Charles in Charge

Charles in Charge
Title screen for Charles in Charge
Format	Sitcom
Created by	Michael Jacobs Barbara Weisberg
Starring	Scott Baio Willie Aames Julie Cobb (season 1) James Widdoes (season 1) April Lerman (season 1) Jonathan Ward (season 1) Michael Pearlman (season 1) Jennifer Runyon (season 1) Sandra Kerns (seasons 2-5) Nicole Eggert (seasons 2-5) Josie Davis (seasons 2-5) Alexander Polinsky (seasons 2-5) Ellen Travolta (seasons 2-5) James T. Callahan (seasons 2-5) Justin Whalin (season 4)
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	126 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Al Burton Co-executive producers: Jane Startz Michael Jacobs (seasons 2-4)
Producer(s)	Michael Jacobs (season 1) Roseanne Leto (pilot episode) Mitchell Bank Todd E. Kessler (seasons 2-4)
Running time	24:30 (CBS); 22:30 (first-run syndication)
Production company(s)	Scholastic Productions Al Burton Productions Universal Television
Distributor	NBCUniversal Television Distribution (2004-Present) The Program Exchange (1998-2008)
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS (1984-1985) first-run syndication (1987-1990)
Original run	October 3, 1984 (1984-10-03) (CBS) – November 10, 1990 (1990-11-10) (first-run syndication)

Charles in Charge is an American sitcom series starring Scott Baio as Charles, a 19-year-old student at the fictional Copeland College in New Brunswick, New Jersey,^[1] who worked as a live-in babysitter in exchange for room and board.^[2] Baio directed many episodes of the show, and was credited with his full name, Scott Vincent Baio.

It was first broadcast on CBS from October 3, 1984 to April 3, 1985, when it was cancelled due to a struggle in the Nielsen ratings. It then had a more successful first-run syndication run from January 3, 1987 to November 10, 1990, as 126 original episodes were aired in total. The show was produced by Al Burton Productions and Scholastic Productions in association with Universal Television.

Premise

Charles first worked for the Pembroke family: wife Jill, husband Stan, and their three children: Lila, Douglas, and Jason.

When the show ended its run on CBS, and entered first-run syndication in 1987, the story explained that the Pembrokes sub-leased their house and moved to Seattle, and the Powells moved in instead, thereby allowing Charles to live downstairs yet again. This time, the family consisted of grandfather Walter, mother Ellen (whose husband was in the Navy and consequently could only visit his family sporadically), and her three children: Jamie, Sarah, and Adam.

Cast

Michael Pearlman and Jennifer Runyon are the only other actors, besides Baio and Aames, to reprise their roles on the show. Pearlman appeared in the second season premiere, "Amityville". (Lisa Donovan played Jill Pembroke in that episode.) Runyon appeared in "Twice Upon a Time (Part 1)" and "Twice Upon a Time (Part 2)".

In the final two seasons, Sandra Kerns only made three more appearances (once in Season 4 and twice in Season 5).

Charles' mother, Lillian, was played by Ellen Travolta, John Travolta's sister. She also played her sisters (Charles's aunts), Sally and Vanessa. She had previously played the mother of Chachi Arcola, Scott Baio's character on Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi. Chachi's real name, incidentally, was also Charles.

Nicole Eggert went on to star in Baywatch (1992–1994). Josie Davis also made one appearance in a 1998 Baywatch episode. Both Charles in Charge and Baywatch were TV shows that began on network TV, before moving to first-run syndication.

Guest cast

• Ben Stein guest starred as "Stanley Willard", a malevolent loan officer, guidance counselor, college professor and mental patient throughout the series.

Season 1

• In the pilot, one of the family's sons refers to Charles's prospective date as a "carbon unit".
• During the first season, Jerry Levine had a recurring role as Elliott Pembroke, Stan's nephew.
• Meg Ryan guest starred as "Meagan Parker" in two episodes of the show's first season: "War" on October 24, 1984^[3] and "Charles 'R' Us" on February 13, 1985.^[4]
• Rue McClanahan guest starred as "Irene Pembroke," the children's paternal grandmother, in "Home for the Holidays," aired on December 19, 1984, and in "Pressure from Grandma," aired on January 30, 1985.
• Matthew Perry portrayed Lila Pembroke's mistaken date, "Ed Stanley," in the episode "The Wrong Guy".
• Will Shannon was portrayed as Charles' crazy neighbor "Chris Garrett" in the episode "Jill's Decision".
• Christina Applegate portrayed Lila's friend Stacy in the episodes "Slumber Party" and "Snowed In."
• Samantha Smith portrayed Lila's friend Kim in the episode "Slumber Party".^[5][6]
• The episode "Snowed In" on February 6, 1985, had a minor role for Kathy Ireland.

