Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Forgotten TV: KATE AND ALLIE
Two divorced women and their three children join forces. Lots of good conversations about feminism, including the one in this trailer. Jane Curtin and Susan St. James had good chemistry. Better than most romantic pairings.It was on TV for five years from 1984-89 and dealt with the topics of that day: single mothers, feminism. When the kids grew up, the story lost its main thrust: balancing single-motherhood and a career. Although the woman had male companions, it was always about the two of them.
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11 comments:
Jackie was a big fan. I've liked Susan Saint James since The Name of the Game, and Jane Curtin is always good. I agree with you that the stories concentrating on them work a lot better than the ex-husbands/boyfriends stories, which were generally boring.
Judy and I really enjoyed this for the first two or three seasons, but we gradually lost interest.
Don't remember it
Yeah, it did peter out. Their kids were teenagers to begin with so the mother/kids thing did tail off quickly.
I remember this show but, as your title suspects, I hadn't thought of it for a long time. I liked what I saw of it, and, looking back, it was kind of a ground breaker as it showed two single women approaching middle age is a favorable light. It might have even been on the same night as Cagney and Lacey. CBS had its act together in the 80s. What the hell happened?
I was aware of it, but didn't watch it. I suspect it was on opposite another show I watched. Oh. I checked, it was on opposite Monday Night Football. No wonder I didn't watch it.
I was in and out of television in those years, but I got on to that one when I was home for awhile. I really enjoyed it at the time, although I have to admit that I don't remember much about the details now.
It's funny, but Who's the Boss was also on at that time, and I found that charming as well, and though I seem to feel slightly more embarrassed about liking that one, I think there were actually similar reasons about unconventional households that made it popular.
Used to watch this dubbed into Italian at the time - I remember liking it but not much else I'm afraid ...
It was pretty natural counter programming for its time against the NFL. I certainly watched KATE AND ALLIE more...and it has been remarkably Memory-Holed, not getting much in the way of repeat/syndicated play, at least not recently.
I'd think it'd make a fairly natural hour block with CYBILL repeats on one or another of the little digital broadcast networks.
It was indeed on CBS on Monday nights (as was the NFL on ABC) at the same time as CAGNEY AND LACEY. What happened to CBS is that their audiences Got Even Older than they were. Though there's still a place for intelligent women characters on CBS, as long as they're Hawt (ELEMENTARY, and the now-vanishing THE GOOD WIFE and PERSON OF INTEREST). Of course, Susan St. James and Jane Curtin weren't even TV "ugly", much less not striking.
Thanks for the reminder, Patti. I loved this show and am always surprised at how quickly it disappeared from the public consciousness. Don't even remember if it was ever in syndication. The two leads were perfection.
It did get a syndication pass, but not too enthusiastic a one...
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