TV Time Capsule

‘Frank’s Place:’ Hanukkah in the Big Easy

“Eight Crazy Nights,” a celebration of Hanukkah-themed episodes, continues.

Night No. 5: December 14, 1987, when CBS aired the “Season’s Greetings” episode of its much-too-short-lived comedy-drama “Frank’s Place.” 

In the story, when college-professor-turned-New-Orleans-restaurateur Frank Parrish (Tim Reid) expresses his fascination with Jewish holiday customs, his friend Bubba Weisberger (Robert Harper) invites him to accompany him to his mother’s home for a Shabbat dinner.

“There’ll be the traditional prayers, the lighting of the candle, the meal. Then we’ll all sit around and talk about why I’m not married. That, too, is an ancient ritual,” Bubba jokes.

Sure enough, Bubba’s mother (guest star Nan Martin) spends dinner berating him for not settling down. Frustrated, Bubba announces that he and Frank are lovers, practically sending her – and Frank – into cardiac arrest.

Gregory Itzin – “24’s” weaselly President Logan – plays Bubba’s brother-in-law.

In a touching subplot, John Witherspoon, known for his buffoonish roles on “The Wayans Bros.” and in Ice Cube’s “Friday” movies, appears as Frank’s worldly Uncle Ray, whose life isn’t as glamorous as it seems.

“Season’s Greetings” was seen in 11.3 million homes, ranking 44th in the weekly ratings.

See for yourself: Sadly, “Frank’s Place” isn’t online or on video. “Eight Crazy Nights” will continue tomorrow.

 

On TV

Here’s the prime-time lineup for Monday, December 14, 1987:

8: “MacGyver” (ABC), “Kate & Allie” (CBS), “ALF” (NBC)

8:30: “Frank’s Place” (CBS)

9: “Monday Night Football” (ABC), “Newhart” (CBS), “Motown Merry Christmas” (NBC)

9:30: “Designing Women” (CBS)

10: “Cagney & Lacey” (CBS), “Secrets Women Never Share” (NBC)

 

The Record

For the week of December 13, 1987:

Top novel: “The Tommyknockers” by Stephen King

Top song: “Faith” by George Michael

Top movie: “Throw Momma From the Train”

Top TV show: “The Cosby Show” (NBC) 

In the news: NBC considered leaving Rockefeller Center for New Jersey!

 

Captions: “Frank’s Place” cast members, from left, Robert Harper, Tim Reid, Frances E. Williams, Daphne Maxwell Reid, Tony Burton and Francesca P. Roberts in a photograph from TV Guide’s September 12, 1987, fall preview issue (top, photo by Mario Casilli); CBS’s advertisement for the “Season’s Greetings” episode, from the magazine’s December 12, 1987, edition (bottom).

For Betty White, This Flick Was the ‘Chance of a Lifetime’

“Betty, White Hot!,” a series of periodic flashbacks to key moments in Betty White’s amazing television career, continues.

On November 18, 1991, NBC aired “Chance of a Lifetime,” a TV movie starring Betty White as a well-to-do widow who believes she’s dying, and Leslie Nielsen as the dapper widower she falls for on a dream vacation in Mexico.

Other stars: Ed Begley Jr. as White’s son, Elaine Stritch as her friend and William Windom as her doctor.

In White’s 1995 memoir, “Here We Go Again: My Life in Television,” she recalled how the movie allowed her to fulfill a longtime dream of starring in a romantic comedy.

Nielsen – then riding high as the star of the big-screen “Naked Gun” movies – was White’s first choice for her leading man, but she didn’t think there was “a snowball’s chance” of landing him.

She penned Nielsen an invitation to be her co-star – and to her surprise, he wrote back and said yes.

“No hassle, no drawn-out negotiating games – just a simple ‘Yes,’” White recalled.

She also wrote about the fun she had filming the movie – except for a somewhat scary sequence in which her and Nielsen’s characters bungee jump:

They strapped us into harnesses and put us on trapezes suspended beneath hot air balloons (we had his and her balloons), and all we had to do was let go, to land, we hoped, on mattresses below. Granted, it was only fifteen feet in the air, but to a devout acrophobe it might as well have been fifty. … When we finished the scene, Leslie murmured, “I don’t recall your mentioning this in your note.”

