC’s Friday night shows was very successful, and the network was trying to do something similar for Saturday nights.

Season eight, ironically also a six-episode season, picks up several months after the wedding, and we realize that both Jennifer and Mary Anne are noticeably pregnant. In the finale of the series, babies Robespierre and Tucker join the show.

The first six seasons found the show consistently in the top forty. Given its placement between two popular shows in its debut year, five of the first six episodes landed in the top ten. After the show was moved to Saturdays, it experienced a drastic decline in viewers. When the show was moved back to Fridays, it found its audience again. The show’s final season was supposed to be thirteen episodes but it was shortened to six. It was in the top twenty for the final season, and 15 million households watched the finale.

The theme song for the show, “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Me Now,” was written by Jess Frederick and Bennett Salvay. They composed the themes for Full House, Step-by-Step, and Family Matters as well.

We have talked about a lot of shows who have some famous fans and this show was no exception. Bronson Pinchot said Nelson Mandela was a fan of the show. Pinchot was invited to a banquet in South Africa where President Mandela was in attendance. One of the President’s assistants gave Bronson a note that read, “I’m dying to meet you, but if I go to your table, I have to go to everyone’s table. But I wanted you to know that I know my cousin is here.” Later that evening Bronson met Winnie Mandela.

The Emmys also recognized the show. In 1987 Bronson Pinchot was nominated for a Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. He did not win, but had some tough competition with Ted Danson for Cheers, Harry Anderson for Night Court, Bob Newhart for Newhart, and, winner, Michael J. Fox for Family Ties. Two years later, Doris Roberts was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy and lost to Colleen Dewhurst for Murphy Brown. Other nominees included Diahann Carroll for A Different World, Eileen Brennan for Newhart, and Maxine Stewart for The Wonder Years.

I’m sure that Perfect Strangers is in syndication somewhere, but I cannot remember the last time I saw it listed on television. There is a DVD set out for the entire series. I do remember watching this show most weeks and enjoying it, although it was not in my Top Ten. Yes, it had some too-typical and obvious plotlines like the girls living in the same building and both Balki and Mary Anne moving into the Appletons’ new house. However, the writing was pretty good and the characters were fully developed. The twist of naïve Balki often being wiser than native Larry is also a fun influence. It’s definitely a show that deserves more recognition than it has received in the past three decades. I’d love to know if you take some time to watch the DVDs, find it on the air somewhere, or just have fond memories of watching it in the past.

We’re Asking for “Anything But Love”

August 7, 2023August 7, 2023 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month, we are taking a look at some of our favorite duos from the eighties and nineties in “Duos to Love.” I decided to begin with a show that was on when my two oldest boys were babies. I was able to watch a bit more television at night because they slept pretty well. One of the shows we watched was Anything But Love. You don’t hear a lot about it anymore, but it starred Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis. While usually the pilot has different actors and the premise stays the same with different stars, this show was the opposite. In the pilot, Hannah and Marty are involved in a love triangle with D.W. Moffett. Hannah is a well-respected editor. The network liked the characters but not the plot. After viewing the pilot, the network makes Hannah a researcher, Lewis a reporter, and Moffett is sent on his way.

John Ritter can’t get between them Photo: imdb.com

The sitcom began airing on ABC in the spring of 1989 and continued until June of 1992. Lewis plays Marty Gold and Curtis is Hannah Miller. They work for a Chicago magazine and realize that they are attracted to each other but want to keep their relationship on a professional basis.

Wendy Kout created the show and it was produced by Adam Productions, a company of John Ritter’s.

Rounding out the cast were editor Norman Kell (Louis Giambalvo), assistant editor Jules Kramer (Richard Frank), writer Pamela Peyton-Finch (Sandy Faison), and Marty’s current girlfriend Alice (Wendie Malick). Hannah gets deeply philosophical articles to write, like her first assignment, which is “The Tortilla Wars: Does Chicago Prefer Corn or Flour?” At the end of season one, Alice dumps Marty.

