Allan Manings

For this Reboot series, we are ending with One Day at a Time. This show was about a divorced mom, Ann Romano (Bonnie Franklin) whose father is not in the picture much anymore. She moves her two teenaged daughters, Barbara (Valerie Bertinelli) and Julie (Mackenzie Phillips) from Logansport, Indiana to Indianapolis. Barbara is the funny daughter who is always doing the right thing, while Julie is rebellious and angry. Schneider (Pat Harrington Jr.) is their building supervisor, and he takes on a bit of a parental role with the girls.

In the early seasons, Ann dates her divorce lawyer David (Richard Masur). However, after becoming engaged, Ann realizes David wants children of his own and she is not ready to go down that road again, so they break up. Her ex remarries and he eventually enters their lives again.

Julie marries Max (Michael Lembeck), a flight attendant, and they eventually have a daughter. Barbara marries a dental student Mark (Boyd Gaines). In the finale, Ann decides to take a job in London and Schneider moves to Florida to take care of his niece and nephew.

The series was created by husband-and-wife team Whitney Blake and Allan Manings. Blake was Dorothy Baxter on Hazel. Blake based the show on her experiences as a single mother raising three children. It debuted in 1975 and aired until 1984.

Franklin was not happy with the scripts in the first season. She said that she threatened to quit unless the quality improved for the second season.

Phillips dealt with substance abuse, and she was fired after the fifth season. She did come back later for a few appearances. When she entered rehab in 1980, the plot was that Julie and Max moved to Houston. In the seventh season, she returned for a two-part episode. In the final season, she collapsed on the set. When the producer asked her to take a urinalysis test, she told them not to bother and she was fired for the last time. Lembeck continued with the show, and he raised their daughter after it was said Julie left them. While Phillips was unkind, to put it nicely, to Bertinelli early in the series, they eventually became closer. Bertinelli was one of the few people who stood by her after she released a shocking autobiography. Later Glenn Scarpelli joined the cast as Alex. His father had been Ann’s boyfriend and after his father dies in a car accident, Alex asks to move in with Ann and Barbara.

Family members Nanette Fabray and Shelly Fabares both took roles in the series; Nanette played Ann’s mom and Shelly was a coworker. Howard Hesseman also joined the cast as Sam who would marry Ann.

The show was filmed before a studio audience. That surprised me a bit. I went back to watch a few shows for this blog, and I was surprised how dark the series was for a sitcom. Many of the shows, especially Norman Lear shows, were not very light-hearted. I remember liking this show as a teenager/young adult, but I must admit, they were hard to sit through the second time around, and it is not a show that I would choose to watch again.

The theme song was “This Is It.” Brill Building composed the music with lyrics by Jeff and Nancy Barry. Polly Cutter sang the song.

It is amazing that the show did so well in the ratings because it was moved around on the schedule eleven times during its run. For most of its life, it was in the top 20.

The show still had decent ratings after its nine seasons, but Franklin decided she was ready to be done. Harrington was the only cast member to win an Emmy. A 1984 spinoff was discussed for Schneider, but that show never came to fruition. It seems fitting for Harrington to win the Emmy. He has 166 acting credits, and appeared in movies with Elvis Presley and Robert Redford. He said 100 actors auditioned for the role of Schneider. He said that he was a family man with four kids and needed to put food on the table, so he went for it.

In 2005, there was a One Day at a Time Reunion on CBS. Franklin, Phillips, Bertinelli, and Harrington discussed their time on the show. The documentary featured private interviews with Masur, Fabares, Fabray, Lembeck, and Scarpelli.

At least three seasons were released on DVD, but I have not seen any references to seasons four-nine.

In 2017 a reboot was made of One Day at a Time. Three original cast members showed up on the new series. Phillips appeared as a counselor and former veteran leading a support group with PTSD, Glenn Scarpelli was in season three, and Lembeck directed the season one episode “Sex Talk.”

The remake was developed by Gloria Calderon Kellett and Mike Royce with a Latino cast for Netflix. The stars were Justina Machado, Todd Grinnell, Marcel Ruiz, Stephen Tobolowsky, and Rita Moreno. The Cuban family lives in LA. A single mother and former veteran dealing with PTSD, Penelope Alvarez (Justina Machado) lives with her daughter, Elena (Isabella Gomez), and son Alex (Marcel Ruiz), and her mom Lydia (Rita Moreno). Pat Schneider (Todd Grinnell) is the supervisor. Penelope works for Dr. Leslie Berkowitz (Stephen Tobolwsky). The reboot also focused on some tough subjects including mental illness, immigration, sexism, homophobia, gender identity, and racism. It aired for four seasons.

The critics were all on board. It was listed as one of the best shows of 2017 and received a variety of awards including four Emmy nominations. Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times wrote that it was “lively without being rushed” and David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle felt it “was nicely written . . . and the performances are almost universally engaging.” Verna Gay of Newsday called Machado “flat out terrific.”

This time around, Gloria Estefan sang “This Is It.”

The series was canceled after four seasons. The network said it did not have enough viewers, despite the fact that Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 100% rating for every year. It was praised for dealing with many hard subjects and featuring a matriarchy of three generations of women who make their way through life and support each other even when they don’t agree with each other.

I think that the failure of this show to make it to five seasons is a common factor that we will see in streaming shows. Networks had more of an incentive to keep shows around when there were fewer options. Now there are so many shows available that it’s almost impossible to know what is available to watch. Considering that three networks used to get most of the viewers tuning in, now you can multiply that by hundreds. I’m not sure what it will take to keep a show running more than three years anymore.

