Suddenly Susan
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Suddenly Susan was a US-American sitcom broadcast on NBC from 1996 to 2000. Suddenly Susan's headlining star was Brooke Shields, who got the show after a guest appearance on Friends in the episode The One After the Superbowl.
Suddenly Susan takes place at The Gate, a fictitious magazine which is based in San Francisco. Among the magazine's employees is Susan Keane (played by Brooke Shields), who writes a column on being a single woman. She lives with her loving grandmother, Nana (played by Barbara Barrie). Susan got the job at the magazine after deserting her fiancé on her wedding day. Other employees include Luis Rivera (played by Nestor Carbonell), who is the magazine's photographer. Maddy Piper (played by Andréa Bendewald) is the investigative reporter at The Gate. Restaurants are reviewed by Vicki Groener (played by Kathy Griffin) and concerts are reviewed by Todd Stites (played by David Strickland). The owner of The Gate is Jack Richmond (played by Judd Nelson). Jack turns out to be the brother of the man Susan deserted on her wedding day.
Besides the task of putting together a magazine, Suddenly Susan also focuses on the private lives of many employees in the show.
After David Strickland committed suicide in 1999, changes occurred in the show. The Gate got a new owner, Ian Maxtone-Graham (played by Eric Idle), who transformed The Gate into a men's magazine. He brought along Miranda Charles, his executive assistant and Navy veteran (played by Sherri Shepherd). A sports writer, Nate Knaborski (played by Currie Graham) was added along with a freelance photographer, Oliver Browne (played by Rob Estes).
Airing between Seinfeld and ER in its first season, Suddenly Susan was a ratings success, attracting approximately 13 million viewers per episode, despite mostly unfavorable critical reviews. When the show was moved to Monday nights in the second season, the show experienced a large ratings fall, sliding from #13 to #65 in one year. The ratings failed to bounce back, and in its final season, the show wasn't in the top 100.
[edit] Trivia
- SFGate is the online version of the San Francisco Chronicle.
- Eric Idle's character, Ian Maxtone-Graham, is named after a real TV writer (and Monty Python fan) who currently works on The Simpsons.