The second season tweaked a few things. The magazine has a new owner in Catherine Hughes (Ann Magnuson) who promotes Hannah from researcher to writer. TV critic Brian Allquist (Joseph Maher) comes on board as does Harold (Billy Van Zandt) and Kelly (Jame Milmore) as new office personnel. In order to talk about her feelings for Marty, Hannah’s landlord and best friend, Robin (Holly Fulger), joined the show. At the end of season two, Hannah admits her feelings to Marty who acknowledges that he also has the same feelings for her.

The third season had a delayed airing and came back on the air in February. While Hannah and Marty explore their relationship, a new photographer, Patrick (John Ritter), gets a special assignment. Hannah and Patrick work together and they start to have feelings for each other as well. Hannah has to decide if she wants to accompany him to Africa for a new assignment when she realizes he has some ideas she could never approve and their relationship ends.

The fourth season finds Hannah thinking she is pregnant, and she and Marty decide to get married. Not long before the ceremony, the clinic calls to say the test was negative. Hannah and Marty call off the wedding but not the romance. They decide to continue dating and getting to know each other better.

The show began its life airing on Tuesday nights. It was up against The Tuesday Night Movie and Moonlighting. Considering Moonlighting had a very similar theme but complex and sophisticated plots, this didn’t seem like a great idea. The second season found it on Wednesday nights. It was opposite Jake and the Fatman on CBS and a variety of shows that cycled through that time slot on NBC. Ratings began to decline. When it had a delayed return for season three, viewers drifted to other shows, and the network had a hard time luring them back. For season four, they still faced Jake and the Fatman, but now on NBC a show called Seinfeld was scheduled which insured that the ratings would not be likely to improve.

However, ABC did not cancel the series; 20^th Century Fox which produced the show with Ritter’s company guessed that the show would not have a sixth season and decided that there were not enough episodes or interest for syndication, so rather than putting more money into the show, they were ready to move on.

Critics seemed to like the show. Rick Kogan, TV critic for the Chicago Tribune described it as “a charming, quirky, witty and intelligent show. . . a member in good standing of that small club of quality shows. But for reasons that have alarmed many in the TV biz, the series is being killed.”

The theme song was “Anything but Love”; it was written and performed by J.D. Souther. Beginning in the second season, it changed to an instrumental version. Souther worked on a variety of soundtracks for shows and even received twelve acting credits for shows and movies including recurring characters on thirtysomething and Nashville.

Considering that the critics liked it, fans liked it before it began moving and going through delays, it starred Lewis and Curtis, and it was on the air for four years, I am always surprised it is not discussed more. This is the opinion of a reviewer on imdb.com: “This was such a lovely show and I miss that sort of thing that isn’t on television anymore. It was very smart, very silly and combined slapstick and clever dialogue well. The show reminded me in some respects of films from the thirties that had witty dialogue and a screwball sensibility and the chemistry between Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis was endearing and believable. One was given the impression that everyone enjoyed what they were doing. A favorite episode of mine involved someone running into an ex at a restaurant and the three four different stories of how the situation occurred. The best was a Fellini-like observation of the event. It is one of those clever obscure shows that deserves to be on DVD just for my sake.”

The good news is that the first two seasons are included in Volume 1 of a DVD, and it’s only $10 on Amazon. The bad news is that seasons three and four don’t exist. The first two seasons were definitely the best, but it is too bad you can’t watch the entire series. Ratings are very good on Amazon. It would be well worth paying $10 for that much good writing. I’ll close with this review on the DVD from George: “First, about the show. It is wonderful, and holds up well after 30 years. Snappy lines, young Jamie Lee Curtis is excellent in her role, as is the always quirky Richard Lewis. Many guest appearances, good writing (which has become rather rare in TV shows, riddled nowadays with “reality” TV). The DVD includes a couple of nice extras too. Four to five stars for the show.”

thewritelife61

How pop culture influences us

Month: August 2023

Dharma and Greg: Showing Us It’s Not So Hard for Opposites to Attract

“Mad About You” . . . And Them

We Love Spending Time with “Perfect Strangers”

We’re Asking for “Anything But Love”