Off The Rack: Eileen Brennan and Edward Asner - Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries

Off the Rack aired from March until September 1985 on ABC.

Comedy set in a struggling , small-time Los Angeles garment factory. Sam ( Edward Asner), the gruff coowner, thought he would have to run the place alone when his long-time partner Dan died, but he was soon confronted with an even worse prospect: Dan's strong-willed widow Kate ( Eileen Brennan). Her husband had left her no money, so she was determined to work at the place , despite Sam's chauvenistic objections, to help keep it afloat. Lots of yelling ensued. Shannon and Timothy ( Claudia Wells, Corey Yothers) were Kate's children, to whom Sam became a sort of grouchy surrogate father.

An Article from USA TODAY
Published on December 7, 1984

Brennan battles to gain a series berth

By Tom Green
USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES-Eileen Brennan thinks she knows why Off the Rack, the pilot she did with Ed Asner, didn't make ABC's fall schedule. " The network thinks Ed and I are over the hill."

ABC's decision to give Off the Rack a one-shot second chance ( it airs tonight at 9:30 p.m. EST/PST) is a good news/bad news thing. People will at least get to see her in her first major work since being struck by a car two years ago, but Rack must air opposite CBS' top-rated Dallas.

Brennan would love to have Off the Rack, in which she plays a widow who becomes a partner in her late husband's garment business, picked up as a series. Success in a regular TV comedy is her major goal. But if viewers don't respond and ABC turns its back again, she won't be devastated.

" It's not going to make or break me, that I know, because I've already been through hell and this can't even hold a candle."

As she was leaving a restaurant with Goldie Hawn in October 1982, a car slammed into her on a darkened street leaving her near death with a fractured skull, and both legs and most facial bones crushed. A torturous recovery process left her dependent on painkillers.

The accident killed off the Private Benjamin television series and her most successful character. She won an Emmy as Capt. Doreen Lewis in 1981 and had been Oscar-nominated for the film version. The show folded while she was flat on her back.

" I loved the character," she says. Even with the frustration she's felt with the medium, Brennan is unabashed in her love for series television work.

" The feature films they're doing are not ones that I would fit into. As far as really reaching people, there's nothing as powerful as a series."

But she is frustrated by the kinds of series network executives are going with.

" I just want to say ( to executives), ' Get out of my way. I've got something to say. I've got something to give. Let me give it.'"

An Article from The New York Times

New Series for Ed Asner

By PETER W. KAPLAN
Published: February 23, 1985

Sam Waltman looks and sounds like Lou Grant, but only up to a point. He is round and bald, pugnacious and irascible, just like the news producer on ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' and the city editor on ''Lou Grant.'' But while Lou was instantly lovable and obviously moral behind the gruff persona, Sam is a crude sexist with a shaky moral compass.

''Yes, he has a heart of gold, but you sure have to look a lot harder to see it,'' said Ed Asner, the creator of Lou Grant, who plays Sam Waltman on the forthcoming ABC comedy series, ''Off the Rack.''

Over a recent breakfast at the Plaza Hotel, Mr. Asner was explaining why he decided to return to a network television series. ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show,'' a comedy about a fictitious television station, ended its run on CBS in 1977, and ''Lou Grant,'' a drama about newspaper life, began the following September. But the cancellation of ''Lou Grant'' by CBS in 1982 left a residue of bitterness with Mr. Asner.

Although CBS contended that the show's ratings were not high enough, Mr. Asner charged at the time that the network was bowing to political pressure because of his political activities, such as his leading a drive in February 1982 to raise money for medical supplies for rebels in El Salvador. Since then, Mr. Asner has appeared in dramatic roles in various television and feature films and has served as an outspoken president of the Screen Actors Guild.

''Life has been heavy and serious for me for the past eight years in terms of issues and politics,'' Mr. Asner said. ''I thought we should change the balance yet again and return to comedy. I thought it would be easier for me to get on the air in comedy than in a dramatic show.''

In ''Off the Rack,'' which appeared once in December and will return for six episodes beginning March 15 at 9:30 P.M., Mr. Asner's Sam Waltman is the owner of a garment business. Eileen Brennan stars as Kate Halloran, the widow of Sam's partner, who unexpectedly decides to join Sam in the business. The two characters create predictable sparks, giving Sam ample opportunity to say such things as ''salesmanship ain't something that comes naturally like belching after a beer.''

Mr. Asner said that above all it was ''the raunchiness'' of the character that appealed to him. ''It seemed a sharp contrast to a lot of the Uncle Fudd aspect of my earlier character. You know, the grumpy, wonderful, huggly cuddly Uncle Lou. It is a refreshing change.''

An Article from USA TODAY
Published on March 14, 1985

INSIDE TV/BY MONICA COLLINS

Asner and son face off in ABC's 'Off the Rack

Off the Rack or chip off the old block? When the ABC show starring Ed Asner and Eileen Brennan premieres Friday, Asner's son Matt, 21, makes his acting debut. Although young Asner auditioned for a recurring role as a fashion designer in the sitcom set in the Seventh Avenue clothing industry, he lost out. The consolation prize, however, was a walk-on as a punk designer in the premiere. Dressed in appropriate attire, the junior Asner terrorizes old dad.

Off the Rack ( 9:30 p.m. EST/PST) is just one of three new network series premiering Friday night. Others include Mr. Belvadere, an ABC sitcom about a butler who did it, and everything else ( 8:30 EST/PST) and CBS' Detective in the House, starring Judd Hirsch as yet another TV private eye.

To watch a promo from Benson and Off the Rack go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_igpzlNquY