USA Today’s Matt Roush gave “Chance of a Lifetime” three stars, writing that even though the plot was weak – White and Nielsen delivered strong performances:

You’ll root for the couple to get and stay together, not just because these attractive stars are at their most charismatic, but because even when they’re acting illogically, they never seem silly or grotesque. Old fools they’re not. This affair to remember is so perfectly feel-good swell it’s almost worth missing CBS’ Monday night for.

The keyword being “almost:” “Chance of a Lifetime” was seen in 13.6 million homes, ranking 26th in the weekly ratings – behind CBS’s “Designing Women” (9th), “Murphy Brown” (10th) and “Northern Exposoure” (22nd).  

See for yourself: “Chance of a Lifetime” isn’t online or on video. (Nuts!) The next “Betty, White Hot!” installment will be posted November 22.

 

On TV

Here’s the prime-time lineup for Monday, November 18, 1991:

8: “MacGyver” (ABC), “Evening Shade” (CBS), “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” (NBC)

8:30: “Major Dad” (CBS), “Blossom” (NBC)

9: “Monday Night Football” (ABC), “Murphy Brown” (CBS), “Chance of a Lifetime” (NBC)

9:30: “Designing Women”

10: “Northern Exposure”

 

The Record

For the week of November 17, 1991:

Top novel: “Scarlett” by Alexandra Ripley

Top song: “Cream” by Prince and the New Power Generation

Top movie: “Cape Fear”

Top TV show: “60 Minutes” (CBS)

In the news: Everyone rained on President Bush’s parade

 

 

Caption: NBC’s advertisement for “Chance of a Lifetime,” from TV Guide’s November 16, 1991, issue.

‘Overkill:’ Jean Smart Does Aileen Wuornos

On November 17, 1992, CBS aired “Overkill: The Aileen Wuornos Story,” a TV movie that starred Jean Smart as the nation’s first convicted woman serial killer, a role that later won Charlize Theron an Oscar.

“Overkill” chronicled the 1990-91 dragnet for Wuornos, a prostitute who preyed on older men who picked her up along Florida roads.

It was one of Smart’s first dramatic roles after leaving “Designing Women” in 1991. Another sitcom star, “Empty Nest’s” Park Overall, co-starred as Tyria Moore, Wuornos’s lover.

The movie whitewashed their relationship and presented a mostly sympathetic portrait of Wournos, asserting she was a victim of childhood sexual abuse.

Smart and Overall received good reviews, although the St. Petersburg Times’ Janis D. Froelich asked why the movie put “glossy hair color and … nicely made-up faces on the actors portraying such cash-poor women?”

“Overkill” was seen in 14.3 million homes, tying with another TV movie – NBC’s “A Child Lost Forever” – for 14th place in the weekly ratings.

Theron won her Oscar for “Monster,” which was released in 2003, one year after Wournos’s execution.

See for yourself: “Overkill: The Aileen Wuornos Story” isn’t online or on video.

 

On TV

Here’s the prime-time lineup for Tuesday, November 17, 1992:

8: “Full House” (ABC), “Rescue 911” (CBS), “Quantum Leap” (NBC)

8:30: “Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper” (ABC)

9: “Roseanne” (ABC), “Overkill: The Aileen Wuornos Story” (CBS), “Reasonable Doubts” (NBC)

9:30: “Coach” (ABC)

10: “Going to Extremes” (ABC), “Dateline NBC”

 

The Record

For the week of November 15, 1992:

Top novel: “The Tale of the Body Thief” by Anne Rice

Top song: “How Do You Talk to An Angel?” by the Heights

Top movie: “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”

Top TV show: “The Jacksons: An American Dream, Part 2” (ABC)

In the news: The president-elect made baby boomers feels old

 

Caption: CBS’s advertisement for “Overkill: The Aileen Wuornos Story,” from TV Guide’s November 14, 1992, issue.

Meet ‘Murphy Brown’

On November 14, 1988, CBS introduced “Murphy Brown,” the sitcom that starred Candice Bergen in the title role – a network television investigative reporter, recovering alcoholic and Motown devotee.

In “Respect,” the first episode, Murphy returns from a month-long stay in rehab and scores an interview with a man who claims to have slept with a married woman running for vice president.

Diane English created “Murphy Brown” as a star vehicle for JoBeth Williams, who ultimately decided she didn’t want to do a sitcom. English landed Bergen, a major film star who was required by skeptical CBS executives to read for the role. 

