My Two Dads: Cast Photo - Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries

My Two Dads aired from September 1987 until June 1990 on NBC.

A premise for a tv series that would have been inconceivable a generation earlier was calmly accepted in this sitcom. How times had changed. This one had two young single men , uptight, yuppie financial advisor Michael ( Paul Reiser), and free-spirited artist Joey ( Greg Evigan), sharing a daughter. The two men had competed for the love of the same woman 13 years before, but had broken up with her and parted enemies Now, after years with no contact, they learned that their mutual ex-girlfriend had died and left them joint custody of her perky 12-year-old daughter, Nicole( Staci Keanan). One of them was indeed the father, but nobody knew who it was. Putting their life-style differences aside, they moved into Joey's artists' apartment and attempted to raise a child.

Keeping a watchful eye on everyone was Judge Wilbur( Florence Stanley), the sarcastic judge who had awarded them custody in the first place and who also happened to own the building in which they lived.She also served as a surrogate mother to Nicole, often coaching her in lessons of life and love that the men folk just couldn't give.

Though viewers never saw a gray hair spring up in Michael's perfectly groomed coif or Joey's silky mane, Nicole's active social life would be enough to give any father nightmares. Episodes delt with topics ranging from an innocent first date to Nicole's dating a rebel. Interspersed with Nicole's romantic escapades were occasional episodes focusing on the women Michael and Joey brought home. Most of their relationships turned sour as they usually discovered that they only had room for one girl in their lives.

Watching Nicole from the wings, along with her two dads was her Awkward friend Cory( Vonni Ribisi). Cory loved Nicole from afar, and would often show up when Nicole had another date scheduled, only to receive yet another pep talk from Michael and Joey. Klawicki( Dick Butkus) ran the local diner that served as the backdrop for many of Nicole's dates and social activities.

When My Two Dads returned for its second season ( In January 1989 as a mid-season replacement) two more characters were added to the cast; Nicole's first boyfriend Zach Nichols( Chad Allen), who would compete with Cory for Nicole's love; and Shelby (Amy Hathaway), who was Nicole's boycrazy friend. Michael and Joey both went into business together for an Ad Agency.

In the fall of 1989, Klawicki had left the cast with Judge Wilbur buying his diner. The new chef was Julian ( Don Yesso). After three seasons of double-daddy parenting My Two Dads went off the air. In the final episode Nicole chose not to take a blood test to find out which of the loveable lugs was her biological parent, to her, they were both her true fathers.

A Review from The New York Times

By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: September 19, 1987

In the category of just plain old premiere, NBC has ''My Two Dads,'' being introduced tomorrow night at 8:30, immediately after the popular ''Family Ties'' but up against the formidable CBS competition of Angela Lansbury's ''Murder, She Wrote.'' The plot of ''My Two Dads'' makes ''Mama's Boy'' seem like a well-made Ibsen play. Michael Jacobs is the executive producer and writer.

Two men in their 30's - one a suit-and-tie type with appointment book, the other a carefree, T-shirted artist - are summoned to a lawyer's office for a reading of a will. It seems that the former college roommates were once in love with the same young woman in Key West. She has died -the details are gently skipped over -and left her 12-year-old daughter in their care. It also seems that either of them could be the real father. You can just imagine the contrived fun.

Played by Staci Keanan, young Nicole is adorable and, needless to say, spirited. In her big speech, she says: ''I don't want either of you for my father. I'm in the way. I was never in my mother's way. I'm sorry, but I'm 12 years old.'' What we're straining for here, apparently, is early Lillian Gish.

Meanwhile, the two dads are constantly bickering. Michael (Paul Reiser), the yuppie one, is a fretting mass of responsibility. Joey (Greg Evigan) is a bearded testimonial to unreliability. All would seem doomed, but there's a sitcom at stake here. Arguing about their old girlfriend, the dads suddenly realize: ''Now that we're going to become fathers, why don't we become adults, too?'' Well, perhaps just for a moment or two.

A Review from USA TODAY

TV PREVIEW/BY MONICA COLLINS

'Dads' is amiable but predictable

A smart-aleck of a situation comedy, My Two Dads is pleasent enough.

A vaguely controversial theme, a fairly appealing cast, a layer of sophistication, some snappy writing. Madison Avenue is high on it. Why, then do I have a premature case of the ho-hums?

Maybe it's Greg Evigan, who plays one of these dads-the hip one. He looks sharp enough, but his timing is off. He wasn't funny as best friend to a chimp in B.J. and the Bear. And that role doesn't seem to have prepared him for fatherhood in My Two Dads.

