Hope & Faith

Hope & Faith is an American sitcom that aired for three seasons on ABC from September 26, 2003, to May 2, 2006. For its first two seasons the show was part of a revived TGIF comedy block.

The show starred Faith Ford and Kelly Ripa. Hope Shanowski (Ford) was a homemaker with a husband (played by Ted McGinley) and three children. Faith Fairfield (Ripa) was Hope's sister and a soap opera star whose character was killed off, leading her to move in with Hope's family. The show was based in part on the life of its creator, Joanna Johnson, a former cast member of The Bold and the Beautiful. The show featured guest stars such as Tony Curtis, Dean Cain, Robert Wagner, Regis Philbin (Ripa's co-host on Live with Regis and Kelly), Kathie Lee Gifford (Regis' former co-host), Jenny McCarthy, Jaclyn Smith, Louise McCafferty, and Mark Consuelos (Ripa's husband).

The show was primarily filmed at New York City's Silvercup East, a sister studio to Silvercup Studios, to accommodate Ripa's schedule with Live with Regis and Kelly.

History

ABC announced on January 18, 2006 that it was benching Hope & Faith for the February sweeps to make room for an expanded edition of Dancing with the Stars. The show began to air its remaining episodes from March 21, 2006 on Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. ET against American Idol.^[1] In May 2006, ABC announced that the show would be cancelled when it unveiled its Fall 2006 lineup.^[2]

All 73 episodes were picked up by the U.S. television network WE tv.

Hope & Faith was shown for a short time in the UK on the digital-only channel ABC1, which closed in 2007. The show is also shown in Latin America, Fiji, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark and in Ireland on RTÉ.^[3] In Australia, Hope And Faith airs reruns on Channel Ten's Afternoon schedule.

Characters

• Hope Fairfield-Shanowski (Faith Ford). Hope is the matriarch of the family. She is usually the most sensible one, and is always reluctant to go along with her sister's schemes. She is married to Charlie and has 3 kids, Sydney, Hayley, and Justin. She likes to bake and garden, and eventually has her own catering business.
• Faith Fairfield (Kelly Ripa). Faith is Hope's celebrity sister. She was on Star Search, and starred as Ashley Storm and has an evil twin Angela on the fictional soap opera "The Sacred and the Sinful". Faith is lazy, and makes Hope wait on her. She always hatches a scheme and involves her sister. She has tried many times to get an acting job, but always fails. In season two, one of her acting schemes involved her and her sister creating a catering business, and she ends up being professional caterers, she also claims to be the one to have came up with the idea of the internet as she has the sketches.
• Charlie Shanowski (Ted McGinley). Charlie is Hope's husband. He dislikes Faith, and is always trying to get her to leave. He is an orthodontist. He likes watching sports and is a fan of Faith's former baseball playing boyfriend The Gooch.
• Sydney Shanowski (Nicole Paggi, 2003–2004; Megan Fox, 2004–2006). Sydney is Hope and Charlie's oldest daughter. She particularly likes spending time with her Aunt Faith, whom she sees as way cooler than her mother and gets sucked into Faith's schemes. She is portrayed as popular, vain, boy crazy, mean, and kind of ditzy. Paggi's version was fairly wholesome but Fox's version was more promiscuous.
• Hayley Shanowski (Macey Cruthird). Hayley is Hope and Charlie's younger daughter. She is portrayed as the smart child who gets promoted to high school in season two. She is also caring and an animal activist. Sometimes she belittles her older sister because Hayley is smarter than her.
• Justin Shanowski (Jansen Panettiere, pilot episode only; Paulie Litt, series). Justin is Hope and Charlie's only son. He is smart and is known to act like an adult with his mature interests (such as Frank Sinatra). He usually pals around with his dad, and likes his Aunt.

Recurring characters

• Jack Fairfield (Robert Wagner). Jack is Hope and Faith's father. Ever since his wife (Hope and Faith's mother) Mary Jo died, he started dating women who are half his age. The reason he married Hope and Faith's mother is because she was pregnant with Hope. He also had an affair with another woman when his marriage with Hope and Faith's mother was on the rocks, and had an illegitimate son named Jay.
• Gary "The Gooch" Gucharez (Mark Consuelos). The Gooch is a baseball player, who was a former hot-shot major league baseball player who ruined his career by failing to catch a slow moving ball. Upon meeting, he and Faith bump heads, but the pair eventually has the hots for each other and start dating. Later on, the Gooch gets a job offer to play baseball in Japan, and leaves their love behind. However, he moves back to the states in hopes of declaring his love for Faith and they eventually elope in the season three premiere. Although their wedding is short-lived he comes back in a later episode and he and Faith re-unite.
• Edwin (Brett Murphy). Edwin plays Haley's boyfriend. He is portrayed as a smart nerd who has many allergies and asthma. He appeared in five episodes; "Hope Has No Faith", "Silent Night, Opening Night", "Mismatch", "Faith Scare-Field", and "The Gooch"
• Mandi Ragner (Jenny McCarthy). Mandi has been Faith's best friend since they were in school. Mandi dates Hope and Faith's father Jack for one episode. She comes back in a later episode and tells their father that she is pregnant with his child. He planned to marry her, but when the baby was born it was obvious it wasn't his. She appeared in three episodes; "Jack's Back", "Natal Attraction", and "Stand By Your Mandi".
• Handsome Hal Halverson (Regis Philbin). Handsome Hal is a successful used car salesman. He uses celebrities and makes fools of them in his commercials. In his first episode he makes a fool out of Faith in his commercials. In his second episode he makes a fool out of the Gooch in his commercials. And in his final episode he loses his car dealership and becomes broke. Faith decides to be nice and invites to stay with him. He has a scheme for him and Faith to host a morning talk show. The producers love him, but they tell him to dump Faith. He appeared in one episode each season; "Car Commercial", "Another Car Commercial", and " Homeless Hal".

Episodes

Reruns/Syndication

Shortly after the series was canceled, WE tv acquired the cable syndication rights to Hope & Faith and it debuted in August 2006, lasting through May 2010. As of June 2010, it can be seen on CMT in Canada. The show had also been aired on RTÉ One and RTÉ Two in Ireland, and ABC1 in the UK

DVD release

On March 31, 2009, Lionsgate Home Entertainment (under license from ABC Studios) released Season 1 of Hope & Faith on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time.^[7]

International versions

A Turkish adaptation of the series, titled Belalı Baldız, began in September 2005 on ATV. Lead actors and actresses are Berna Laçin (Hope), Nurgül Yeşilçay (Faith) and Kenan Işık (Charley). Reruns began in July 2008 on TürkMax.

•  Macau: Hope and Faith on(STAR World)
•  Latvia: Ticēt un Cerēt on (LNT)

References

External links

• Hope & Faith at the Internet Movie Database
• Hope & Faith at TV.com