Critics seemed to like the star better than the show; Newsweek’s Harry F. Waters wrote the “ferociously intense Bergen doesn’t suggest Diane Sawyer so much as Sam Donaldson in drag.”

“Respect” was seen in 13.2 million homes, ranking 32nd in the weekly ratings.

“Murphy Brown” grew steadily, peaking at No. 3 during the 1991-92 season, which ended with Murphy giving birth to a son out-of-wedlock – a storyline famously criticized by Vice President Dan Quayle for undermining traditional “family values.”

See for yourself: “Respect” is part of the  “Murphy Brown: The Complete First Season” DVD set.

 

On TV

Here’s the prime-time lineup for Monday, November 14, 1988:

8: “Kenny Rogers” (ABC), “ALF” (NBC), “Newhart” (CBS

8:30: “Coming of Age” (CBS), “The Hogan Family” (NBC)

9: “Monday Night Football” (ABC), “Murphy Brown” (CBS), “Too Good to Be True” (NBC)  

9:30: “Designing Women” (CBS)

10: “People Magazine on TV” (CBS)

 

The Record

For the week of November 13, 1988:

Top novel: “The Queen of the Damned” by Anne Rice

Top song: “Wild, Wild West” by the Escape Club

Top movie: Child’s Play”

Top TV show: The Cosby Show” (NBC)

In the news: Congressional Democrats vowed to work with President-elect Bush

 

 

Captions: “Murphy Brown” costar Candice Bergen in a photograph from TV Guide’s October 1, 1988, fall preview issue (top, photographer unknown); CBS’s advertisement for the series premiere, from the November 12, 1988, edition (bottom).

When ‘Murphy Brown’ Met Kelly Green

On October 16, 1989, CBS aired “TV or Not TV?,” a “Murphy Brown” episode that satirized the blurring line between journalism and entertainment.

The plot: Murphy (Candice Bergen), one of the stars of the TV newsmagazine “FYI,” becomes the reluctant role model for Julia St. John (guest star Morgan Fairchild), an actress researching her starring role on the sitcom “Kelly Green.”

Or as Tom Hill described it in his 2001 book “TV Land to Go:”

It’s an episode of a TV series (“Murphy Brown”) about a TV series (“FYI”) becoming an episode of a TV series (“Kelly Green”).

When Murphy tapes a cameo on “Kelly Green,” Connie Chung – who had recently made a much-publicized move from NBC to CBS – visits the “FYI” newsroom to chastise her friend.

“It’s wrong for a journalist of your stature to do a sitcom,” Chung says. “Once you cross that line, you undermine your credibility. I feel so strongly about that.”

Hill ranked “TV or Not TV?” 39th on his book’s list of the 100 best sitcom episodes.

The episode was seen in 12.7 million homes, ranking 26th among the week’s 81 prime-time broadcasts.

 

On TV

Here’s the prime-time lineup for Monday, October 16, 1989:

8: “MacGyver” (ABC), “Major Dad” (CBS), “21 Jump Street,” “ALF” (NBC)

8:30 “The People Next Door” (CBS), “The Hogan Family” (NBC)

9: “Monday Night Football” (ABC), “Murphy Brown” (CBS), “Alien Nation” (Fox), “Roxanne: The Prize Pulitzer” (NBC)

9:30: “The Famous Teddy Z” (CBS)

10: “Designing Women” (CBS)

10:30: “Newhart” (CBS)

 

The Record

For the week of October 15, 1989:

Top novel: “Clear and Present Danger” by Tom Clancy

Top song: “Miss You Much” by Janet Jackson

Top TV show: “Cheers” (NBC)

At the movies: “Look Who’s Talking”

In the news: A group of newly released South African political prisoners called for Nelson Mandela’s release

 

 

Caption: CBS’s advertisement for the “TV or Not TV?” episode of “Murphy Brown,” from TV Guide’s October 14, 1989, issue.

The Sun Rises on ‘Evening Shade’

On September 21, 1990, CBS introduced “Evening Shade,” the sitcom that marked Burt Reynolds’ second television comeback in as many as years.

The actor was a regular on four dramatic series between 1959 and 1971, before he became a major movie star.

