''Goodnight, Beantown'' is an American

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

that aired on

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

for two brief seasons in 1983 and 1984.

Synopsis

The series stars

Bill Bixby Wilfred Bailey Everett Bixby III (January 22, 1934 – November 21, 1993) was an American actor and television director. His career spanned more than three decades, including appearances on stage, in films, and on television series. He is known ...

as Matt Cassidy, and

Mariette Hartley Mary Loretta Hartley (born June 21, 1940) is an American film and television actress. She is possibly best known for her roles in film as Elsa Knudsen in Sam Peckinpah's '' Ride the High Country'' (1962), Susan Clabon in Alfred Hitchcock's '' M ...

as Jennifer Barnes: two news anchors at WYN-TV, a fictional television station in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. Matt is the station's evening

news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

and a longtime fixture at the station. However, when Matt's ratings begin to slide, the station management pairs the reluctant anchor with female co-anchor Jennifer. The series follows their rocky relationship as they are not only coworkers but neighbors in the same building. Although slightly antagonistic at work, they are attracted to each other. The series title comes from Matt's signoff at the end of the nightly newscasts, as "Beantown" is a common nickname for Boston (despite locals' disdain for the appellation). Co-stars included Tracey Gold as the divorced Jennifer's daughter Susan and

George Coe George Coe (born George Julian Cohen; May 10, 1929 – July 18, 2015) was an American actor. He was a cast member for the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'' and voiced the character of Woodhouse in '' Archer''. Early life Coe was bor ...

as station manager Dick Novak. Over the two seasons, Charles Levin, G. W. Bailey, Jim Staahl, Stephanie Faracy and Todd Susman played their co-workers at WYN. Bixby and Hartley had previously worked together on an episode of '' The Incredible Hulk'', and at the time of making ''Goodnight, Beantown'', Hartley was appearing in a series of

television commercial A television advertisement (also called a commercial, spot, break, advert, or ad) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. ...

s for Polaroid cameras with

James Garner James Scott Garner (né Bumgarner; April 7, 1928 – July 19, 2014) was an American actor. He played leading roles in more than 50 theatrical films, which included ''The Great Escape (film), The Great Escape'' (1963) with Steve McQueen; Paddy Ch ...

. The series first aired Sundays at 8:00 p.m. in the spring of 1983 for a limited run of five episodes. When it returned in the fall, it aired Sundays at 9:30 p.m. for 13 more episodes before being canceled because of its middling ratings.

Cast

as Matt Cassidy *

as Jennifer Barnes *

as Dick Novak * Tracey Gold as Susan Barnes * G. W. Bailey as Albert Addelson * Stephanie Faracy as Valerie Wood * Charles Levin as Sam Holliday * Jim Staahl as Frank Fletcher * Todd Susman as Augie Kleindab

US television ratings

Episodes

Season 1 (1983)

Season 2 (1983–84)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=0085024, title=Goodnight, Beantown
Fan site
1983 American television series debuts 1984 American television series endings 1980s American sitcoms Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios Television news sitcoms American English-language television shows Television shows set in Boston CBS sitcoms