It's A Living aired from October 1980 until September 1982 and from September 1985 until September 1989 on ABC and in first run syndication.
This sexy comedy was about five pretty waitresses working at a posh Los Angeles restaurant ( so posh that in one scene, an enraged customer received a bill for $540.00 for six people!!!).
Nancy ( Marian Mercer)was the disciplinarian supervisor trying to get a days work out of Lois ( Susan Sullivan), Dot ( Gail Edwards), Vicki ( Wendy Schaal), Cassie ( Ann Jillian)who was the outspoken one ,Jan ( Barrie Youngfellow) and Sonny ( Paul Kreppel) , the self-absorbed lounge pianist.Along with battling customers and chatting about their home life , the girls all giggled alot, paraded around in skimpy outfits and made jokes about who had "done it" the previous night .
ABC evidently had a lot of faith in the show. Despite a shakey first season, it was renewed and given a new name, Making A Living, and two new cast members were added, Maggie ( Louise Lasser) who replaced Lois ( Susan Sullivan had moved over to Falcon Crest) and a cool named Mario ( Bert Remsen) It didn't help.
Three years after leaving ABC, with its original title and most of the original cast, It's A Living returned with new episodes produced for the syndicated market. Added to the cast were: Amy ( Crystal Bernard), a naive new young waitress; a new chef named Howard( Richard Stahl), who was the constant and disinterested object of Nancy's amorous advances and the infrequently seen Richie Gray( played by Richard Kline), an electrician who eventually married Jan.
In the fall of 1986, an outspoken, sexy black waitress named Ginger ( Sheryl Lee Ralph) joined the other waitresses at 'Above The Top'. Late in 1987, Howard finally started dating Nancy and, to the surprise of everybody on the staff including himself, the two of them got married in Las Vegas.
During the 1988-1989 season, there were two more marriages: Ginger to successful physician Reggie St. Thomas ( Julius Carry) and her roommate Amy to Bobby Lee Lord ( Jay Baker), a devout young preacher. As the series came to an end, Dot was still looking for her big break as an actress, Sonny was as obnoxious as ever, Jan and Richie were expecting their first baby and, most surprising, Howard and Nancy were still married!
Here is Bert Remsen's Obituary
Bert Remsen, Actor on Stage And Screen, 74
Published: May 3, 1999
Bert Remsen, a stage, screen and television actor for some 50 years, died on April 22 at his home in California's San Fernando Valley. He was 74.
Mr. Remsen, who was born in Glen Cove, N.Y., began his career at the Neighborhood Playhouse, where he studied with Sanford Meisner. He went on to act in summer stock and on Broadway, where he appeared in such shows as ''Diamond Lil'' with Mae West and ''The Rainmaker'' with Geraldine Page.
After moving to Hollywood, Mr. Remsen soon became a familiar face on television, appearing in dozens of shows including ''Rawhide,'' ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' and ''Dr. Kildare.'' His career was interrupted by an accident in 1964, when he was struck by part of a falling crane while filming an episode of ''No Time for Sergeants.''
After recovering he decided to become a casting director, which he pursued until 1970 when a friend, the director Robert Altman, persuaded him to take a role in the film ''Brewster McCloud.'' He went on to appear in seven more Altman films, including ''Thieves Like Us.'' He also acted in the films ''Lookin' to Get Out,'' ''Maverick,'' ''Only the Lonely'' and ''Independence Day.'' He recently completed work in two HBO specials, ''Lansky'' and ''Crime of the Century.''
He is survived by his wife, Barbara; two daughters, Ann Manners and Kerry Remsen, both of the San Fernando Valley; a brother, Guy, and two grandchildren.
Here is Richard Stahl's Obituary
Actor Richard Stahl dies at 74
Updated June 22, 2006
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Richard Stahl, an actor whose more than 40-year career stretched from New York theater to film and television comedies such as Laverne and Shirley, has died. He was 74.
Stahl died Sunday at the Motion Picture and Television Fund's health center in Woodland Hills after a 10-year battle with Parkinson's disease, his wife, actress Kathryn Ish, said Wednesday.
"He had been declining for some time now," she said.
Born in Detroit, Stahl did magic tricks as a boy and moved to California as a performer at age 15, Ish said. He served in the Army during the Korean War, later graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.
Ish and Stahl were both off Broadway theater actors when they met in 1959. They married later that year.
In the 1960s, the pair moved to San Francisco and joined improv comedy group The Committee, Ish said. They settled in Santa Barbara in 1975.
Stahl's film credits include 1979's Five Easy Pieces, Mel Brooks' 1977 spoof High Anxiety, 1980's 9 to 5 and 1996's Ghosts of Mississippi.
He appeared on such TV shows as Laverne and Shirley, The Odd Couple, and Barney Miller, and held a regular stint on 1980s sitcom It's A Living.
"He was a funny guy, he worked in comedy all his life," Ish said.
Stahl is survived by Ish, their daughter Allegra and son Oliver.
Memorial services were pending.
Here is Marian Mercer's Obituary from The New York Times
Marian Mercer, Actress With Zany Streak, Is Dead at 75
By DENNIS HEVESI
Published: May 4, 2011
Marian Mercer, a willowy actress with a comedic flair who won a Tony Award in 1969 for her performance in the hit musical “Promises, Promises,” died on April 27 in Newbury Park, Calif. She was 75 and lived in Agoura Hills, Calif.
The cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease, her husband, Patrick Hogan, said.
Ms. Mercer, a 5-foot-9 blonde with green eyes and, when necessary, a sultry voice, won the Tony for best featured actress in a musical for her portrayal of Marge MacDougall, a pickup girl at Clancy’s Lounge.
“She’s giving one of the most delicious performances on Broadway, a B-girl who would rather die than have you think she’s cheap, as she deftly maneuvers herself into Jerry Orbach’s apartment, looking forward to bed,” The New York Times said.
But Ms. Mercer could handle more weighty characters. Among dozens of roles in repertory theaters around the country, she was Olivia in “Twelfth Night,” Helena in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Blanche in “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
In the 1978 Broadway production of “Stop the World — I Want to Get Off ,” Ms. Mercer starred with Sammy Davis Jr., playing the four different women in his life with a mix of song, comedy and even mime.
Ms. Mercer’s zany streak led to frequent television appearances with the likes of Johnny Carson, Jonathan Winters and Dom DeLuise. She was seen on “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” “St. Elsewhere,” “Archie Bunker’s Place” and “The Golden Girls,” among many other shows. And on ABC from 1980 through 1982 (and later in syndication) she played the humorless hostess, Nancy Beebe, on “It’s a Living,” a sitcom that followed the lives of waitresses working in an expensive restaurant atop a hotel in Los Angeles.
Marian Ethel Mercer was born in Akron, Ohio, on Nov. 26, 1935, one of five children of Samuel and Nellie Mercer.
Besides her husband of 31 years, she is survived by her sister, Marjorie Keith, and a daughter, Deidre Whitaker. Her first marriage, to Martin Cassidy, an actor she met soon after coming to New York in 1957, ended in divorce.
She was 8 when she began singing lessons, a passion she pursued at the University of Michigan. There she also began acting, taking roles in summer stock theater. She moved to New York in 1957 and, after stints as a model, a hostess at Schrafft’s restaurant and a file clerk, was cast in the choruses of “Greenwillow” and “Fiorello!”
Her big break came in 1961 when she took over the title role in Rick Besoyan‘s Off Broadway hit “Little Mary Sunshine,” a spoof of old-fashioned operettas and musicals.
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