In 1989, with his box-office star dimming, Reynolds returned to TV in “B.L. Stryker,” a modestly successful series of private-eye flicks that aired every few weeks under ABC’s “Mystery Movie” banner.

The network asked Reynolds to star in three more “Stryker” movies during the 1990-91 season, but friends urged him to try a sitcom instead. “You’re always hot in Hollywood at what you’ve never done,” he recalled in his 1994 memoir, “My Life.”

“WKRP in Cincinnati” producer Hugh Wilson wanted to cast Reynolds and Alex Rocco in a comedy about restaurateurs in the Bahamas, but the actor – then 54 – felt he was too old to chase bikinis on the beach.

He teamed instead with husband-and-wife producers Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and Harry Thomason on “Evening Shade,” which chronicled life in a small town in Arkansas.

(The Thomasons’ friend Hillary Clinton, then the state’s first lady, suggested the title.)

Bloodworth-Thomason initially envisioned Reynolds’ character, Wood Newton, as the town’s newspaper publisher, but the actor persuaded her to make him the local high-school football coach instead.

Reynolds also helped cast several friends – including Elizabeth Ashley, Ossie Davis and Charles Durning – in supporting roles.

Critics gave “Evening Shade” good reviews – the Washington Post’s Tom Shales praised its “breezily disarming ambience” – but the show struggled in its Friday 8 p.m. time slot, ranking 44th in the ratings during its first week.

CBS soon shifted the sitcom to Mondays, where it flourished in a lineup that included “Major Dad,” “Murphy Brown” and the Thomasons’ first hit, “Designing Women.”

Reynolds, who won an acting Emmy for “Evening Shade” and directed about a third of its episodes, eventually won creative control over the show. He even co-wrote and directed the pilot for “Harlan & Merleen” – a proposed “Evening Shade” spinoff – without the Thomasons.

CBS cancelled “Evening Shade” in 1994 amid softening ratings and bad publicity surrounding Reynolds’ nasty divorce from Loni Anderson.

The actor now bounces between movies and TV, including USA’s “Burn Notice,” which recently cast him in a recurring role.

“Evening Shade’s” hour-long first episode is part of the “Evening Shade: Season One” DVD set.

 

Also on TV

On September 21, 1990, CBS also aired “The World’s Oldest Living Bridesmaid,” a Donna Mills TV-movie; ABC broadcast the season premieres of “Full House” and “Family Matters,” the first episode of Heather Locklear’s sitcom “Going Places” and “20/20;” Fox showed “America’s Most Wanted” and the crime drama “D.E.A.;” and NBC offered a “Super Bloopers & Practical Jokes” special and the Patrick Duffy-William Devane TV-movie “Murder C.O.D.”

 

The Record

During the week of September 16, 1990, the number ones were Stephen King’s “Four Past Midnight” (novel), Wilson Phillips’ “Release Me” (song) and “Postcards From the Edge” (movie). In Washington, the government lifted the Depression-era ban that separated the banking and securities businesses.

 

  

Captions: “Evening Shade” star Burt Reynolds in a photograph from TV Guide’s September 15, 1990, fall preview issue (top, photographer unknown); CBS’s advertisement for the series premiere, also from that edition (bottom).

‘The Golden Palace’ Opens

“Betty, White Hot!” a series of periodic flashbacks to key moments in Betty White’s amazing television career, continues.

On September 18, 1992, CBS introduced “The Golden Palace,” the short-lived sequel to NBC’s “The Golden Girls.”

“Girls” ended memorably in May 1992 with Dorothy (Bea Arthur) marrying and moving away. The producers pitched NBC on a continuation of the series that would find the remaining “Girls” running a hotel, but the network passed – allowing CBS to pick up the new series and use it as the kickoff for a revitalized Friday night lineup that also included “Designing Women” and “Major Dad.”

The first episode opens on the “Girls’” familiar living-room set, where – as movers cart away the furniture – viewers learn Rose (Betty White), Blanche (Rue McClanahan) and Sophia (Estelle Getty) have invested their life savings in the Golden Palace, an art deco hotel in Miami Beach.

The women soon learn the Palace’s charms mask several shortcomings, including little staff and lots of debt. They go to work shoring up the business – Blanche is the boss, Rose cleans the rooms, Sophia runs the kitchen – discovering a new lease on life in the process.

