''Teen Angel'' was an American

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

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 ...

that aired as part of

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 ...

's TGIF Friday night lineup from September 26, 1997, to February 13, 1998. It stars

Corbin Allred Corbin Michael Allred (born May 25, 1979) is an American actor. He starred in the 2003 award-winning motion picture ''Saints and Soldiers'' and the 1997–1998 television series '' Teen Angel''. Career Allred's acting career began when he was ...

as a high school student whose recently deceased best friend, played by

Mike Damus Michael Paul Damus (born September 30, 1979) is an American actor. He is best known for his starring role as Marty DePolo on the ABC sitcom '' Teen Angel'' and co-starring in the film ''Lost in Yonkers''. In addition, Damus also co-starred in ''M ...

, returns to earth as his guardian angel. The series was created by

Al Jean Alfred Ernest Jean III (born January 9, 1961) is an American screenwriter and producer. Jean is well known for his work on ''The Simpsons''. He was raised near Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Harvard University in 1981. Jean began his wri ...

and

Mike Reiss Michael L. Reiss ( '; born ) is an American television comedy writer and author. He served as a show-runner, writer and producer for the animated series ''The Simpsons'' and co-created the animated series ''The Critic''. He created and wrote ...

Synopsis

''Teen Angel'' follows a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

boy, Steve Beauchamp (Corbin Allred), and his recently deceased best friend, Marty DePolo (Mike Damus), who dies from eating a six-month-old

hamburger A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically Ground beef, beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles ...

from under Steve's bed on a dare and is then sent back to Earth as Steve's

guardian angel A guardian angel is a type of angel that is assigned to protect and guide a particular person, group or nation. Belief in tutelary beings can be traced throughout all antiquity. The idea of angels that guard over people played a major role in A ...

. Marty's guide is a large disembodied head named Rod (

Ron Glass Ronald Earle Glass (July 10, 1945 – November 25, 2016) was an American actor. He was known for his roles as literary Det. Ron Harris in the television sitcom ''Barney Miller'' (1975–1982), and as the spiritual shepherd, Shepherd Book, in the ...

), who identifies himself as

God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

's cousin (a running gag throughout the series is that Rod is mistaken for God himself).

Maureen McCormick Maureen Denise McCormick (born August 5, 1956) is an American actress. She portrayed Marcia Brady on the ABC television sitcom ''The Brady Bunch'', which ran from 1969 to 1974, and reprised the role in several of the numerous ''Brady Bunch'' sp ...

, who played Steve's mother, Judy, left the series halfway through its run. Marty, as a supernatural being, would frequently break the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

. For instance, prior to the opening credits of the episode "Grumpy Young Men", Marty explained the absence of Steve's mother and the return of his father to the viewers.

Reception and cancellation

The series was created and placed in the ''TGIF'' lineup by ABC in an attempt to capitalize on the success of another ABC supernatural series, ''

Sabrina the Teenage Witch ''Sabrina the Teenage Witch'' is a comic book series published by Archie Comics about the adventures of a fictional character, fictional American teenager named Sabrina Spellman. Sabrina was created by writer George Gladir and artist Dan DeCarlo ...

''. Along with ''Sabrina'' and the also-new '' You Wish'', ''Teen Angel'' was one of three supernatural-themed sitcoms on the ''TGIF'' block that

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

. At the time of the series airing, ''TGIF'' had already begun to decline (as a result of direct competition against the

CBS Block Party ''CBS Block Party'' (referred to on-air as the ''CBS Friday Night Block Party'') was a programming block that aired on the CBS television network during the 1997–1998 television season. The block was similar to, and was intended as direct comp ...

during that season and the new Disney ownership). ''You Wish'' was canceled after only thirteen episodes, and while ''Teen Angel'' lasted more or less a full season, it was also canceled after 17 episodes.

Cast

as Marty DePolo *

as Steve Beauchamp *

as Rod, God's Cousin *

as Judy Beauchamp *

Tommy Hinkley Hiram Thomas Hinkley (born May 31, 1960) is an American actor. He made his feature film debut in the comedy '' Back to the Beach'' (1987), and subsequently appeared in the Academy Award-winning short film '' Ray's Male Heterosexual Dance Hall'' ( ...

as Casey Beauchamp *

Katie Volding Katie Louise Volding (born February 13, 1989) is a former American actress. In 2000, she was nominated for a Young Artist Award in the category "Best Performance in a TV Movie or Pilot" for her performance in the Disney Channel Original Movie ...

as Katie Beauchamp * Jordan Brower as Jorden Lubell *

Conchata Ferrell Conchata Galen Ferrell (March 28, 1943October 12, 2020) was an American actress. Although she was a regular cast member of five TV sitcoms, she was best known for playing Berta the housekeeper for all 12 seasons of ''Two and a Half Men''. For he ...

as Aunt Pam *

Jerry Van Dyke Jerry McCord Van Dyke (July 27, 1931 – January 5, 2018) was an American actor and comedian. He was the younger brother of Dick Van Dyke. Van Dyke had a long and successful career mostly as a character actor in supporting and guest roles on pop ...

as Grandpa Jerry Beauchamp

Episodes

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * {{TGIF (ABC) 1990s American high school television series 1990s American teen sitcoms 1997 American television series debuts 1998 American television series endings American Broadcasting Company original programming American fantasy television series English-language television shows Television series about angels Television series by ABC Studios TGIF (TV programming block) Angels in television Television series about teenagers Television shows set in Detroit