Season 3

• The Facts of Life star Mindy Cohn guest starred in one episode as Buddy's fun loving sister who has a problem with alcoholism in the episode "Bottle Baby."
• Addams Family actor John Astin guest starred in the episode "The Pickle Plot" as Charles' uncle Joe, the head of a pickle company.
• Saved by the Bell star Mark-Paul Gosselaar guest starred in the episode "Runaround Charles" as a classmate of Jamie's

Season 4

• For a few episodes of this season, Justin Whalin played Lillian's nephew Anthony.
• Erika Eleniak, who played Charles' girlfriend on three episodes, later went on to star in Baywatch (1989–1992).^[7][8]
• Donny Most, who played Ralph on Baio's other show Happy Days, made a cameo appearance in "It's a Blunderfull Life".
• Sally Struthers who played Gloria on All in the Family guest starred as Jamie's teacher in episode "Sill at Large".

Season 5

• Samantha Fox appeared in one episode playing a famous singer named Samantha Steele on "Paper Covers Rock".
• Paul Walker plays an illiterate friend of Sarah Powell on "Dead Puck Society".
• Ami Foster plays a snobbish friend of Jamie's on "Out with the In Crowd".
• Tiffani-Amber Thiessen plays Charles' girlfriend Jennifer on "There's a Girl in My Ficus".

Theme song

The theme song was composed by David Kurtz, Michael Jacobs, and Al Burton, and performed by Shandi Sinnamon. The theme music was mellower in the first season, and was remixed for the syndication run.

References in pop culture

Relient K covered the Charles in Charge theme song and wrote additional lyrics about the show on their album Relient K.^[9]

Rapper Heavy D mentions Charles in Charge in a lyric to his song "Is It Good to You".

On the Scrubs episode "My Nightingale", Ted's band sings the Charles in Charge theme song. In addition in the episode "Our True Lies", Lucy Bennett's ringtone plays the Charles in Charge theme song.^[10]

The Bloodhound Gang performed a parody in which Jimmy Pop sings the Charles in Charge theme song in an Axl Rose voice on "Shitty Record Offer" from their 1995 album Use Your Fingers.

On Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, the host performed the Charles in Charge theme song as Bob Dylan.^[11]

On the Season 20 episode of The Simpsons, "Father Knows Worst", there is a reference to the cooks in the Springfield Elementary cafeteria being retired TV comedy writers, with one of the cooks explaining the basic premise of Charles in Charge to the other cooks, all retired TV comedy writers.

The theme song from Charles in Charge was covered by Electric Hellfire Club with a Goth and Industrial beat and style from the two cd set of 36 TV show opening tunes as cover songs by Gothic and Industrial bands. The CD titled TV Terror: Felching a Dead Horse was released in September 1997.^[12]

In the Family Guy season 3 episode "The Thin White Line", Peter, while working as a security guard for George Harrison, is shown watching TV and singing the Charles in Charge theme, completely oblivious to Harrison being attacked just outside his office. The series was later referenced in two season 9 episodes: "New Kidney in Town" has Peter reluctant to go to his scheduled dialysis appointment, in order to watch Charles in Charge while at the Drunken Clam. Also, in "Road to the North Pole", while sitting on Santa's lap, Peter states he "wants a Charles in Charge lunchbox." ^[13]

Hip-Hop artist Kid Cudi references Charles in Charge in a lyric to his song "Soundtrack To My Life".

Home media

DVD

Universal Studios Home Entertainment released a 3-disc set of the first season of Charles in Charge on DVD in North America on February 14, 2006. Due to poor sales, no further seasons were released.

In September 2007, it was announced that Arts Alliance America (which subsequently changed its name to Virgil Films & Entertainment during the summer of 2007) had acquired the rights to the series.^[14] They subsequently released seasons 2-5 on DVD. Seasons 4 and 5 were Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) releases, available exclusively through Amazon.com.^[15][16]

As of 2011, the Arts Alliance releases have been discontinued and are out of print.

Streaming

All five seasons of the series were made available for streaming through Amazon Instant Video.^[17]

References

See also

• List of Charles in Charge episodes

External links

• Charles in Charge at the Internet Movie Database
• Charles in Charge at TV.com
• Charles in Charge at allmovie
• Charles in Charge Online