As White explained in her 1995 memoir “Here We Go Again: My Life in Television,” the new series reflected the changing role of women in society, much as “The Golden Girls” had done when it debuted.

For seven years, the “Girls” had been living together, as much as a hedge against loneliness as for economic reasons. But they had always faced life from the shelter and security of their home. Now, by leaving that familiar setting, these characters, whom the audience knew so well, would be forced to do what so many women these days were having to do in real life – meet the world as it comes through the front door and deal with it.

“Palace” featured a zippier version of the “Girls” theme and three new cast members: Don Cheadle as Roland, the sharp-tongued young manager; Cheech Marin as Chuy, the temperamental chef; and Billy L. Sullivan as Oliver, a 12-year-old street kid who becomes Roland’s ward.

Most of the action took place in the lobby, the dining room and the kitchen, where the women gathered for their traditional late-night cheesecake sessions, except now they were joined by the other characters.

The hotel setting also allowed for guest stars to check in, including new suitors (Eddie Albert, Barry Bostwick, Ricardo Montalban) for the women, family members (Ja’net DuBois appeared twice as Roland’s mom, Ned Beatty played Blanche’s brother) and old friends (Herb Edelman as Stan, Harold Gould as Miles).

The Associated Press’s Scott Williams described the new series as being “as much fun as the old one, and maybe a little more. … With [Arthur] gone, McClanahan, White and Getty are freed to find new comic orbits of their own, and they do. The chemistry is still sharp, and maybe a little sharper, since the writers won’t have to gearshift a gag through four characters.”

The Washington Post’s Tom Shales saved his highest praise for White, calling Rose “one of the great creations of a glorious comic acting career. … [W]ithout Betty White, this is one show that clearly could not go on.”

“The Golden Palace” finished 24th in the Nielsens its first week but the ratings softened as the show struggled to find its niche; as White recalled in her book, last-minute script rewrites were common.

By the end of the season, the stories had improved and the show appeared headed for renewal. The night before CBS fall announced its fall 1993 schedule, executives shuffled the Friday lineup once more; “Palace” was cancelled and disappeared after the summer reruns.

The next “Betty, White Hot!” installment will be posted October 2.

 

Also on TV

On September 18, 1992, CBS also aired the debuts of Bob Newhart’s sitcom “Bob” and the David E. Kelly-produced drama “Picket Fences.” ABC broadcast the season premieres of “Family Matters,” “Step by Step” and “Dinosaurs;” the debut of “Camp Wilder,” a sitcom that featured Jerry O’Connell and Jay Mohr; and “20/20.” Fox showed “America’s Most Wanted,” “Sightings” and the you-solve-the-mystery crime show “Likely Suspects.” NBC offered the debuts of “Final Appeal,” an “Unsolved Mysteries” spinoff, and the young-people-living-in-Washington drama “The Round Table.”

 

The Record

During the week of September 13, 1992, the number ones were Stephen King’s “Gerald’s Game” (novel), Boyz II Men’s “End of the Road” (song) and “Sneakers” (movie). Meanwhile, new research suggested rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was more damaging than previously believed.

 

Caption: “The Golden Palace” profile from TV Guide’s September 12, 1992, fall preview issue (photo by Jeff Katz).

Monday, January 9, 1989

Introducing the “Lists & Giggles” periodic trivia series. First up: A quiz about “The Pat Sajak Show,” which CBS introduced 21 years ago tonight. The answers will be posted tomorrow.

1. “The Pat Sajak Show” was CBS’s third late-night talk show, following “The Merv Griffin Show,” which aired from 1969 until 1972, and a 1950s news-oriented interview series. Name it.

2. To prepare for his CBS show, Sajak  studied tapes of another famous late-night host. Name him.

3. How did Sajak respond when the Washington Post’s Tom Shales asked him to say something bad about Johnny Carson?

A. “I don’t think he flosses as often as he could.”

B. “He’s a little past his prime.”

C. “He’s the master. He’s my hero.”

4. “The Pat Sajak Show” won its first Nielsen showdown with NBC’s “Tonight Show,” which featured substitute host Jay Leno. What ABC sitcom star was Leno’s guest?

5. True or false: Sajak’s bandleader, Tom Scott, also conducted the band on Fox’s 1993 “Chevy Chase Show.”

6. True or false: Sajak’s sidekick, former news anchor Dan Miller, previously worked with him at WTVF in Nashville, where Sajak was the weather forecaster.

