I went to a benefit for TRU (Theater Resources Unlimited) this weekend and Melba Moore performed - beautifully, I might add. It brought to mind this show, which had the unfortunate luck to premier on the night of the shuttle disaster. It garnered record settingly low ratings and was pulled off the air immediatly, only to be rebroadcast in August of the same year, also to phenomenally low ratings. Melba played Melba Patterson, a divorced, single mother who ran the Manhattan Visitor's Center in New York where she worked with Jack (Jacobi). She, her mother, Rose (Barbara Meek) and her best friend Susan (Gracie Harrison) cared for her daughter Tracy. There was an Imitation of Life (1959) thing going on, in that Rose had taken care of Susan as a live-in housekeeper when she and Melba were children.
There were only six episodes of this show made and they're very hard to find. Only the opening credits are available on YouTube, buried in the same credit collection that I featured yesterday for Foley Square, uploaded by bobtwcatlanta.
Obscurity factor: 10 (not well remembered, very hard to find)
I realize that 1986 preceded the era of 24 hour news networks, and disaster coverage...but, it's hard to believe that any network would run a sitcom on the evening of the Challenger crash.
ReplyDeleteThe disaster happened that morning. I remember watching coverage of it in the media center of my HS during science class... it was likely not fodder for full time coverage by prime time that evening.
ReplyDeleteOh, I remember the time of day (I was checking out film equipment at the USC film school - the clerk was none other than freshman John Singleton). However, considering the impact of the crash, not only on the space program, but also on the nation as a whole, I would consider it newsworthy for at least a full day, even then. Today, I doubt the premiere of a sitcom would occur in such a situation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about today. Now I don't think it would happen.
ReplyDeleteI remember walking along the street on my way to a class and seeing the headline on the front page of a newspaper in a newspaper box. I also seem to recall seeing this show. However, I didn't remember that it was the same night as the Challenger disaster. The premiere was in January, and the other five were shown in August and September. I don't think I saw more than one episode. I seem to recall there being something stilted about the acting, but I could be wrong. However, from what I have read about the show it sounds like it probably would not have been a success whenever it had premiered.
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