The Long Goodbye (Duet)
''Duet'' is an American sitcom that aired on Fox from April 19, 1987, to August 20, 1989. Originally, the story centered on the romance of a novelist (Matthew Laurance) and a caterer (Mary Page Keller), but gradually the focus shifted to their yuppie friends (Chris Lemmon, Alison LaPlaca) and the show was rebranded as '' Open House''. The series was created by Ruth Bennett and Susan Seeger, and was produced by Paramount Television. Synopsis Ben Coleman is a struggling mystery novelist, while his girlfriend Laura Kelly is a caterer with her younger sister Jane (Jodi Thelen). Richard and Linda Phillips were a high-powered yuppie couple. He was in the family patio-furniture business and she was a studio executive. Linda's boss at World Wide Studios was Cooper Hayden (Larry Poindexter), who eventually became infatuated with Jane. Richard later quit his job to become a professional pianist. Geneva (Arleen Sorkin) was the Phillipses' wisecracking, sexy maid who sometimes fraternized wit ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Situation Comedy
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new characters in each sketch, and stand-up comedy, where a comedian tells jokes and stories to an audience. Sitcoms originated in radio, but today are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. A situation comedy television program may be recorded in front of a studio audience, depending on the program's production format. The effect of a live studio audience can be imitated or enhanced by the use of a laugh track. Critics disagree over the utility of the term "sitcom" in classifying shows that have come into existence since the turn of the century. Many contemporary American sitcoms use the single-camera setup and do not feature a laugh track, thus often resembling the dramedy shows of the 1980s and 1990s rather t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Yuppie
Yuppie, short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional", is a term coined in the early 1980s for a young professional person working in a city. The term is first attested in 1980, when it was used as a fairly neutral demographic label, but by the mid-to-late 1980s, when a "yuppie backlash" developed due to concerns over issues such as gentrification, some writers began using the term pejoratively. History The first printed appearance of the word was in a May 1980 ''Chicago'' magazine article by Dan Rottenberg. Rottenberg reported in 2015 that he did not invent the term, he had heard other people using it, and at the time he understood it as a rather neutral demographic term. Nonetheless, his article did note the issues of socioeconomic displacement which might occur as a result of the rise of this inner-city population cohort. Joseph Epstein was credited for coining the term in 1982, although this is contested. The term gained currency in the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Full House
''Full House'' is an American television sitcom created by Jeff Franklin for ABC. The show is about widowed father Danny Tanner who enlists his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis and childhood best friend Joey Gladstone to help raise his three daughters, eldest D.J., middle child Stephanie and youngest Michelle in his San Francisco home. It aired from September 22, 1987, to May 23, 1995, broadcasting eight seasons and 192 episodes. While never a critical favorite, the series was consistently in the Nielsen Top 30 (from season two onward) and continues to gain even more popularity in syndicated reruns, and is also aired internationally. One of the producers, Dennis Rinsler, called the show "''The Brady Bunch'' of the 1990s". For actor Dave Coulier, the show represented a "G-rated dysfunctional family". A sequel series, '' Fuller House'', premiered on Netflix on February 26, 2016 and ran for five seasons, concluding on June 2, 2020. Premise After the death of his wife Pam, sp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Complete Directory To Prime Time Network And Cable TV Shows 1946–Present
''The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946–Present'' is a trade paperback reference work by the American television researchers Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, first published by Ballantine Books in 1979. History That first edition won a 1980 U.S. National Book Award in the one-year category General Reference (paperback)."National Book Awards – 1980" . Retrieved 2012-03-08. From 1980 to 1983 in National Book Award history there were dual awards for hardcover ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tim Brooks (historian)
Tim Brooks (born April 18, 1942) is an American television and radio historian, author and retired television executive. "Brooks will exit Lifetime Networks at the end of the year, capping a 30-year career as a television research exec. He has been with Lifetime since 2000, most recently serving as executive VP of research." He is credited with having helped launch the Sci Fi Channel in 1992 as well as other USA Network projects and channels. "Tim Brooks retired at the end of 2007 as Executive Vice President of Research for Lifetime Television. ... was Senior Vice President, Research for USA Networks, ... While there he helped structure the programming plan for the launch of the Sci-Fi Channel in 1992 ... Regarded as one of television's leading historians, Brooks has had a parallel career as a writer on television and record industry history." "The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hal Seeger
Harold Seeger (May 16, 1917 – March 13, 2005) was an American animated cartoon producer and director who owned his own studio the Hal Seeger Studio (Hal Seeger Productions). He is most famous as the creator of the 1960s animated series '' Batfink'', '' Milton the Monster'' and ''Fearless Fly''. During the 1930s and 1940s he was also active as a comics writer and artist, most famously for the ''Betty Boop'' comic strip and '' Leave It to Binky''. Biography Born in Brooklyn, New York, Seeger began working as an animator for Fleischer Studios in the early 1940s. His credits included "A Kick in Time" for the ''Color Classics'' series and a sequence for the feature film ''Mr. Bug Goes to Town''. During the later part of the 1940s, he worked as a screenwriter for a series of movies featuring well known Black performers, including the 1947 Cab Calloway musical '' Hi-De-Ho'' and two films featuring Dusty Fletcher and Moms Mabley, '' Killer Diller'' and ''Boarding House Blues''". In ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Tracey Ullman Show
