American Dreamer aired on NBC from September 1990 until June 1991.
Robert Urich starred in this half-hour sitcom as Tom Nash, a high-powered, globe-trotting network reporter who, following the death of his wife, decided to chuck the job, pack up the kids and pursue his own version of The American Dream. He moved to a small town in Wisconsin where he could write a philosophical column about " real people" for a Chicago newspaper. Tom found plenty of subjects for his musings. Joe Baines ( Jeffrey Tambor), his dour editor, drove into the boonies ( which he detested )every week to try to pursuade Tom to come back to the rat race and chase " real" news. Replied Tom " why do you torture yourself by coming up here once a week? You know the fresh air and the general decency of the people upset you." Tom's winsome kids were Rachel and Danny( Chay Lentin, Johnny Galecki), who wouldn't have minded a return trip. Lillian( Carol Kane) was his dippy but not so dumb secretary and Holly( Margaret Walsh) the earthy waitress at his favorite roadside diner.
A certain reflectiveness permeated this series with Tom sometimes addressing the viewer directly, or seen in free-form daydream sequences that illustrated his thoughts and fears.
Susan Seeger created the series and with Gary David Goldberg, was it's Executive Producer.
A Review from USA TODAY
TV PREVIEW/BY MATT ROUSH
Pleasant 'Dreamer' pours on the sap
Much of American Dreamer takes place on the cobwebs of Tom Nash's mind. Sure is musty in there. Mushy, too.
" Me, a father. I was just a kid myself a few years ago," he sighs to the camera, as scenes from his past play out behind him on a black stage set. Very theatrical. Very precious.
Later , he muses, " I am filled with the wonder of life." In another episode, he wonders why only in sports are men allowed to be emotional and openly affectionate with each other.
Tom Nash is a sensitive-man hero in a sensitive man's comedy, created by a woman. Not just an American Dreamer, this widower dad is an all-American babbler. In touch with all of his many feelings, this lug is one big soggy sleeve, bleeding heart well displayed.
Robert Urich, departing from tough-guy mode, gives Tom a rumpled and relaxed quality that puts you at ease, if rarely at attention.
A former TV journalist now writing a warm-fuzzy " human interest" column from the not-so-wilds of Wisconsin, Tom's gently funny life unfolds like one of those confy dreams you instantly forget upon awaking.
Nice while it lasts, and more thoughtful than most sitcoms, American Dreamer is difficult to dismiss, but is unlikely to keep you home on Saturday nights, its regular berth.
Into this calm erupts Carol Kane , all frenzied dither as Tom's flibbertigibbet assistant, a wounded spirrow of a divorcee whose neuroses are fairly shrieked at fever pitch.
Kane ( Taxi) is a funny actress, and makes some unexpected choices in her delivery, but is likely to strike you as either hysterically funny or horribly annoying. I lean toward the latter.
As for that memory-play device, it harks back to an acclaimed Family Ties episode ( same producer), when Michael J. Fox's Alex examined his life after a buddy's death. It soared then, but seems gimmicky now, perhaps because, we're not as emotionally attached to Tom Nash.
It would help if he were't so attached to himself.
A Review from Entertainment Weekly
TV Review
American Dreamer (1990)
By Ken Tucker
American Dreamer was created by Gary David Goldberg, who, ever since the huge success of his Family Ties, has specialized in American dreams of the chucking-it-all, leaving-the-rat-race variety. Goldberg's short-lived 1988 sitcom Day by Day, for example, was about a businessman who quits his job to start a day-care center in his home. Now, in American Dreamer, Robert Urich plays a network foreign correspondent who quits his globe-hopping to move to a small Wisconsin town and write a newspaper column.
Urich is paired with Carol Kane, who plays his ditsy assistant. As actors, Urich and Kane come from different universes — he is of the stolid, ''acting is reacting'' school; she specializes in hilarious, neurotic jabbering. You'd think their styles would clash, but in fact it's this contrast that gives American Dreamer what little energy it possesses. The jokes are standard stuff, but it's fun to watch Urich and Kane eye each other warily; this is a TV relationship that could develop into something interesting. B-
An Article from USA TODAY
Published November 16, 1990
Comedy, Urich's new adventure
By Jefferson Graham
USA TODAY
HOLLYWOOD-Robert Urich played TV cops and detectives for 20 years-in shows like S.W.A.T., Vega$, and Spenser For Hire. But he says he's been totally miscast.
" I'm not a physical guy," says Urich, 43. " I always wanted to do comedy."
The actor finally got his wish this season, when he teamed up with Family Ties creator Gary David Goldberg to star in the new American Dreamer sitcom, the story of a man in his 40's coming to terms with the meaning of life. It airs Saturdays on NBC at 10:30, where it regularly wins its time slot.
This week besides Dreamer, he also co-hosts CBS' Circus of the Stars Wednesday and will Appear in NBC's Thanksgiving day parade Thursday.
For the first time in 15 years, Urich who had to live in Las Vegas and Boston while making Vega$ and Spenser is happily ensconced in Los Angelas, driving his kids to school in the morning and returning home at the end of the day.
Urich plays a former war correspondent who moves to Wisconsin and writes a weekly column for a Chicago newspaper. Offscreen, Urich has begun a diary. " Writing forces you to verbalize what you think. If everybody kept a diary, we'd eliminate the need for a lot of psychiatry."
He doesn't find the move to sitcoms jarring. " I don't feel deprived for not having a bad guy to chase or doors to kick in."
Urich says his action hero image was a fluke. He was doing comedy, appearing in both Soap and Tabitha; then ABC asked him to do Vega$.
Created by Miami Vice's Michael Mann, Vega$ was to be as stylish and avant-garde as Vice was years later. Then producer Aaron Spelling " distilled it into what it became" says Urich. In the pilot, private detective Dan Tanna was a gambler, but over the three years of the series Tanner never stepped near a blackjack table or roulette wheel to play.
After Vega$, Urich went into making forgettable flops like Endangered Species, Ice Pirates and Turk 182!. When ABC and Warner Bros. asked him to do Spenser, he figured ,why not?
But three years later, he came home one day , depressed about the Boston cold and action/adventure tv.
That night he watched Family Ties' " My Name is Alex" episode , which featured monologues by star Michael J. Fox on the meaning of life. " I said why am I hanging from rooftops at midnight when I could be doing work like that?"
He called Goldberg and suggested teaming up. The two struck a chord, and two years later, Dreamer is on the air.
" This is the first time I've ever gone to work and felt that I've done real work. I come from a blue collar ethnic family. Cops 'n' robbers shows were like play. Now I feel like I'm doing something valuable."
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