Kate & Allie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Kate & Allie | |
|---|---|
 (back, left to right) Saint James, Meyers (front) Curtain, Koehler, Smith. |
|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Creator(s) | Sherry Coben |
| Starring | Susan Saint James Jane Curtin Ari Meyers Frederick Koehler Allison Smith |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 122 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes (per episode) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | March 19, 1984 – May 22, 1989 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
Kate & Allie was a television situation comedy shown on CBS from March 19, 1984 to May 22, 1989. Kate & Allie first aired on CBS in March 1984 as a midseason replacement series. At first, only six episodes were commissioned, but the favorable response from critics and viewers alike (its first episode ranked #4 out of all the television shows airing that week) easily convinced CBS to commit to a full season in the fall of 1984.
The show's depiction of two single women was one of the most popular and critically acclaimed sitcoms of the 1980s. Curtin won two Emmy Awards for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, while Saint James was nominated in the same category three times.
Contents |
[edit] Premise
The show starred Susan Saint James as the free-spirited Kate McArdle and Jane Curtin as her more traditional childhood friend, Allie Lowell. They decided to share a brownstone in New York City's Greenwich Village after their respective divorces. The show also starred Ari Meyers as Kate's daughter Emma, and Frederick Koehler and Allison Smith as Allie's children Chip and Jennie.
Both Kate and Allie dated regularly, but were portrayed as strong, independent women, which was still a relative novelty on television at the time. Unlike other successful career women portrayed before them, Kate and Allie were shown to be wiser to the games men play, but if the opportunity presented itself, they would not be against remarrying.
[edit] Plot
At the beginning of the series, Kate made money for both families by working as a travel agent. Allie stayed home and took care of the domestic duties. In the show's fifth season, Kate quit her job and teamed up with Allie to start their own catering service.
In the show's final seasons, Allie dated and got engaged to Bob Barsky (Sam Freed), a television sportscaster. By the show's 100th episode in May 1988, Bill Persky, who directed Kate & Allie, felt that it had reached its utmost potential and left the series, hoping CBS would cancel the show.[citation needed] However, CBS wanted to showcase Allie as a married woman, and renewed the series for a sixth season, putting creative charge of the show in the hands of Linda Day, who became the new director. Two other blows to the series came with Ari Meyers' departure from the show a few episodes into the fifth season to attend Yale University (although her name remained in the opening credits through the end of the season, and she returned for the show's season-ending 100th episode retrospective) and with the television scriptwriters' strike of 1988; with the changing of the guard, Kate & Allie was left off the fall 1988 schedule altogether and did not premiere with new episodes until December 1988. The show lost a portion of its audience, which became fed up with the long wait.
Following their marriage, Allie and Bob moved into a new apartment; Bob simultaneously took a job which involved regular travel, and consequently Kate moved into the new apartment as well. This plot development, frequently cited as one of the canonical examples of a television show jumping the shark,[1] drove more viewers away and CBS chose not to renew Kate & Allie for a seventh season.
[edit] DVD releases
Season 1 of Kate & Allie was released exclusively in the U.S. by Universal Home Video in a Region 1 DVD. VEI Entertainment released the Canadian DVDs.
| Cover Art | DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Season 1 | 6 | May 2, 2006 | Released exclusively in the U.S. |
 |
Seasons 1 & 2 | 28 | June 6, 2006 | Released exclusively in Canada |
 |
Season 3 | 23 | February 6, 2007 | Released exclusively in Canada |
[edit] Trivia
- Kate & Allie was taped on soundstages constructed at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City.
- Feeling pressure from higher-ups at CBS to quash what they thought would lead to viewer insinuations that Kate and Allie were lesbians, the producers were instructed to show Kate and Allie entering separate bedrooms to sleep in separate beds at the end of each episode.[2]
- Prior to collaborating on Kate & Allie, Curtin and Saint James had worked together in the 1979 movie How to Beat the High Co$t of Living.
- Saint James' niece, Christa Miller, who later played Kate on The Drew Carey Show and Jordan Sullivan on Scrubs, started her acting career on Kate & Allie.
- The American syndication rights are held by NBC Universal Television Distribution. Fremantle Media owns the international rights, as they own Thames Television and have access to Alan Landsburg Productions and Reeves Entertainment Group product.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.jumptheshark.com/topic/kate-38-allie-general-comments/1078
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/k/kateallie_7773945.shtml
[edit] External links
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since March 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | 1980s American television series | CBS network shows | Sitcoms | Television series by NBC Universal Television | Television series by FremantleMedia | Television series named after fictional characters | 1984 television program debuts | 1989 television program series endings