Paul Reiser, on the other hand, playing the conservative dad, is a scream. He's a sitcom kind of square-sharp angles of reaction and a rubbery, expressive face.

When Reiser is playing it up, you have a good time watching. When he throws the ball to Evigan, you hear a loud thud.

Caught in the middle of these two dads is one of those precocious comedy kids.

Staci Keanan plays Nicole the pre-teen left in the care of the two dads-your standard wiseacre covering up vulnerability after an emotionally traumatic event.

Seems that Nicole's mother has died and left her in the charge of these two guys. Nicole's mother had had a short affair with both of them ( obviously within days of each other) and never blessed either with notification of paternity.

The two dads-who were best friends before Nicole's mother intervened but haven't had anything to do with each other since-must now cope with this surprising turn of events , neither knowing who is the real father.

The dads-as befitting any balanced comedy- are as different as tofu and T-bones . One's a leftover SoHo hippie-with an apartment that looks like a pop-art Disneyland. The other is a Wall Street sharpie, with much more conservative tastes and motivations.

So they adopt their little charge-bickering, badgering, bulldozing each other while declaring a truce regarding the care and feeding of Nicole.

It's a perfectly reasonable, likable, warm, fuzzy, prickly show.

Yet, My Two Dads follows the formula: Joke. Beat. Tension. Beat. Heart tug.

There's not a spark of difference , or daring, or unpredictability.

What you get is a TV series that will probably do quite well. Nothing less. And nothing more.

An Article From USA TODAY
Published: November 5, 1987

Paul Reiser: Dad knows best

By Tom Green
USA TODAY

HOLLYWOOD- Paul Reiser, one of the maybe dads in NBC's new My Two Dads, is not comfortable with the gimmick that launched his sitcom.

The show is about two single guys ( he and co-star Greg Evigan), either of whom could be the father of the 12-year old girl they're suddenly sharing. The mother is dead; blood tests have been inconclusive.

" I don't know how seriously to take the premise," says Reiser, 30, who plays the uptight father in shirt and tie to Evigan's laid back artistic father, often in no shirt at all.

The series is doing very well on Sunday nights following Family Ties, but many critics have found the situation cheap, exploitive and/or insensitive.

Reiser who admits that justifying the plot line has not always been easy, asks patience.

Early episodes of new series are" more wacky than they really need to be" to gain attention and establish new characters' identities, says the New York-reared stand-up comic whose breakthrough was the 1982 film Diner.

But eventually, Reiser says the show's focus can veer from the unhappy twist that began it.

" What I would do is focus on these guys as makeshift fathers. That's sort of how I view my generation. Most of them who have kids can't believe that they are parents. These are two guys...thrown into adulthood. I'd like to see the show investigate that more."

Reiser spent his youth yearning to do comedy. His father tried to lure him into the health-food business, but while studying music in college, he broke in his act.

Because My Two Dads is his first series, there's a lot riding on it, so he's anxious for the show to settle down. Other series with odd spins, such as Webster and Diff'rent Strokes have gone on to be very successful, he points out.

" Didn't you ever think that surely, Gary Coleman had one black cousin he could have gone to live with?"

Still, switching to sitcoms was a gamble. He has had success in movies-he was Eddie Murphy's police pal in both Beverly Hills Cop films and the corporate snake in Aliens-but he wanted to try TV.

He's keeping other irons in the fire, too. He's in the new film comedy Cross My Heart opening Nov. 13, he has an HBO comedy special premiering Dec. 5 and he'll host MTV's New Year's Eve coverage.

Things are going so well that Reiser's ego has even come to terms with the fact it is Evigan who is considered the show's sexual animal.

" That's OK. I have a lot of fun making fun of him."

Here is Florence Stanley's Obituary
Published on October 10, 2003

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actress Florence Stanley, who launched her career on Broadway and was a regular on television shows including "Barney Miller," has died of complications of a stroke. She was 79.

Stanley died Oct. 3 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said her husband, Martin Newman.

She appeared on Broadway in "Fiddler on The Roof," "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" and was in the Manhattan Theater Club's "What's Wrong with This Picture?" before heading to Hollywood.

Her TV appearances include Judge Margaret Wilbur on "My Two Dads" and Bernice Fish on "Barney Miller," as well as numerous guest roles on shows including "Dharma & Greg" last year.

Stanley had film roles in this year's "Down With Love" and was the gravelly voice of Wilhelmina Packard in the 2001 animated film "Atlantis: The Lost Empire."

Born in Chicago, Stanley graduated from Northwestern University.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by two children and two grandchildren.

For a Website dedicated to Greg Evigan go to http://www.evigan.com/

For a Website dedicated to Staci Keanan go to http://www.geocities.com/stacikeananfans/