Kate & Allie
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| Kate & Allie | |
|---|---|
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| Format | Comedy |
| Created by | Sherry Coben |
| Starring | Susan Saint James Jane Curtin Ari Meyers Frederick Koehler Allison Smith |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of seasons | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 122 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes (per episode) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | March 19, 1984 – May 22, 1989 |
Kate & Allie is an American television situation comedy which ran from March 19, 1984 to May 22, 1989. Kate & Allie first aired on CBS as a midseason replacement series and only six episodes were initially commissioned, but the favorable response from critics and viewers alike (its first episode ranked #4 out of all the television shows airing that week) easily convinced CBS to commit to a full season in the fall of 1984. The series was created by Sherry Coben.[1] Another key member of the creative team was Bill Persky, who served as primary director of the series, winning an Emmy Award. Persky had previously won Emmy Awards for writing during his collaboration with Sam Denoff for the Dick Van Dyke Show, and also developed "That Girl" with Denoff.
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[edit] Overview
The show starred Susan Saint James as the free-spirited Kate McArdle and Jane Curtin as her more traditional childhood friend, Allie Lowell. The premise: the two decide to share a brownstone in New York City's Greenwich Village after their respective divorces, raising their families together.
The show also starred Ari Meyers as Kate's daughter Emma, and Frederick Koehler and Allison Smith as Allie's children Chip and Jennie.
Both Kate and Allie dated regularly, but were portrayed as strong, independent women, which was still a relative novelty on television at the time. Unlike other successful career women portrayed before them, Kate and Allie were shown to be wise to the games men play, but not averse to remarrying if the opportunity presented itself.
The show was one of the most popular and critically acclaimed sitcoms of the 1980s, consistently ranking in the Top 20 shows until its final season. Curtin won two Emmy Awards for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, while Saint James was nominated in the same category three times.[2]
[edit] Series details
At the beginning of the series, Kate worked as a travel agent, while Allie stayed home and took care of the domestic duties. Kate's storylines often revolved around her struggles to be taken seriously in the workplace, while Allie's often revolved around learning to be more independent and sure of herself after her years as a housewife. In the show's fifth season, Kate quit her job and teamed up with Allie to start their own catering service.
In the show's second-to-last season, Allie was dating Bob Barsky (Sam Freed), a television sportscaster who proposed to Allie in the season finale. Following their marriage, Allie and Bob moved into a new apartment in the show's final season — however, Bob took a job which involved regular travel, and Kate moved into the new apartment as well. This plot development, frequently cited as one of the canonical examples of a television show jumping the shark, led viewers to lose interest[3], and CBS chose not to renew Kate & Allie for a seventh season.
[edit] Regular cast
- Susan Saint James as Katherine Elizabeth Ann "Kate" McArdle
- Jane Curtin as Allison "Allie" Lowell. Curtin and Saint James had previously worked together in the 1979 movie How to Beat the High Co$t of Living.
- Ari Meyers as Emma McArdle, Kate's daughter. Meyers left the show a few episodes into the fifth season to attend Yale University (although her name remained in the opening credits to the end of the season); she returned for the season-ending 100th episode retrospective.
- Frederick Koehler as Charles "Chip" Lowell, Allie's son
- Allison Smith as Jennie Lowell, Allie's daughter
- Sam Freed was featured as three different characters during the series. In the first season he played a married candidate for office named Johnathan Conti who flirts with Allie. At the end of season 3 he played Keith in the episode Late Bloomers (a supposed spinoff for Lindsay Wagner.) In the final seasons, he was best known as Bob Barsky, the boyfriend and later husband of Allie.
Actress Wendie Malick, best known for her appearances on Just Shoot Me! had one of her earliest roles as the new wife, Claire, of Allie's ex-husband, Charles.