7. True or false: Vanna White never appeared on “The Pat Sajak Show.”

8. To join CBS, Sajak stopped hosting NBC’s daytime version of “Wheel of Fortune.” Who replaced him?

9. In February 1990, three months before CBS cancelled “The Pat Sajak Show,” the network began auditioning possible replacements for him on air. What radio star was given a tryout?

A. Don Imus

B. Rush Limbaugh

C. Laura Schlessinger

10. Whose late-night talk show debuted six days before Sajak’s and proved far more successful?

    

From the Pages of TV Guide

 

Also airing January 9, 1989:

8 PM NBC ALF (CC)

ALF patrols the grounds after Willie (Max Wright) brings home a pushy guest (Todd Susman) who’s in a witness-protection program. Doug: Jesse D. Goins. John: Ron Steel. Trevor: John La Motta.

8:30 NBC HOGAN FAMILY (CC)

Sandy (Sandy Duncan) thinks she’s hired “Robo-Secretary” after Mrs. Poole (Edie McClurg) whips the entire school into tiptop shape. Meanwhile, Michael (Josh Taylor) fends off the amorous advances of an admirer (Cristine Rose). Directed by Jason Bateman, who plays David.

9 PM CBS MURPHY BROWN (CC) – Comedy

Guess who’s not invited to the Inaugural Ball and can’t find anyone to take her and can’t get over her swift descent in Washington society? Murphy: Candice Bergen. Murray: Lou Willis. Lillian: Edith Fields. Secretary No. 10: Annabelle Gurwitch. Jackie: Suzie Plakson. Miles: Grant Shaud. Corky: Faith Ford. Phil: Pat Corley. Frank: Joe Regalbuto.

9:30 CBS DESIGNING WOMEN (CC)

A wilderness outing designed to build leadership finds Julia and Mary Jo (Dixie Carter, Annie Potts) striking out on their own after a dispute with two “urban cowgirls” in their group, while first-time camper Bernice (Alice Ghostley) surprises everyone with her energetic command. Big Edie: Denny Dillon. Mickey Jr.: Doris Hess. Connie: Sharon Madden. Corrine: Maggie Murphy. Dorothy: Meg Wyllie. 

Thursday, Jan. 1, 1987

“New Years Week” continues with “New Year’s Daze,” the “Designing Women” episode CBS broadcast 23 years ago tonight.

Should old acquaintance be forgot? The women of the Sugarbaker & Associates interior design firm are waiting for their New Year’s Eve dates to arrive. Sisters Julia and Suzanne Sugarbaker (Dixie Carter, Delta Burke) bicker while Mary Joe Shively (Annie Potts) frets over her 13-year-old daughter Claudia, who’s attending her first “co-ed” party.

SUZANNE: I remember my first New Year’s Eve party. There I was with Tommy Garson – ringing out the old, kissing in the new. That was the year I first learned about the bases.

JULIA: Forgive my ignorance, Suzanne, but I don’t believe they covered “the bases” in my edition of the Masters and Johnson’s manual.

SUZANNE: Oh you know: First base is French kissing, second base is breasts, third base. …

JULIA: Alright, Suzanne.

MARY JO: You can spare us third and sliding into home.

And never brought to mind? Charlene Frazier (Jean Smart) is stood up by her date, Shadow. The gang ends up watching the Times Square countdown on TV.

CHARLENE: Oh it’s just not the same without Guy Lombardo.

SUZANNE: Oh I know what you mean. It’s just like in the Miss America pageant. I mean, they can have all the dimpled pretty boys they want emcee it, it’s just not the same without that smiling Bert Parks looking down those girls’ dresses.

Take a cup of kindness yet: The Times Square coverage is interrupted by a news bulletin: Peter “Shadow” Wallis has escaped from the Atlanta federal prison.

JULIA: Let. Me. Get. This. Straight. You had a date with an escaped convict?

CHARLENE: All he wrote me was that he’d be … getting out for New Year’s. I kinda assumed he meant parole.

The police call to report Shadow’s been caught – then an anchorman announces he’s still at large. “You know how slow these news people are to find anything out,” Charlene says. “I mean, Dan Rather doesn’t know anything ’til 7 o’clock.”

