Sandy Faison

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.”

Beginning in 1977, Eight is Enough was a hard show to categorize; not really a drama but not a comedy either, even though it featured a laugh track. The show was based on the 1975 autobiography of newspaper editor and columnist Thomas Braden. Tom Bradford (Dick Van Patten) was a columnist for a Sacramento, California newspaper. He and his wife Joan (Diana Hyland) have eight children: Mary (Lanie O’Grady), David (Mark Hamil), Joanie (Laurie Walters), Nancy (Kimberly Beck), Elizabeth (Connie Needham), Susan (Susan Richardson), Tommy (Chris English), and Nicholas (Adam Rich).

A few changes were made from the pilot episode. ABC questioned the performances of the actors who played Nancy and Tommy and replaced them with Dianne Kay and Willie Aames. Another change from the pilot occurred in the role of David. Originally, Mark Hamil was signed but after he received the offer to appear in an upcoming movie Star Wars, he received permission to break his contract and the role was taken over by Grant Goodeve.

When the show began, David lives on his own. Mary is going to school to be a doctor while Joanie, Susan, and Nancy are late studying acting, fashion, and modeling. Elizabeth and Tommy are in high school, and Nicholas is still in elementary school. Tommy would later be part of a rock ‘n roll band.

Four episodes into the series, Diana Hyland who played Joan, the mother, was diagnosed with breast cancer and died soon after. For the rest of Season 1, she was said to be away. In Season 2, Tom was portrayed as a widower and later in the year he meets and marries Abby, played by Betty Buckley. Abby is a school teacher. The series deals with the trials and tribulations every family tackles, including school concerns, sibling rivalry, and relationship issues. The kids were quite different in personality, and it seems like everyone could relate to at least one of them. While The Brady Bunch sometimes seemed a bit syrupy, everyone wanted to be part of a family like the Bradfords.

The show captured the hearts of many viewers, being number one for a while. In the first season the show finished 23^rd overall, but seasons 3-4 had the show 11^th or 12^th each year.

In Season 3, Susan marries Merle “The Pearl” Stockwell (Brian Patrick Clarke) who was a baseball star, and David marries Janet (Joan Prather) in a double ceremony. In the last season, Goodeve suggested he and Janet divorce because he didn’t think David was being featured in enough storylines. With so many of the kids flying the coop, Ralph Macchio was brought in as Abby’s orphaned nephew who lived with the Bradfords. You always know when an orphaned relative is hired, the show is not going to last long.

The show was developed by writer William Blinn. The first three seasons were filmed at The Burbank Studios (now the Warner Brothers Ranch) and the last two years were filmed at MGM Studios in Culver City. Writers were often shared with The Waltons, which was another Lorimar-produced show.

During the first couple of seasons, an instrumental version of the theme was played during the opening. However, in later seasons, lyrics were added, and the theme was sung by Grant Goodeve. Those lyrics are:

There’s a magic in the early morning, we’ve found,

When the sunrise smiles on everything around.

It’s a portrait of the happiness that we feel and always will,

For eight is enough to fill our lives with love.

Oh, we’re lucky we can share this beautiful stage.

So many find the world an empty place.

Anyone who asks to stand alone is always standing still,

And eight is enough to fill our lives with love.

Oh, love makes all the difference now,

And one that really shows.

Just look at every one of us —

See how it overflows!

Though we spend our days like bright and shiny new dimes,

If we’re ever puzzled by the changing times,

There’s a plate of homemade wishes on the kitchen window sill,

And eight is enough to fill our lives with love.

Yes, more than enough to fill our lives with lo-o-o-ove.

After five seasons, with production costs rising and ratings falling, the show was cancelled. Their “sister” show The Waltons was also done. Later in a 2000 interview, Van Patten said that he learned about the cancellation in a newspaper story.

Two television movies aired in the 1980s. “An Eight Is Enough Reunion” was seen in 1987 when everyone came home to celebrate Tom’s 50^th birthday, and “An Eight is Enough Wedding” aired in 1989. Mary Frann and Sandy Faison, respectively, played Abby in these movies.

Unfortunately, the show is rarely seen in syndication. DVDs were released between 2012 and 2014.

Most of the articles I read portrayed the set as a fun place to work, due to the positive influence of Van Patten. He stayed close to many of the actors and actresses and truly viewed them as family. It was a critically acclaimed show, nominated for several Emmys. While clothing styles may have changed, family issues haven’t. The Bradford family handled their problems together in a realistic manner. It would be a fun show to binge watch this winter.

thewritelife61

How pop culture influences us

We’re Asking for “Anything But Love”

The Show That Captured America’s Heart: Eight is Enough