Poster: Stuck In The '70's
(see this users gallery)
Open House aired from August 1989 until July 1990 on Fox.
In this spin-off from Duet, Aggressive yuppie Linda Phillips ( Alison LaPlaca) had the perfect job-selling expensive homes in greater Los Angeles to snobs like herself, for Juan Verde Real Estate. Working with her were Ted ( Philip Charles MacKenzie), who was her chief competition and almost as pushy and overbearing as she was; Scott ( Danny Gans), an agent who used his skill as an impressionist to help him sell; Linda's friend Laura ( Mary Page Keller from Duet), who had seperated from her novelist husband Ben and was working as an apprentice agent ( she was much too nice to ever succeed); Margo ( Ellen DeGeneres in her first TV role), the marginally competent man-hungry receptionist with designs on her boss; and Roger ( Nick Tate), the demanding manager of the agency. Linda's husband Richard ( Chris Lemmon), played piano at Jasper's where she and her coworkers hung out after work, but he disappeared after their marriage floundered at mid-season. Also seen regularly were wealthy Dave Hayes ( Ray Buktenica), a client for whom Ted never seemed to find the right house.
Open House was perhaps unique as a spin-off in which the star and a supporting actor in the original series reversed roles -in Duet Mary Paige Keller had been the star and Alison LaPlaca the support.
A Review from The New York Times
TV Weekend; 'Open House,' New Sitcom
By WALTER GOODMAN
Published: August 25, 1989
If the doings of some devious dimwits who work in a real estate office sounds like an unpromising premise for a sitcom, wait until you see the result - though that should not be taken as an invitation. ''Open House,'' which joins Sunday's Channel 5 lineup at 9:30 P.M., lives up uncompromisingly to its unpromise.
The introductory episode of this spinoff of another Fox Broadcasting show, ''Duet,'' finds the heroine, Linda (Alison LaPlaca), in competition with the unscrupulous Ted (Philip Charles MacKenzie) to take over the new Sherman Oaks branch of their agency. Learning that the boss is a fishing fanatic, the landlubber Ted hires a boat for an outing; Linda and her husband go along.
The leaky jokes include Linda falling overboard, Ted banging into the hatchway and throwing up, and the two of them cleaning some fake-looking fish with liquid detergent. If a gag about a pair of pants splitting a seam doesn't split your sides, you may be tuned to the wrong channel. There are lines like ''You don't know your aft from your elbow.'' A dreadful child actress tells Linda, ''I'm sure your lips are tired from kissing up to the boss.''
The characters make the fish look good. This latest achievement of Fox Broadcasting, ''created'' and produced by Ruth Bennett and Susan Seeger, was filmed before an audience in Hollywood. From the shrieks on the laugh track, those folks must have been watching something else. ''Open House'' is the sort of jerry-built joint that can bring down values in a neighborhood, even alongside ''Married . . . With Children.''
|