''The Tracey Ullman Show'' is an American television variety show starring Tracey Ullman. It debuted on Fox on April 5, 1987, the network's second original primetime series to air following '' Married... with Children'', and ran until May 26, 1990. The show was produced by Gracie Films. The show blended sketch comedy with musical numbers and dance routines, choreographed by Paula Abdul, along with animated shorts. The format was conceived by creator and executive producer James L. Brooks, who was looking to showcase the show's multitalented star. Brooks likened the show to producing three pilots a week. Ullman was the first British woman to be offered her own television sketch show in both the United Kingdom and the United States. The show is also known for producing a series of shorts featuring the Simpson family, which was later adapted into the longest-running American scripted primetime television series, ''The Simpsons''. ''The Tracey Ullman Show'' was the first Fox pri ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Married
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between them and their in-laws. It is considered a cultural universal, but the definition of marriage varies between cultures and religions, and over time. Typically, it is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually sexual, are acknowledged or sanctioned. In some cultures, marriage is recommended or considered to be compulsory before pursuing any sexual activity. A marriage ceremony is called a wedding. Individuals may marry for several reasons, including legal, social, libidinal, emotional, financial, spiritual, and religious purposes. Whom they marry may be influenced by gender, socially determined rules of incest, prescriptive marriage rules, parental choice, and individual desire. In some areas of the world, arranged mar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Prime-time
Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to broadcast their season's nightly programming. The term ''prime time'' is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example (in the United States), from 8:00p.m. to 11:00p.m. (Eastern and Pacific Time) or 7:00p.m. to 10:00p.m. (Central and Mountain Time). In India and some Middle Eastern countries, prime time consists of the programmes that are aired on TV between 8:00p.m. and 10:00p.m. local time. Asia Bangladesh In Bangladesh, the 19:00-to-22:00 time slot is known as Prime Time. Several national broadcasters like Maasranga Television, Gazi TV, Channel 9, Channel i broadcast their prime-time shows from 20:00 to 23:00 after their Primetime news at 19:00. During Islamic Holidays Season, most of the TV Stations broadcast their esp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off (or spinoff) is a radio program, television program, film, video game or any narrative work, derived from already existing works that focus on more details and different aspects from the original work (e.g. particular topics, characters or events). One of the earliest spin-offs of the modern media era, if not the first, happened in 1941 when the supporting character Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve from the old time radio comedy show ''Fibber McGee and Molly'' became the star of his own program ''The Great Gildersleeve'' (1941–1957). In genre fiction, the term parallels its usage in television; it is usually meant to indicate a substantial ''change in narrative viewpoint and activity'' from that (previous) storyline based on the activities of the series' principal protagonist and so is a shift to that action and overall narrative thread of some other protagonist, which now becomes the central or main thread (storyline) of the new sub-series. The ''new protagoni ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Philip Charles MacKenzie
Philip Charles MacKenzie (born Philip Charles Harris on May 7, 1946) is an American actor and television director. He is best known for his role as Donald Maltby on ''Brothers'', and as Ted Nichols on '' Open House'', which he worked on with his current wife, Alison La Placa. Career MacKenzie was born in Brooklyn, New York. He made his on-screen debut in Sidney Lumet's 1975 crime drama ''Dog Day Afternoon''. He then began doing numerous television guest roles and co-starring roles in afterschool specials and made-for-TV movies. MacKenzie guest starred on such shows as ''Three's Company'', '' Baa Baa Black Sheep'', ''Lou Grant'' (which co-starred his future ''Brothers'' castmate, Robert Walden), ''The Love Boat'', ''The Jeffersons'', ''Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life'', and ''WKRP in Cincinnati''. In 1980, he appeared as Dr. LaFleur in ''The Heartbreak Winner'', an ''ABC Afterschool Special'' episode. That same year, MacKenzie was cast in the pilot of a series proposed for ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Arleen Sorkin
Arleen Sorkin (born October 14, 1955) is a retired American actress, screenwriter, presenter and comedian. Sorkin is known for portraying Calliope Jones on the NBC daytime serial ''Days of Our Lives'' and for inspiring and voicing the DC Comics villain Harley Quinn, created by her college friend Paul Dini, in '' Batman: The Animated Series'' and the many animated series and video games that followed it. Early life, family and education Sorkin was born in Washington, D.C. Her family is Jewish. Career Sorkin began her career in cabaret in the late 1970s and early 1980s as a member of the comedy group The High-Heeled Women, alongside Mary Fulham, Tracey Berg, and Cassandra Danz. One of her more prominent roles was the wacky but lovable Calliope Jones, as seen on ''Days of Our Lives''. She played this part from 1984 to 1990 and made return visits in 1992 and 2001. She reprised her role on the soap for the fourth time on February 24, 2006. She returned to ''Days'' for a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |