''Bonnie'' (originally titled ''The Bonnie Hunt Show'') is an American

sitcom 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 ne ...

television series that aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

from September 22, 1995 to April 21, 1996.

Bonnie Hunt Bonnie Lynn Hunt (born September 22, 1961) is an American actress, comedian, director, producer, writer and television host. Her film roles include ''Rain Man'', ''Beethoven'', ''Beethoven's 2nd'', ''Jumanji'', ''Jerry Maguire'', '' The Green M ...

played Bonnie Kelly, a television reporter who moves from

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

to take a job with a local TV station in Chicago. There she encounters an eclectic group of coworkers. In addition to the stories surrounding her personal life and her life at the station, each episode showed one of Bonnie's television news features, where she would interview real people who were attending (or otherwise involved in) current real local events. These scenes were improvised.

Cast

as Bonnie Kelly *

Mark Derwin Mark Derwin (born October 28, 1960) is an American film and television actor. Derwin began his career on ''Days of Our Lives'' in 1987 with a minor role as Jeremiah Brown. In 1988, Derwin appeared in the role of Adrian Hunter on ''The Young and ...

as Bill Kirkland * Brian Howe as Sammy Sinatra *

Don Lake Donald Lake (born November 26, 1956) is a Canadian actor, writer, and television producer. He is frequently cast by director Christopher Guest, and is also a close friend and the collaborative partner of Bonnie Hunt. He had a role in ''The Bonn ...

as Keith Jedzik *

Tom Virtue Tom Virture (born November 19, 1957) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in the television series ''Even Stevens'' (2000–2003) and ''The Secret Life of the American Teenager ''The Secret Life of the American Teenager'' (often ...

as Tom Vandoozer *Holly Wortell as Holly Janovsky

Production notes

The series premiered as ''The Bonnie Hunt Show'' in September 1995, and aired under that title for the first 6 episodes before being put on hiatus in November. Upon returning to the air in March, the show was retitled ''Bonnie'', and ran for an additional 5 episodes to improved ratings but it was not enough to prevent cancellation. A further two episodes were produced, but never broadcast. As with Hunt's previous short-run 1993 sitcom ''The Building'', ''The Bonnie Hunt Show'' had a theatrical sensibility wherein minor mistakes, accidents, and forgotten lines were often left in the aired episode. As well, cast members Hunt, Lake, Virtue and Wortell had all starred in ''The Building''—which like this show was set in Chicago, produced by

David Letterman David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He hosted late night television talk shows for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982 debut of ''Late Night with David Letterman' ...

Worldwide Pants Worldwide Pants Inc. is an American television and film production company founded and owned by comedian and talk show host David Letterman. The company was formerly headquartered at the Ed Sullivan Theater building in New York City, but has sinc ...

production company, and directed by

John Bowab John Bowab (born October 22, 1933) is an American director and producer of television and theatre. Career Bowab began his career in theatre, directing a number of stage productions, such as ''Mame'' (1983), '' The Night of the Hunter'' (2003), ...

. Hunt created the show with Rob Burnett, and wrote most of the episodes. Hunt's next sitcom, ''

Life With Bonnie ''Life with Bonnie'' is an ABC television sitcom that originally aired from September 17, 2002 to April 9, 2004. The show outlined the life of character Bonnie Malloy, who juggled her personal life and her job as a daytime TV talk show host. The s ...

'', would also feature Hunt, Derwin and Wortell; it once again focused on a news reporter in Chicago, but aired on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

. Virtue had a recurring role in ''Life With Bonnie'', but was not a regular. Don Lake would co-create that show with Hunt, and appear in a number of bit roles. John Bowab was also a frequent ''Life With Bonnie'' director.

Episodes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bonnie (Tv Series) 1990s American sitcoms 1995 American television series debuts 1996 American television series endings CBS original programming Television shows set in Chicago Television series by Worldwide Pants Television series by CBS Studios