As we take a peek at some one-named sitcoms, today we travel back about fifty years to 1973 and visit Diana which debuted on NBC. Created by Leonard Stern, the show was filmed in front of a live audience. Stern was the creator behind several series including McMillan and Wife and He and She. In addition to this show, he wrote for several series including The Phil Silvers Show, Get Smart, and Holmes and Yo-Yo. He has a decent amount of producing credits including executive producer for Get Smart.

The premise is that divorced Diana Smythe (Diana Rigg) moves from London to New York City as a fashion coordinator for a department store. Her brother lets her live in his apartment while he’s out of town. Not only does Diana have to deal with learning about life in America, she has to take care of her brothers great dane Gulliver. Quickly, she realizes a lot of women have keys to her brother’s apartment and they show up regularly.

Rounding out the cast was neighbor Holly (Carole Androsky), copywriter Howard (Richard B. Shull), window decorator Marshall (Robert Moore), her bosses Norman and Norman Bronik (David Sheiner and Barbara Barrie), and friend Jeff (Richard Mulligan), a mystery novel writer.

Jerry Fielding composed the Diana theme. Fielding was a three-time Oscar nominee with 115 composing credits including McMillan and Wife, Mannix, Hogan’s Heroes, and Star Trek. He also was listed as part of the music department for lots of great series and movies.

Riggs took on the role due to the success of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and wanted to do something similar. I will say they tried a bit too hard to be similar. Their apartments are almost identical, and the work set was also set up with one coworker next to Diana and her boss’s office to the right. The show was placed on the Monday night schedule before Here’s Lucy. It was up against Gunsmoke and The Rookies. Gunsmoke had been on forever and was still in the top 20 while The Rookies was in the top 30. While a lot of shows debuted in 1973, the only real hit was Happy Days.

This show might have wanted to emulate The Mary Tyler Moore Show, but it lacked a few things including the amazing cast, the great writing, and the perfect timeslot. Fans never warmed up to this show and the ratings never took off, so the show was canceled before the end of the season.

It wasn’t a terrible show, but it wasn’t anything worth watching either. I thought the dialogue was not great and it tried way too hard. The jokes seem a bit tired. While the cast also wasn’t awful, they weren’t overly likable either. I think that there were valid reasons this one was canceled after only 15 episodes. At least she had The Avengers to remember which was a much better and beloved show. Diana summed up how this series fared when she related a story that when she arrived in American, the network had her picked up at the airport in a limousine and when she left America after a canceled show, they sent her to the airport in a shabby, yellow cab. I guess limousines and shabby cabs are part of all of our lives.