It's a Living

For the 1998 Canadian reality television series, see It's a Living (Canadian TV series).

It's a Living
Created by	Stu Silver Dick Clair Jenna McMahon
Starring	Barrie Youngfellow Ann Jillian Gail Edwards Crystal Bernard Louise Lasser Marian Mercer Sheryl Lee Ralph Wendy Schaal Susan Sullivan Richard Stahl Earl Boen Paul Kreppel
Theme music composer	George Aliceson Tipton and Leslie Bricusse
Opening theme	"It's a Living"
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	120 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Paul Junger Witt Tony Thomas
Producers	Joel Zwick R.J. Colleary Marc Sotkin Gloria Banta Greg Antonacci Paul Kreppel
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	Witt/Thomas Productions
Original release
Network	ABC (1980–1982) Syndication (1985–1989)
Release	October 30, 1980 (1980-10-30) – April 8, 1989 (1989-04-08)

It's a Living (also known as Making a Living) is an American sitcom set in a restaurant at the top of the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles. The show aired on ABC from October 30, 1980, until June 11, 1982. After the series was canceled by ABC, new episodes aired in first-run syndication from September 28, 1985, to April 8, 1989. The series was created by Stu Silver, Dick Clair and Jenna McMahon and produced by Witt/Thomas Productions, later in association with Golden West Television (1985–86) and Lorimar-Telepictures (1986–89).

First season main cast

Synopsis

The show follows the lives of the waitresses at the posh restaurant Above the Top, located at the top of the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, California. At the helm was supervisor Nancy Beebe (Marian Mercer), the restaurant's maître d’, who sometimes fraternized with the girls but usually gave orders. More often than not the scheme of the week involved upsetting Nancy in some way because all she wanted was an orderly wait staff. Adding to the chaotic working environment was a wisecracking pianist named Sonny Mann (Paul Kreppel), who made rude comments to the women, Nancy included, and got insulted in return. The kitchen was the domain of Chef Mario (Bert Remsen), then Dennis Hubner (Earl Boen), and finally Howard Miller (Richard Stahl), who eventually married Nancy.

Cast

Portrayer	Character	Seasons
		1 (1980–81)	2 (1981–82)	3 (1985–86)	4 (1986–87)	5 (1987–88)	6 (1988–89)
Barrie Youngfellow	Jan Hoffmeyer Gray
Gail Edwards	Dot Higgins
Marian Mercer	Nancy Beebe Miller
Paul Kreppel	Sonny Mann
Ann Jillian	Cassie Cranston
Susan Sullivan	Lois Adams
Wendy Schaal	Vicki Allen
Bert Remsen	Mario
Louise Lasser	Maggie McBurney
Earl Boen	Dennis Hubner
Crystal Bernard	Amy Tompkins
Richard Stahl	Howard Miller
Sheryl Lee Ralph	Ginger St. James

Episodes

Main article: List of It's a Living episodes

The show's two broadcast seasons produced 27 episodes. An additional 93 episodes were produced for the syndication run, making a total of 120 episodes.

Season	Title	Episodes		Originally aired
				First aired	Last aired	Network
1	It's a Living	13		October 30, 1980 (1980-10-30)	August 4, 1981 (1981-08-04)	ABC
2	Making a Living	14		October 24, 1981 (1981-10-24)	June 11, 1982 (1982-06-11)
3	It's a Living	22		September 28, 1985 (1985-09-28)	May 24, 1986 (1986-05-24)	Syndication
4		25		September 27, 1986 (1986-09-27)	May 23, 1987 (1987-05-23)
5		26		September 26, 1987 (1987-09-26)	May 28, 1988 (1988-05-28)
6		20		October 15, 1988 (1988-10-15)	April 8, 1989 (1989-04-08)

Title changes

Like many other sitcoms that aired during the 1980–81 television season, It's a Living felt the effects of the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists strike that occurred in 1980. This caused the show to have an abbreviated first season, and thus was not a success. The series was retooled extensively, with two of the five waitresses from the first season - Lois Adams and Vicki Allen, played by actresses Susan Sullivan and Wendy Schaal, respectively - being replaced with waitress Maggie McBurney, portrayed by actress Louise Lasser. Airing in 1981 under the title Making a Living, this iteration did not catch on either, and the show was canceled after two seasons. In syndication, the second season airs under the original title It's a Living.

Of all the cast, only Gail Edwards (Dot Higgins), Marian Mercer (Nancy Beebe Miller), Barrie Youngfellow (Jan Hoffmeyer Gray), and Paul Kreppel (Sonny Mann) lasted through the show's network and syndicated runs. Ann Jillian (Cassie Cranston) appeared during the network run and the first year of syndication.

Syndication

While the show was never a hit on network TV, its fortunes would later turn in 1983 when all 27 episodes went to syndication. The series began to attract a following along with surprising ratings for the reruns, which prompted the producers and Golden West Television to bring it back. Another factor in its sudden rediscovery was Ann Jillian's public disclosure that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 1984, the same year as the announcement of the show's revival.

In 1985, the show was revived under its old name for the syndicated market. Most of the cast remained intact from the former version. A new waitress, Amy Tompkins (Crystal Bernard), arrived at the restaurant and was immediately accepted by the group. When Jillian decided to leave the show in 1986 (she had agreed to do only one season in syndication, plus she wanted to continue her treatments for breast cancer), her character was written out as having married and starting a family. She was replaced by Ginger St. James (Sheryl Lee Ralph). With these core cast members in place, the show continued to produce episodes for syndication until it ended in 1989.

From 2000 to 2001, TV Land aired the series occasionally for special programming blocks. In April 2018, Logo TV began to carry the series in marathon form several times a month. Antenna TV will begin airing the series starting in January 2020.

Stations

City	Station
Atlanta	WATL 36 WSB 2
Bakersfield	KGET 17
Baltimore	WBFF 45
Bangor	WABI 5
Billings	KYUS 8
Boston	WSBK 38
Cedar Rapids	KOCR 28
Chicago	WGN 9 WGBO 66 WMAQ 5
Cleveland	WOIO 19
Dallas	KDFI 27
Detroit	WXON 20
Eugene	KLSR 34
Fargo	KVRR 15
Green Bay	WGBA 26
Greensboro	WGHP 8
Hartford	WHCT 18 WTIC 61
Hazleton	WOLF 56
Honolulu	KITV 4
Houston	KIAH 39 KTXH 20
Indianapolis	WTTV 48
Joliet	WGBO 66
Kansas City	KSHB 41
Las Vegas	KVVU 5
Los Angeles	KADY 63 KNBC 4
Miami	WTVJ 6
Milwaukee	WISN 12 WVTV 18
Minneapolis	WFTC 29
New York	WABC 7 WOR 9
Oklahoma City	KOCO 5
Orlando	WCPX 6
Philadelphia	WPHL 17
Phoenix	KTVK 3
Pittsburgh	WTAE 4
Portland, Maine	WPXT 51
Salisbury	WMDT 47
Saint Paul	KSTP 5
Salinas	KSBW 8
Salt Lake City	KSTU 13
San Francisco	KBHK 44
Seattle	KTZZ 22
Secaucus	WOR 9
St. Louis	KDNL 30
St. Petersburg	WTOG 44
Smithtown	WFTY 67
Washington, D.C.	WJLA 7

External links

• It's a Living at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• It's a Living at epguides.com
• It's a Living at GailEdwards.com