For auld lang syne: The girls distract themselves by making resolutions. Julia promises to be less judgmental (“Suzanne, I won’t automatically assume you won’t date a man whose net worth doesn’t exceed J.R. Ewing’s”), while Charlene vows to be less trusting.

Everyone agrees that would be mistake – including Shadow (Thomas Callaway), who arrives to bid Charlene farewell. Turns out he’s an undercover agent; the prison break was staged so he could begin his next assignment. “Don’t ever change,” he tells Charlene before departing.

The girls gather for a toast: “To 1987!”

“New York Daze” is part of the “Designing Women: The Complete First Season” DVD set.

 

From the Pages of TV Guide

Also airing Jan. 1, 1987:

11 PM FOX LATE SHOW – Joan Rivers; 60 min.

Scheduled: Lisa Hartman, Gloria Loring. Mark Hudson, the Party Boys and the Tramp. (Live)

11:30 NBC TONIGHT; 60 min.

Scheduled: Burt Reynolds, Sonia Braga, singer Paul Young. Johnny Carson, Ed McMahon.

Monday, Oct. 19, 1987

Twenty-two years ago tonight, NBC aired “Strange Voices,” another TV movie starring one of that genre’s queens – Nancy McKeon.

Here, the “Facts of Life” actress plays a college student stricken with schizophrenia. Portraying her parents: professional guest star Stephen Macht (“Knots Landing,” “Cagney & Lacey,” “Murder, She Wrote,” et. al) and Valerie Harper, making a less-than-triumphant return to NBC’s Monday night schedule four weeks after the network killed off her character on the sitcom “Valerie.”

Critics panned “Strange Voices” (the New York Times’ John J. O’Connor called it “embarrassingly overwrought” and compared it to the kind of “sick comedy … Paul Lynde and Alice Ghostley used to do in Broadway revues”), but it was a big hit: The movie drew viewers in 18.6 million households, clobbering its competition (including a Washington Redskins-Dallas Cowboys matchup on ABC’s “Monday Night Football”) and finishing as that week’s 10th most-watched program.

Is it any wonder networks cast McKeon in so many TV movies in the ’80s and ’90s?

Test your knowledge of her other films by playing TV Time Capsule’s McKeon Movie Match, corresponding the actress’s role with the appropriate title. The correct matches will be posted Wednesday, Oct. 21.

The roles

1. An unwed teenager who wages a legal battle to recover her infant daughter from adoptive mom Lindsay Wagner

2. A mother whose child is kidnapped by a disturbed Veronica Hamel

3. A mother whose child is kidnapped by a devil-worshipping South American cult

4. A battered wife whose pleas for police protection fall on deaf ears

5. A wife whose marriage is shattered by husband Eric Roberts’ shady dealings

6. A wife battling the elements with husband Adrian Pasdar in post-Civil War Nebraska

7. A woman who suffers vigorous taunting from male colleagues in her quest to become the first female in her field

8. A woman framed for murder by conniving coworker Chelsea Field

9. A woman who falls for her younger sister’s ex-boyfriend/stalker

The titles

A. “This Child is Mine,” NBC, 1985

B. “Firefighter,” CBS, 1986

C. “A Cry for Help: The Tracey Thurman Story,” NBC, 1989

D. “Lightning Field,” USA Network, 1991

E. “Baby Snatcher,” CBS, 1992

F. “Love, Honor & Obey: The Last Mafia Marriage,” CBS, 1993

G. “A Mother’s Gift,” CBS, 1995

H. “The Wrong Woman,” CBS, 1996

I. “In My Sister’s Shadow,” CBS, 1999

 

From the Pages of TV Guide

Also airing Oct. 19, 1987:

8 PM ABC MacGYVER (CC); 60 min.

On a mapping expedition, MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) finds a girl who’s being hunted by a creature resembling Big Foot.

Guest Cast

Karin Graff … Katey Wright

Joanna … Michele Goodger

Creature … Ken Kirzinger

Bench … Nicholas Rice

9:30 CBS DESIGNING WOMEN (CC)

Out of necessity, the Sugarbakers become matchmakers for a batty friend and an eccentric client. Tyson: Elliott Reid. Bernice: Alice Ghostley. Julia: Dixie Carter. Suzanne: Delta Burke. Mary Jo: Annie Potts. Charlene: Jean Smart. Anthony: Meshach Taylor.