''Love, Sidney'' 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 ...
television series which aired two seasons on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
, from October 28, 1981, to June 6, 1983. It stars
Tony Randall
Anthony Leonard Randall (born Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg; February 26, 1920 – May 17, 2004) was an American actor of film, television and stage. He is best known for portraying the role of Felix Unger in the 1970–1975 television adaptation of ...
as Sidney Shorr (a single, closeted gay man),
Swoosie Kurtz
Swoosie Kurtz ( ; born September 6, 1944) is an American actress. She is the recipient of an Emmy Award and two Tony Awards.
Kurtz made her Broadway debut in the 1975 revival of '' Ah, Wilderness''. She has received five Tony Award nomination ...
as Laurie Morgan (a single mother with whom he shares his home), and
Kaleena Kiff as Patricia "Patti" Morgan (Laurie's young daughter). It was the first program on American television to feature a gay person as the central character, although his sexual orientation was carefully downplayed for most of the series' duration.
The series was based on a short story by
Marilyn Cantor Baker, which was adapted as the TV movie ''
Sidney Shorr: A Girl's Best Friend'', which NBC aired a few weeks before the series premiered. It was produced by
Warner Bros. Television.
Synopsis
The storyline begins with the television movie ''
Sidney Shorr: A Girl's Best Friend''. Randall plays the title character, a well-to-do gay New Yorker in his 50s, who befriends a single woman, Laurie Morgan (originally played by
Lorna Patterson
Lorna Patterson (born July 1, 1956) is an American retired film, stage and television actress. As an actress, her best-known roles were as Randy, the singing stewardess, in ''Airplane!'', and as the lead in the television series '' Private Benja ...
), and Patti, her young daughter. Laurie is an aspiring actress, and at the end of the movie, Sidney is brokenhearted when she and Patti move to California. Patti is played in the later stages of the movie (once time lapses to her being five years old) by Kaleena Kiff, who retains the role in ''Love, Sidney''.
With the debut of the series, Laurie Morgan (now played by Swoosie Kurtz) and Patti return to New York, following the failure of Laurie's marriage in California. The three characters return to sharing Sidney's
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
apartment. Laurie has established herself as an actress in commercials and television roles, and resumes her career in New York, appearing as vixen "Gloria Trenell" on the (fictional) daytime
soap opera
A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...
''As Thus We Are''. Sidney continues to be a doting father figure to precocious Patti, whose innocence fills his life with sunshine, and provides him with the child he has never had.
Although it is openly acknowledged in the TV movie that Sidney was gay, and had previously been in a relationship with a man, in the series these facts are not stated directly. Instead his sexual orientation is ambiguous and only hinted at, and the "couple" of Laurie and Sidney behave
platonically, with only fleeting displays of affection that might be interpreted as romantic.
Sidney speaks at times about his long deceased mother, consistently referring to her as "that terrible woman".
The series depicts Sidney's career as a professional illustrator; his frequent business deals are made with young ad agency director Jason Stoller (
Chip Zien
Jerome Herbert "Chip" Zien (born March 20, 1947) is an American actor. He is best known for originating the lead role of the Baker in the original Broadway production of the musical ''Into the Woods'' by Stephen Sondheim. He appeared in all of ...
), who works at Graham & Ludwig, Sidney's biggest account. Another recurring character in the first season is Sidney's friend and neighbor judge Mort Harris (
Alan North), who had a dog named "Rehnquist"—named for then–Associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice
William Rehnquist
William Hubbs Rehnquist (October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American attorney who served as the 16th chief justice of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2005, having previously been an associate justice from 1972 to 1986. ...
. In the second season, their most prominent neighbor is busybody Mrs. Gaffney (
Barbara Bryne), wife of the building's superintendent, who seeks to gain Sidney's affections. Also added to the cast that season is Nancy (
Lynne Thigpen), Jason's secretary at Graham & Ludwig.
Production
''
Sidney Shorr: A Girl's Best Friend'' went into production during 1980. Network executives planned to use it as a pilot, and develop the movie into a weekly series if it was a success in the
ratings. However, after the film was complete, NBC continued to postpone its premiere, and by the end of the 1980–81 season it had not yet aired. Meanwhile, the network had decided to produce the series as part of its 1981 Fall schedule, using the movie as an introduction shortly before its debut.
By the time the series was cast, Lorna Patterson was no longer available, as she had already begun starring 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 ...
' ''
Private Benjamin'';
Swoosie Kurtz
Swoosie Kurtz ( ; born September 6, 1944) is an American actress. She is the recipient of an Emmy Award and two Tony Awards.
