Good & Evil aired from September until October 1991 on ABC.
An off-the-wall comedy from Susan Harris, the creator of Soap, in many ways patterned on that hit series. In Soap the opposites were the Uptown Tates and the blue-collar Campbells. Here they were 2 sisters: impossibly pure, idealistic Genny ( Margaret Whitton) who was " good" and ruthless, conniving Denise ( Teri Garr) who was evil. The later was so mean she was determined to steal both her mother's cosmetics empire and her sister's boyfriend, Dr. Eric . Every character was a cartoon: Charlotte ( Marian Seldes), the imperious mother, not about to be conned by anyone; Harlan (Lane Smith), her feisty southern boyfriend; Eric ( Lane Davies), the stiff but handsome heart surgeon with a sordid past; George ( Mark Blankfield), the blundering, blind psychiatrist also in love with sweet Genny; Caroline ( Brooke Theiss), Genny's daughter who had been mute since her father's death; Roger ( Sherman Howard), Denise's dumb assistant and Ronald ( Marius Weyers), Denise's adventure-husband, thought lost on the slopes of Mount Everest. Did he fall or was he pushed? Ronald was found frozen stiff in the opening episode, thawed out, and returned with revenge on his mind.
Stories included Denise's pursuit of a new face cream that could make the company's fortune-if it didn't peel faces first;her attempts to blackmail Eric; and her teenage son David's ( Seth Green's) search for his real father Sonny ( William Shockley)
Like Soap, Good & Evil engendered some controversy, particularly for it's wild parody of the blind ( Klutzy George tended to demolish everything in his path with his cane, interestingly, comedian Mark Blankfield had played a similar character on Nutt House in 1989). Members of the National Federation Of The Blind picketed the network. ABC responded that " the show is a parody done to the extremes and there is not a single character in the show intended to be believable."
A Review From The New York Times
By John J. O'Connor
Published: October 9, 1991
In "Good and Evil," the good sister is Genevieve (Margaret Whitton), an idealistic biochemist, and the bad one is Denise (Teri Garr), an unscrupulous cosmetics executive. Their mother is Charlotte (Marian Seldes), who still runs the cosmetics empire. Retire at 65, as promised? "I said when I looked 65," mother explains with venomous sweetness. Ms. Seldes reveals a superb flair for wacko comedy.
On the periphery are Eric (Lane Davies), a doctor in love with Gen (despite her vomiting episode) but being blackmailed by Denise; Gen's catatonic daughter, Caroline (Brooke Thiess), who hasn't spoken for two years; Denise's illegitimate son, David (Seth Green), who has had to drop his girlfriend because, explains Denise, "her name was Tammy and she wore white after Labor Day." Dropping in periodically is the blind George (Mark Blankfield), whose cane indelicately prods or smashes everything in his vicinity. Brilliantly executed, the routine gets less funny with repetition.
With the plots tumbling over each other, the series brings in Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara for weekly voice-overs sorting out various developments. There's an element of cruelty in Ms. Harris's humor, not only regarding blind George ("I tried a dog but we kept chasing cars") but also extending to Denise herself. Denise to mother: "You always liked Gen better." Mother: "She was cuter, dear, and you had that terrible oozy skin." Or then there's Denise's prissy male assistant, who, smeared with one of her new cosmetic creams, shrieks: "My face! I'll look like Bette Davis at the end."
Perhaps the sheer abundance of tooth-aching treacle at one end of the current schedule demands pure outrageousness at the other end. That's reason enough to hope that "Sibs" and "Good and Evil" can stick around and get their acts together with more assurance. . Margaret Colin Good and Evil Produced by Bill Bryan, Valerie Curtin, Gil Junger for Witt-Thomas-Harris Productions in association with Touchstone Television; Bob Underwood, co-executive producer; Paul Witt, Tony Thomas, Susan Harris, Tom Straw, executive producers. At 10:30 tonight on ABC. Denise . . . Teri Garr Genevieve . . . Margaret Whitton George . . . Mark Blankfield Eric . . . Lane Davies Mary . . . Mary Gillis David . . . Seth Green Roger . . . Sherman Howard Charlotte . . . Marian Seldes Caroline . . . Brooke Theiss Ronald . . . Marius Weyers
An Article from The LA Times
ABC Drops 'Good & Evil,' Irks Series Creator
October 25, 1991|DANIEL CERONE | TIMES STAFF WRITER
The cancellation of "Good & Evil," which pitted Teri Garr as the evil executive of a cosmetics empire against Margaret Whitton as her good sister, had nothing to do with the controversy over the sitcom's portrayal of a blind character, ABC maintained Thursday.
Network spokesman Jim Brochu cited low ratings--the comedy series ranks 77th out of 101 prime-time series that have aired on the four major commercial networks this season--as the primary reason why production was halted after 11 episodes of a 13-episode order.
Ever since its debut Sept. 25, the series from Witt-Thomas-Harris Productions has been under attack by organizations representing the visually impaired, led by the National Federation of the Blind, for its depiction of a bumbling, blind psychologist played by Mark Blankfield.
The federation's director of governmental affairs, James Gashel, called the cancellation a "definite victory."
"I think ABC officials had become aware of the fact that blind people all over the country found this show totally unacceptable and demeaning," he said Thursday from Maryland. "ABC wouldn't talk about the show (to the press). They were embarrassed by it. They didn't consider its portrayal of blind people from the start, and they took a hit over it."
Series creator and co-executive producer Susan Harris sided with ABC in denying that "Good & Evil," which was in a tough time slot on Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m., was canceled because several major advertisers had pulled out of the show under pressure from advocacy groups.
Beyond that, however, she was miffed.
"We are all upset," she said Thursday from her home in Los Angeles. "It was very sudden. The series aired only five times. Once it was opposite the Country Music Awards. Two other times it was opposite baseball playoff games. And (this week) it aired opposite a pivotal game in the World Series."
"To pull it off the air at this point and not try to move it around is not fair," she said. "It was never given a proper time period. This is too good a show to do this to."
Witt-Thomas-Harris has three other series on NBC--the hits "Empty Nest" and "Golden Girls" and newcomer "Nurses." She said they wouldn't do another for ABC without up-front guarantees of getting a better shot at staying on.
Harris, who was once harassed and later embraced by the gay community for the Billy Crystal character on "Soap," said that the blind character in "Good & Evil" would have evolved in a similar fashion given the chance.
"I'm sorry we offended the blind," she said. "It certainly was not our intent. We've always kind of poked fun at and found humor in everything, the darker sides of life as well."
ABC did not immediately announce how many of the remaining "Good & Evil" episodes will air, or what will replace it.
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