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Down Home aired from April 1990 until August 1991 on NBC.

It wasn't exactly Green Acres, but city met country in this laid back comedy. Kate ( Judith Ivey), was a high-powered New York Executive who came home to the sleepy Gulf Coast fishing villiage of Hadley Cove, Texas, to visit her dad's dockside bait and tackle shop and cafe-only to discover that it was about to be leveled for a conduminium development. This being a sitcom, she of course stayed and tried to save the rickety, money-losing place. Behind the condo scheme was Wade ( Ray Baker), the boyfriend Kate had dumped many years before, but who still had eyes for her. Drew ( Eric Allan Kramer), was Kate's big dumb brother; Walt ( Dakin Matthews), her crochety Dad; Grover *( Timothy Scott), a rustic townfolk; and Tran ( Gedde Watanabe), The Vietnamese cook at the cafe.

Cheers Star Ted Danson was the Co-Producer of this series which featured mostly New York stage actors ( Judith Ivey was a multiple Tony winner), and had a uniquely-for TV-" stage" look.

A Review from USA TODAY

TV PREVIEW/BY MATT ROUSH

'Home:' Where the heart isn't

Judith Ivey, a moon-faced minx who has distinguished herself in significant supporting roles on stage ( Hurlyburly and Steaming) isn't so lucky in her first sitcom vehicle.

Tart and authentically Texan-in fact she may be the only genuine article here-Ivey comes off shrill and stident in Down Home, another comedy that says you can go home again. The unanswered question remains: Why on earth would you want to?

This flat and depressingly typical series opens as Ivey returns from New York to her backwater and economically depressed Gulf Coast hometown, where her pop's bait-and-tackle diner is about to go under. Sorry to blow the punchline , but yes, she decides to stick around for however long the show lasts.

Shouldn't be long. After tonight, it moves to Saturdays at 10:30 p.m. EST/PST, where it's likely to drift away, leaving barely a ripple. Or a chuckle.

Ivey, who has a firm grip on how to deliver a sour line is out to sea when asked to be a chipper cheerleader. Her bland love interest, who wants to develop this cove into a high-rise resort, adds nothing. Her brainless hulk of a brother, soulmate to Coach's Dauber, adds even less.

Down Home condescends to its local yokels, most of whom sound like they'd be as comfy in a New England fishing villiage as in this so-called Texas trap. Also annoying is Gedde Watanabe ( Grand, Gung Ho), pulling off another unfunny Asian caricature as the diner's Hop Sing-of-all-trades.

" Oh, buy some class!" snaps Ivey at the end of tonight's episode. Honey, there's not enough money, even in Texas.

A Review from the Las Angeles Times

Ivey's New League : JUDITH IVEY TRIES TV WITH NBC'S 'DOWN HOME'
April 22, 1990|SUSAN KING | TIMES STAFF WRITER

Judith Ivey has always been the bridesmaid, never the bride.

Not that she hasn't had ample opportunities at stardom. The Texas-native has two Tony Awards for her supporting roles in "Steaming" and "Hurlyburly" and garnered crackerjack reviews for her supporting performances in such films as "Compromising Positions," "Hello Again" and "In Country."

But those films didn't burn up the box office. "People don't read movie reviews," said Ivey. "If a movie wasn't a hit, they don't care what your part was."

Even when she did land a starring role in the 1985 NBC miniseries, "The Long Hot Summer," she was overshadowed by her popular co-stars, Don Johnson and Cybill Shepherd.

Ivey, 38, hopes her luck will change with her first TV series, "Down Home," in a limited run Saturdays at 10:30 p.m. on NBC. The situation comedy deals with a successful New York career woman who returns to the small Texas fishing village where she was reared to help save the family business, a cafe and bait shop. "Cheers" star Ted Danson, Barton Dean and Dan Fauci are the executive producers of the limited, six-week series.

"To be very businesslike, it seems TV is where you get noticed," said Ivey, relaxing in the living room of her Hollywood Hills home. "The movie industry is not into discovering people. They want a bona fide star playing the good parts and that's understandable. Since I am not a bona fide celebrity star, I don't get a crack at the good parts."

Ivey decided four years ago to "open the door" to TV series offers. Though the scripts quickly started arriving, she said, "There are starving people in the world who deserved the money more than these projects."

While Ivey was making the ABC TV-movie "We Are the Children" in Africa with Danson, the actor and his producing partner Fauci discussed the possibility of creating a series for her. "They put me with the writer who watched a bunch of my movies, and he came up with the premise."

The actress thought doing a sitcom would be a piece of cake. That hasn't been the case. "Compared to a theatrical or stage production schedule-all the films I have shot have been on location where you work six days out of the week and long hours-it seemed like it was going to be highway robbery," said Ivey. "But doing a series requires 10 times as much concentration, because of the rapid-fire changes. You have to be on your toes every second. When they give you a week off, all I want to do is lie down and sleep."

Ivey, though, doesn't get much sleep these days. She's also playing the temporary role of single parent to 5-month-old daughter Margaret Elizabeth. Ivey stipulated in her contract that "Down Home" will be shot in New York if it's picked up for a full season but agreed to do the first six episodes in Los Angeles. "My husband works for HBO in New York," she said. "He's not here for four days out of the week. When baby cries, there's nobody here to pick her up but me. It's kind of like having two jobs."

Before joining "Down Home," Ivey worked for eight days on Woody Allen's latest untitled project due for release this fall. The experience was no laughing matter. "He's very serious," she said. "You feel kind of stupid expecting him to be funny."

Ivey admitted that she doesn't even know who she plays or what the film is about.

"It's interesting," she said. "You don't know what significance your words have or if you literally are revealing a plot point. It was difficult at first. But I just kept listening to him, and I must have gotten it right, because after a day, he didn't say much more to me."

To read an article about Down Home go to http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=wPEpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bc4EAAAAIBAJ&dq=judith%20ivey%20down%20home&pg=4062%2C5377386