Kurtz made her Broadway debut in the 1975 revival of '' Ah, Wilderness''. She has received five Tony Award nomination ...
took over the role of Laurie Morgan.
Tony Randall
Anthony Leonard Randall (born Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg; February 26, 1920 – May 17, 2004) was an American actor of film, television and stage. He is best known for portraying the role of Felix Unger in the 1970–1975 television adaptation of ...
, bitter about regular television roles after the cancellation of his last series ''
The Tony Randall Show'' (1976–78), was initially uninterested in returning to a television series, but was interested in the "Sidney Shorr" story as a TV movie. Randall agreed to ''Love, Sidney'' with two conditions. First, it would provide him extra income that would go toward the financing of the national theatre he wanted to open and run in New York City. (The salary he made over the show's two seasons eventually paid off when his
National Actors Theatre opened at NYC's
Pace University
Pace University is a private university with campuses in New York City and Westchester County, New York, United States. It was established in 1906 as a business school by the brothers Homer St. Clair Pace and Charles A. Pace. Pace enrolls about ...
in 1991.) Secondly, the series had to be taped in New York. During the first season, the series was produced at Reeves
Teletape Studios, though the first episode was recorded in Studio 6A at
NBC Studios (New York City)
NBC Studios are located in the historic 30 Rockefeller Plaza (on Sixth Avenue between 49th and 50th streets) in Manhattan, New York City. The building houses the NBC television network headquarters, its parent NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal Med ...
. Midway through season one, production of ''Love, Sidney'' was forced to relocate to Los Angeles for seven episodes because the Teletape studios needed to honor a previous commitment to another production. Those seven episodes were recorded at
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
in Burbank. ''Love, Sidney'' returned to New York for the remainder of its run, taping in various studios, including the
CBS Broadcast Center
The CBS Broadcast Center is a television and radio production facility located on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is CBS's main East Coast of the United States, East Coast production hub, similar to Radford Studio Cen ...
despite being an NBC series.
When the series was announced,
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
received complaints from the
Moral Majority and other special-interest groups who were upset about the network presenting a positive portrayal of
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...
.
Interview with Tony Randall
''Archive of American Television''. The lead character's sexuality was kept ambiguous, referred to only in oblique, coded hints. Some TV critics described the character only as a "confirmed bachelor".
The series proved popular among viewers in New York City, where the series was set, particular with its gay male population. The show was also popular in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle.[Interview with Hal Cooper](_blank)
''Archive of American Television'' (December 11, 2003). In other markets, however, its ratings ranged from moderately successful to poor.
George Eckstein was the original executive producer from the time of ''Love, Sidneys premiere. While the series performed well enough for NBC to warrant it a second season, they pushed for changes in order to improve the show's chances for lasting success. At the start of the 1982–83 season, the network hired the veteran producing team of Rod Parker and Hal Cooper to take over the show. With existing producers Ken Hecht and Sandy Veith, they made many changes, including two new regular cast members and a switch to more meaningful, moralized stories which bordered on the "very special episode
A "very special episode" is an advertising term originally used in American television promos to refer to an episode of a sitcom or drama series which deals with a difficult or controversial social issue. The usage of the term peaked in the 198 ...
" format.
The first eight episodes of the second season featured a remixed version of the theme song, sung by Gladys and Bubba Knight. With the November 27, 1982 episode ("Jan, Part 1"), the original version of the theme was reinstated for the title sequence, while the closing credits retained the outro track recorded by the Knights.
As time went on, the writers began to set things up to address Sidney's orientation more directly. The addition of the female neighbor Mrs. Gaffney pursuing a sexual relationship with him offered more opportunities to establish that he was not attracted to women.
In a special hour-long episode aired on May 16, 1983, Sidney agrees to date his new co-worker Allison ( Martha Smith), but the courtship ends because of Sidney's lack of passion. He explains that his heart had been broken by a previous long-time love, and he could never love anyone again. Left alone, Allison tearfully remarks about Sidney's former lover: "if only she knew what she was missing", and the camera pans over to a framed photograph of Sidney's former lover Martin, from the pilot movie.
The following episode, the next-to-last in the series, has an openly gay guest character: a psychiatrist who befriends Sidney after the latter talks him out of suicide.
The series was not renewed for a third season.
Broadcast history
US TV ratings
Episodes
Season 1: 1981–82
Season 2: 1982–83
References
External links
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*{{IMDb title, id=0083076, title=Sidney Shorr: A Girl's Best Friend
1981 American television series debuts
1983 American television series endings
1980s American LGBTQ-related sitcoms
American English-language television shows
Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios
Television shows filmed in New York (state)
Television shows set in New York City
NBC sitcoms