Open House (TV series)

For the RTÉ series, see Open House (Ireland).
For the BBC series, see Open House (1964 TV series).
Open House
Genre Sitcom
Created by Ruth Bennett
Susan Seeger
Written by Bruce Ferber
Directed by Dwayne Hickman
Philip Charles MacKenzie
Arlene Sanford
David Semel
Lee Shallat-Chemel
Michael Zinberg
Starring Alison LaPlaca
Mary Page Keller
Chris Lemmon
Composer(s) John Beasley
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 24
Production
Executive producer(s) Ruth Bennett
Susan Seeger
Producer(s) Deborah Leschin
Linda Nieber
Barry Vigon
Tom Walla
Running time 22–24 minutes
Production company(s) Ubu Productions, Paramount Television
Distributor CBS Television Distribution
Broadcast
Original channel Fox
Original run August 27, 1989 – July 21, 1990
Chronology
Related shows Duet

Open House is an American sitcom that aired on Fox from August 27, 1989 to July 21, 1990. The series is a spin-off of the Fox series Duet. Despite airing right after the Top 50 hit Married...with Children on Sundays, the series attracted low ratings, thus Fox canceled the show after 24 episodes.

Synopsis

Open House starred Alison LaPlaca as Linda Phillips, the former studio executive who brought the same zeal pushing costly houses for Juan Verde Real Estate as she did working at World Wide Studios. The show also starred Mary Page Keller and Chris Lemmon continuing their roles as Laura Kelly and Richard Phillips. Laura, newly separated from her writer husband Ben Coleman, also quit catering, and became an apprentice agent. Richard, Linda's husband, was a pianist at Jasper's, but left the hangout — and his wife — by mid-season. Among Linda's eccentric co-workers were Ted Nichols (Philip Charles MacKenzie), her main rival; Scott Babylon (Danny Gans), a talented impressionist; Margo Van Meter (a then-unknown Ellen DeGeneres), the sassy, man-hungry secretary; and Roger McSwain (Nick Tate), the manager of Juan Verde.

The premise of the series had originated in the series finale of Duet, in which Linda was introduced to Ted, who brought her to Juan Verde to start her new career. LaPlaca and MacKenzie had been dating for several years by the time they worked opposite each other on Duet and Open House (in fact, they first worked together on a 1985 episode of MacKenzie's former series, Brothers). In 1992, two years after the cancellation of Open House, LaPlaca and MacKenzie were married.

Cast

Actor Role
Alison LaPlaca Linda Phillips
Mary Page Keller Laura Kelly
Chris Lemmon Richard Phillips
Philip Charles MacKenzie Ted Nichols
Danny Gans Scott Babylon
Ellen DeGeneres Margo Van Meter
Nick Tate Roger McSwain
Ginger Orsi Amanda Phillips
Jon Cypher John Green
Arleen Sorkin Geneva

Episode list

№ Episode title Original airdate
1 "Fish Out of Water" 1989 August 27
2 "Scenes from an Office Marriage" 1989 September 3
3 "Going for Broker" 1989 September 10
4 "Whodunnit?" 1989 September 17
5 "Second Honeymoon Anyone?" 1989 September 24
6 "Dome Sweet Dome" 1989 October 1
7 "Let's Get Physicals" 1989 October 8
8 "Married Without Children" 1989 October 22
9 "Torn Between Two Houses" 1989 October 29
10 "Murder, He Wrote" 1989 November 5
11 "In Vegas... with Showgirls! (Part 1)" 1989 November 12
12 "In Vegas... with Showgirls! (Part 2)" 1989 November 19
13 "Parade of Homes" 1989 November 26
14 "Bye, Bye Boris" 1990 January 7
15 "Who Framed Roger McSwain?" 1990 January 14
16 "An Unmarried Woman" 1990 February 4
17 "The Bad Seed" 1990 February 11
18 "Lost Weekend" 1990 February 18
19 "Dumbstruck" 1990 February 25
20 "Brother, Can You Spare a Grand?" 1990 March 18
21 "New Kid in Town" 1990 April 1
22 "The Real Estate Thing" 1990 April 8
23 "The Roast" 1990 April 29
24 "First Impression" 1990 May 6

External links