| Style & Substance | |
|---|---|
| Format | Comedy |
| Starring | Jean Smart Nancy McKeon Heath Hyche Linda Kash Joseph Maher Alan Autry |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 (1 unaired) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Peter Tolan |
| Running time | 30 min. |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | January 5, 1998 – September 2, 1998 |
Style & Substance was a television situation comedy that premiered on CBS July 22, 1998.
The show starred Jean Smart as Chelsea Stevens, a Martha Stewart-like star of a how-to home show, and Nancy McKeon as her producer, Jane Sokol, a small-town girl new to New York City. Chelsea Stevens was an expert cook, decorator, and party planner who knew much more about thread-count than she did relationships. She was well-meaning at times, but her narcissism usually got in the way of actually understanding anyone else's problems.
Jean Smart's official website describes Stevens as a "neurotic control freak" and a "one-woman cooking, decorating, and entertaining machine who thinks every crisis can be solved by a decorative centerpiece".
It was rumored that Martha Stewart had complained to CBS about the similarities between her and the Chelsea Stevens character, even though on more than one episode Chelsea was referred to as Stewart's rival. Whether Stewart's complaint was true or not, the network cancelled the show after airing only a handful of episodes.
CBS tried another show similar in content in 1998. This show, "The Simple Life", starring Judith Light as a lifestyle expert did not fare any better.