[edit] Production
The test name for the script was entitled Two Mommies and was seized upon by Saint James who was able to use the show as a way to work without relocating her family from Litchfield, Connecticut. Kate & Allie was taped on soundstages constructed at the Ed Sullivan Theater and also at the Teletape Studios at West 81st Street and Broadway in New York City.[4]
Cold opening dialog sequences between Saint James and Curtin documenting city life were featured, shot on location in Manhattan with no laugh track. The theme song Friends by John Lefler and Ralph Schuckett played instrumentally over the title shot of the Empire State Building. Closing credits also included vocals with indicative lyrics, "just when you think/you're all by yourself/you're not."[5]
Under pressure from higher-ups at CBS to quash the suggestion that Kate and Allie were lesbians, the producers were instructed to show Kate and Allie entering separate bedrooms to sleep at the end of each episode. That pressure may have been the impetus for an episode showing Kate and Allie pretending to be lesbians when they were faced with a large increase in rent.[6]
Saint James was pregnant during the taping of the fourth season. Her pregnancy was hidden by filming her behind a desk, under a sheet in a hospital bed, or in a bubble bath. The exception was a flashback which showed both Kate and Allie pregnant.
An episode broadcast in 1987, produced in cooperation with the Coalition for the Homeless, was filmed entirely outdoors, on the streets of Manhattan. The episode was prompted by the likely absence of Saint James, who had been hospitalized due to kidney stones, and featured Allie struggling to find a way home after accidentally leaving her keys and money in a taxi.[7]
The show's final season was affected by the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike.
[edit] Ratings
Following are the Nielsen Ratings for the show:[citation needed]
According to an essay by Christine R. Catron from the Museum of Broadcast Communications's Encyclopedia of Television,[3] the decline in ratings for the show's last season is attributable to the fact that the show's premise had been fulfilled at the end of the previous season, when Allie accepted Bob Barsky's marriage proposal.
[edit] Syndication
The American syndication rights are held by NBC Universal Television Distribution; the show currently airs on RTN. Kate & Allie previously aired on WE tv, until 2007-2008. FremantleMedia owns the international rights, as they own Thames Television and have access to Alan Landsburg Productions and Reeves Entertainment Group product.
[edit] DVD releases
[edit] United States
Universal Studios Home Entertainment released the first season of Kate & Allie on DVD exclusively in the United States in May 2006. A January 2007 review of the season's six episodes suggests the series has not aged well:[8]:
- Two decades ago, Kate registered as a mild shock in television land: it featured two single women...rearing their children together with only minimal help from their ex-husbands. In 1984, when the top-rated network shows were “Dynasty” and “Dallas,” that qualified as feminist television. Times have changed. The first six episodes of this sitcom, now available on DVD, seem mostly quaint and a little cloying. There’s a lot of hugging and a lot of learning, two things that can seriously date a comedy in the post-Seinfeld universe.
[edit] Canada
For the Canadian market, Visual Entertainment has released all six seasons on DVD.[1]
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| The Complete First & Second Seasons | 28 | June 6, 2006 |
| The Complete Third Season | 23 | February 6, 2007 |
| The Complete Fourth Season | 25 | July 3, 2007 |
| The Complete Fifth Season | 24 | September 9, 2008 |
| The Complete Sixth Season | 22 | November 3, 2009 |
[edit] References
- ^ O'Connor, John J. "'KATE & ALLIE,' ABOUT 2 DIVORCED WOMEN, ON CBS", The New York Times, March 19, 1984. Accessed December 1, 2007. "Created by Sherry Coben, the series has been fortunate enough to attract some first-rate talent, in front of and behind the cameras."
- ^ "Kate & Allie Awards and nominations". imdb.com. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086742/awards. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
- ^ a b Kate and Allie from the website of the Museum of Broadcast Communications
- ^ http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20131617,00.html
- ^ Lynn C. Spangler (2003). Television women from Lucy to Friends. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 152. ISBN 0313287813.
- ^ BBC - Comedy Guide - Kate & Allie BBC. Retrieved 14 April 2007.
- ^ A TV Sitcom Takes to the Streets, a September 12 1987 article from The New York Times
- ^ Those Two ’80s Heroines, Tough as Toenails, a January 2007 DVD review from The New York Times
[edit] External links
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