9 To 5 aired from March 1982 until October 1983 on ABC and from the fall of 1986 until the fall of 1988 in first run syndication.
Three put-upon secretaries matched wits with their overbearing, sexist boss in this contemporary comedy. Franklin Hart ( Jeffrey Tambor and later Peter Bonerz), vice-president of Midwestern Sales for Consolidated Companies , was an inept executive who viewed the girls in the outer office as either sex objects or mere flunkies to use in his climb upward. Facing him everyday were Violet ( Rita Moreno), a fiery Latin single ( widowed) mother, and 12 year veteran of the company; Doralee ( Rachel Dennison), a good-hearted country girl with a fulsome figure; and Judy ( Valerie Curtin), an incredibly smart college graduate with no common sense. Roz ( Jean Marsh), the office manager, was Mr. Hart's ally and in-house snoop, though she got little in return for her trouble.
There was a good deal of turnover on screen and off during the run of the series. The actor playing Hart was replaced after the initial spring 1982 tryout run. Harry Nussbaum ( Herb Edelman) was added in the fall as the company's fatherly good-natured top salesman, always ready to cheer up the girls with a joke or bit of help in their schemes. When the second full season began in September 1983, Judy had been replaced by Linda ( Leah Ayres), a free-spirited young woman in her 20's who also moved in to share an apartment with Violet and Doralee. At the same time Violet's 12 year old son Tommy ( Tony Latorra) joined the cast, Roz was gone, and good old Harry Nussbaum was replaced by a decidedly sexier young salesman named Michael ( George Deloy).. Somewhere along the way, the company changed it's name to American House. Offscreen, actress/activist Jane Fonda, who was the initial co-producer was replaced by veteran sitcom producer James Komack who also appeared as Mr. Hart. The revised show lasted barely over a month before being canceled.
Three years later 9 To 5 resurfaced in first run syndication. Only Doralee and Judy were back from the original cast, with the former now married and the latter still desperately trying to find a boyfriend. New to the secretarial group was Marsha ( Sally Struthers), a sweet lovable but incredibly inept divorcee with 2 young children. The company they were working for was now Barkley Foods International and among the staff were Judy's boss, womanizing Russ Merman( Peter Evans), Director Of Foreign Acquisitions; Marsha's boss, ambitious young administrative executive Charmin Cunningham ( Dorian Lopinto) and later obnoxious V.P. of Foreign Sales Mr. Felb ( Fred Aplegate); and Doralee's boss, vice-president Bud Coleman ( Edward Winter).
The series was based on the hit 1980 movie 9 To 5, which starred Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton ( Rachel Dennison's sister), and Lily Tomlin.
A Review from The New York Times
TV: WOMEN'S WOES, AS POLICE AND AS SECRETARIES
By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: March 25, 1982
TWO new weekly series are getting under way this evening and, not surprisingly, one is a police action-adventure, ''Cagney & Lacey,'' on CBS-TV at 9 o'clock, and the other is a situation-comedy, ''9 to 5,'' on ABC-TV at 9.
''Cagney & Lacey'' began as a television movie that attracted some attention and decent ratings last fall. In the series, Tyne Daly continues in the role of Mary Beth Lacey, a New York police detective who is also a wife and mother. Her partner on the force, Chris Cagney, single and ambitious, is now being played by Meg Foster. At the stationhouse, of course, they have to contend with the malechauvinist mutterings - ''Will you tell me why guys with kids are being laid off while broads are being promoted?'' - of Lieutenant Samuels (Al Waxman).
The lieutenant would prefer to keep the ''girls'' working as decoy prostitutes, all gussied up in hot pants and flamboyant wigs. Cagney, though, wants to go after a drug bust involving the Mafia. She instructs Lacey, ''I want you to open your eyes to new opportunities.'' Lacey, unconvinced, stays in her decoy costume and heads home to her family, explaining, ''I'm gonna give Harvey a little something extra with the Tuna Delight tonight.'' Harvey (John Karlen) is quite content to spend most of his time watching the kid, cooking and, when possible, making love to his ''copper'' wife. He refuses, though, to listen to Mary Beth and Chris talk police shop over dinner.
Within this context, evidently, Cagney and Lacey will cope with a wide variety of criminals and assorted low-lifes each week. Tonight they persuade a small-time loser to let them know about the arrival of a big drug shipment, and they set out to find the vicious murderer of young prostitutes, a beat that keeps them in their decoy outfits. Along the way, there are touches of humor, sometimes getting cute and obvious enough to suggest that the producer, Filmways Productions, wants little more than a female version of ''Starsky and Hutch.''
But the script by Barbara Avedon, Barbara Corday and Barney Rosenzweig, who is also the executive producer, has enough street-smart wisecracks to keep things from becoming too laborious. And, under the direction of Georg Stanford Brown, Miss Daly and Miss Foster turn in two bright and sassy performances. ''Cagney & Lacey'' certainly has the potential to be as good as any other action-adventure enterprise on the schedule.
''9 to 5'' was a mildly entertaining 1981 movie that was shrewd enough to recruit a big-name cast: Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton. The television version, a limited-run series, has had to settle for Rita Moreno, Valerie Curtin and Rachel Dennison. Obviously, it will have to work a little harder to attract attention.
The basic premise is unchanged. A battery of secretaries in a giant corporation have to contend with an outrageously sexist boss. The variations on this particular theme are endless (see above).
The premiere episode is taken almost intact from the film. Needing a new personal secretary, the boss is leeringly determined to find someone curvaceous and, of course, willing. When Miss Dennison, a Dolly Parton lookalike, shows up she is hired immediately, leaving the other women convinced that she is just another dumb blonde.
Needless to say, the Dennison character is quite serious about her secretarial abilities, and she winds up saving the day not only for Miss Moreno, who has to sneak home to check up on her sick son, but also for the entire department, which ends up winning its fourth straight productivity award.
Future weeks will undoubtedly provide other situations in which the overbearing boss will be humiliated by his ingenious secretaries. Completely out of place as an officious executive secretary in these silly proceedings is Jean Marsh, formerly the utterly dependable Rose of ''Upstairs, Downstairs.''
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