Used to love this show. Would rearrange my Thursday nights to watch.
It’s on Hulu now in all its pastel 80s glory. I’ve left it running in the background the last few days. This isn’t what I remembered it being.
I love the theme song. It’s one of the best of all. But I should have known from the sultry saxophone swells that this was a soap opera. Because it is.
It’s fun seeing people in their early roles. Like a fully nude (back to the camera) Teri Hatcher. And Joyce Hyser whose tits were glorious in Just One of the Guys. And Don Cheadle. It’s also fun to see stars recycled from other shows like Howard Sprague from Andy Griffith.
Some other observations:
Stuart and Ann became a central focus of the show. Married in real life they played spouses on the show. Ann was an insufferable bitch. Stuart a sniveling simp. I don’t remember it that way but it was. Hate both their characters.
Roxanne? Also a bitch.
The very first story arc was the death of a partner and the discovery of his secret affair with Douglas Brackman’s secretary - who was a transsexual. I don’t remember that being a thing back then.
It’s interesting to see how social issues were treated at that time. Very different. Like Benny. He’s called retarded or a retard multiple times.
There’s also a lot of attention focused on the fact that Victor wears -gasp - an earring! Wow.
One thing that made me laugh. Victor was representing a man suing an oil company. The line from the oil company rep: “if they win that will only encourage more of this. You could see gas prices go to $2-3 a gallon. People would riot in the street. Nobody would stand for it.”
I remember having a thing for Abby when I used to watch it. For the life of me I don’t know why.
Other than the some of the ridiculous storylines, and the fact that almost every woman in the show is a strident bitch, it’s still a fairly watchable show 40 years later.
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