Hope And Gloria ran from March 1995 until June 1996 on NBC.
Two single women shared a Pittsburgh brownstone, and their complicated lives, in this girl-buddy sitcom. In some ways they were complete opposites. Hope ( Cynthia Stevenson), was a perky, ever-optimistic associate producer of a local tv talk show who couldn't believe that her darling husband Jeffrey ( Jeff Orlandt)-unbeknownst to her, a world class philanderer-had left her after 10 years. Gloria ( Jessica Lundy), was a brassy cynical hairdresser, who knew all to well what a no-goodski her gross, carpet -salesman ex-husband Louis ( Enrico Colantoni) was. She ought to; she had married and divorced him twice.
Despite the fact that Gloria and Louis yelled at each other constantly,they still saw each other and shared the raising of their young son, Sonny ( Robert Garrova); for all the wisecracks, Louis was a pretty good Dad. Dennis ( Alan Thicke), was the vain, egocentric host of The Dennis Dupree Show on WPNN-TV, Channel 5-"The host who cares the most"- and Gwillem Blatt ( Taylor Negron), a high stung program executive.
A Review from The New York Daily News
From 'Hope' Springs Charming Comedy
BY ERIC MINK
Thursday, March 09, 1995
THERE'S a thoroughly appealing daffiness to NBC's latest tryout comedy, "Hope & Gloria," premiering tonight at 8:30 between "Mad About You" and "Seinfeld."
The show stars Cynthia Stevenson as Hope Davidson, an enthusiastic, highly educated, somewhat naive woman with her head in the clouds who's forced to come down to Earth fast when her cheating husband leaves her on their 10th anniversary.
Hope is the producer of a local TV talk show (the show's set in Pittsburgh), and she devotes much of her time to massaging the enormous ego of the show's star, Dennis Dupree (Alan Thicke), and trying to make the rest of the crew like her.
Playing counterpoint to Hope's hopeless innocence, is Gloria Utz (Jessica Lundy), a practical, street-smart hairdresser and divorced mom who lives across the hall. Gloria is as irrepresible as Hope is uptight, and the two are a delightful blend of opposites.
Perhaps the sleeper character in this new comedy, though, is Enrico Colantoni, who plays Gloria's ex-husband, Louis. Louis is an unrepentant but somehow likeable male chauvinist.
The show's creators, Cheri and Bill Steinkellner, both "Cheers" veterans, also have been smart enough not to make Louis a one-note character. Gloria is the smarter of the two, and it's easy to see how their marriage broke down.
At the same time, Louis clearly is a good father to their young son, and he sometimes shows that he knows Gloria better than she's willing to admit. The sexual chemistry between them may be gone, but the sparks still fly.
Finally, kudos to Alan Thicke, who creates as smarmy a TV creature as we've seen on screen since Ted Knight's Ted Baxter on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." As Dupree, he's pompous and utterly incapable of embarrassment, even when it's well-earned, but he's nevertheless sincere in a strange way.
An Article from USA TODAY
Published in April 1995
With 'Hope,' Stevenson finds glory
By Jefferson Graham
USA TODAY
What a diiference a network makes.
Cynthia Stevenson received good notices for her portrayal of Bob Newhart's daughter on CBS's short-lived Bob sitcom two seasons ago. The only problem was that few viewers saw her porformance. CBS scheduled the show in a weak time slot and regularly bounced it on and off the air.
This spring, Stevenson is working again with Bob's producers, Cheri and Bill steinkellner, but this time on NBC in Hope & Gloria. And the network is strongly behind the show.
Its part of the " Must See TV " Thursday lineup which also includes Mad About You, Seinfeld, Friends and ER. The block receives lots of promotion, and the ratings have been great.
Hope recently tied ER as the No. 2 show one week, and overall it's the highest rated new series of the spring tryout season.
" It still hasn't hit me at all," Stevenson says. " I've been working so hard I haven't had time to catch my breath."
Hope & Gloria is about the friendship of two women in Pittsburgh: Hope ( Stevenson) is a producer for the local Dennis Dupree talk show, and Gloria ( Jessica Lundy) is a hairdresser. Making frequent appearances are Louis, Gloria's ex-husband ( Enrico Colantoni) and Dupree ( Alan Thicke).
Hope & Gloria has done so well that NBC asked the producers to come up with a cliffhanger for the May ratings sweep, a promotional stunt that usually brings in even higher ratings.
Thursday, Gloria and Louis are about to get remarried live on Dupree's show. Hope gets trapped in a closet moments before the wedding. Will she get out in time? Will the wedding even take place?
Since Bob ended, Stevenson has worked on three films, all of which will premiere this year. Opening May 19 is the romantic comedy Forget Paris with Billy Crystal and Debra Winger. She plays the fiance of Joe Mantegna, a friend of Crystal's character.
Stevenson also co-stars with Dana Delany and Olivia D'Abo in Live Nude Girls, about women throwing a bachlorette party and the conversations they have behind closed doors.
At Thanksgiving, Home for the Holidays will be out. Directed by Jodie Foster, the film co-stars Stevenson, Holly Hunter, Anne Bancroft, Steve Guttenberg and Charles Durning.
The movie was offered to her at the same time as Hope & Gloria. She was leaning toward chosing the film work (" How could I say no to working with Jodie Foster and that cast?"), so the Steinkellners worked out a schedule that allowed her to do both projects at the same time.
She filmed two weeks of Hope & Gloria in Burbank, Calif., then two weeks of the film in Baltimore, and back and forth.
" I always play really nice characters," she says. " But in Home for the Holidays I play a bitter, unhappy woman who's a real bitch. It was a blast."
Not that she has anything against being nice. " Some actors like to play big and brassy characters, and I usually go for the opposite. Hope is optimistic. I'm not as naive or consistently sweet as she is , but we both have that thread of goodness."
Stevenson is proud that she has been able to pull off both films and TV. But during her Hope & Gloria summer break, she's taking a hiatus: She and her husband are relaxing for a month in the Italian countryside.
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