I hope you enjoyed taking a look at four reboots that succeeded in bringing back original viewers and building a new fan base for themselves. I’d love to hear if any of these were shows you would root for.

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you know I am a big fan of the show Family starring James Broderick and Sada Thompson. Along with Gary Frank and Kristy McNichol, Meredith Baxter played one of their children on the show. As Nancy, she got divorced and moved into a garage apartment with her son Timmy. She went to law school to follow in her father’s footsteps. Today we will learn a bit more about the life Meredith Baxter had off the show.

Baxter was born in 1947 in California. Her mother was Whitney Blake who played Dorothy Baxter on Hazel. Her father was a radio announcer. Her parents divorced when she was 6. She lived with her brothers and her mother who eventually remarried; Meredith’s stepfather was sitcom writer Allan Manings. Manings wrote for a variety of shows, including McHale’s Navy, Laugh-In, Good Times, and both the original and reboot of One Day at a Time.

Baxter went to Hollywood High. She briefly transferred to Interlochen Center for the Arts as a voice major, but returned to Hollywood High to graduate. Shortly afterward she married Robert Lewis Bush and they had two children. They divorced in 1971.

For the next few years, Meredith appeared on a variety of television shows and in several big-screen movies, including The Doris Day Show and The Partridge Family.

Image #: 2088657 David Birney (as Bernie Steinberg) and Meredith Baxter (as Bridget Fitzgerald Steinberg) in the CBS comedy series “Bridget Loves Bernie.” 1972 – – Picture by Landov / Retna Pictures – Job: 79439 Ref: LAN / CBS – UK Rights Only *Unbylined uses will incur an additional discretionary fee!*

The following year, Meredith got her first major acting role: Bridget Loves Bernie. She starred with David Birney. The premise behind this sitcom is that wealthy, Catholic Bridget Fitzgerald marries lower-class, Jewish Bernie Steinberg who drives a cab. Both sets of parents are uncomfortable with their children’s mates.

Although the show only lasted one season, she and Birney lasted a little longer. They married in 1974 and had twins. In 1989 they divorced and don’t have very good things to say about one another.

Photo: sitcomsonline.com
Asea on The Love Boat

In the mid-seventies, television kept Meredith very busy with 11 appearances on shows such as Medical Center and McMillan and Wife and 10 made-for-tv movies.

She appeared on the big screen in All the President’s Men in 1976 before taking the role of Nancy Maitland on Family that same year. Family featured the Lawrences. Kate is a stay-at-home mom and a bit distant but obviously loves her children. Warm, friendly Doug is a lawyer and judge. Nancy is in her twenties but much more mature than her brother Willie who can’t decide what to do with his life. Buddy, a tweener, is the youngest in the family.

Critics as well as viewers were devoted to the show. Baxter was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in both 1977 and 1978. She was beat by her “sister” McNichol in 1977 (McNichol was nominated every year the show was on) and by Nancy Marchand for Lou Grant in 1978. For both years, Family was nominated as best show and Sada Thompson as lead actress which she won in 1978 (Thompson was also nominated every year). Gary Frank as Willie won in 1977. James Broderick also received a nomination during those years.

After Family ended, she went back to making made-for-tv movies with 7 during the 1980s and 21 in the 1990s.

The following year, she would land the role that made her the most famous, Elyse Keaton on Family Ties. In this much-beloved show, Elyse and Steven, former hippies, raise their four children who have different values than they did. Alex, the oldest is a conservative interested primarily in money, Mallory cares more about shopping and boys than anything else, Jennifer has a dry sense of humor and is trying to find her spot in the family and the birth of baby Andy doesn’t help her figure that out. The show was on the air for seven seasons.

In 1995, Baxter married actor and screenwriter Michael Blodgett, but their married only lasted five years. (Blodgett wrote for a variety of television shows and several movies.) Shortly before her divorce, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She made a full recovery and has become a spokesperson for treatment and research and developed a skin cream (Signature). A portion of the proceeds is donated for breast cancer prevention.

THE FACULTY — Meredith Baxter stars in the new comedy series, THE FACULTY, which airs on the ABC Television Network.

In 1996, she again attempted a television series, The Faculty. The show wasn’t renewed for a second season. Baxter played the role of a principal who is divorced and a single mother, and features the choices she has to make to balance her busy life. While the critics praised Baxter’s performance, they didn’t find much else to like about the show, and it was cancelled after 13 episodes.

She made several television appearances on various shows or movies but her only recurring role was as Lilly Rush on Cold Case in 2007.

In 2011, Meredith published her memoir, Untied. She talks frankly about her unhappy marriages, including the abusive one with Birney. She also discloses that she was a recovering alcoholic and that she was gay. After coming out, she met Nancy Locke whom she married in 2013.

In 2014 Baxter accepted a role as Maureen, Nicky’s friend, on The Young and the Restless which began and ended that year. Since that time, she has appeared on a variety of television shows and in several movies. She has a couple of movies coming out soon.

Photo: tvguide.com
With Melody Thomas Scott on The *Young and the Restless*

Baxter has also done a variety stage work including the two-character play, “Kissing Place” with David Ogden Stiers. Most recently she has appeared in “Women Beyond Borders,” “Angels in America” and “Love Letters.”

Although Meredith has definitely had some trauma and sadness in her life, she has had a varied and long-lasting career. Being cast in three successful television shows is not something that happens for most actors. She seems to have come to a place in her life where she is happy and content and that is something all of us strive for. Join me next week as we look more closely at the show that made her a household name: Family Ties.

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How pop culture influences us

One Day at a Time

Meredith Baxter: Her Long and Successful Career