I haven't seen this series since the days it originally aired so my memory of it has been hazy and I was really anticipating seeing it again.

But my God are these women annoying. I can't say I like any of them and can understand why it didn't initially do well in ratings.

I can see however how this show probably birthed the idea for shows like Designing Women & Golden Girls. It has a vague feel of both those shows---just with not so likable characters. Maybe it got better when Crystal Bernard came aboard?

I may just wait until then to tune back in again.

The first season is kind of tough to watch. Lois and Jan are basically the same person. Vicki is super annoying. The chef, Mario, is also kind of a dud. And the skimpy outfits really date the show.

The second season - down to four waitresses, and with a new cook - is better. And the third season (Ann Jillian’s last) has the strongest lineup of waitresses.

The first season is thankfully short so it won't take long for season 2 to start and maybe i'll like it better then. Right now the waitresses all blend into each other that I really can't tell them apart.

It is a pleasant but average show.In my opinion the show does not get any better during the later seasons.I think the first 2 seasons are its best.They also may have gotten the idea for It's A Living from the show Alice. Alice especially during it's first 4 seasons or so is the better show of the two.

I really enjoyed the show and love Marion Mercer and Ann Jillian. Looking forward to seeing the show after so many years.

It is a pleasant but average show.In my opinion the show does not get any better during the later seasons.I think the first 2 seasons are its best.They also may have gotten the idea for It's A Living from the show Alice. Alice especially during it's first 4 seasons or so is the better show of the two.

Agreed! I love this show and the earliest seasons are my favorites.

It is a pleasant but average show.In my opinion the show does not get any better during the later seasons.I think the first 2 seasons are its best.They also may have gotten the idea for It's A Living from the show Alice. Alice especially during it's first 4 seasons or so is the better show of the two.


I agree, about the first two seasons of IAL being the best. I was a teen when it first aired and watched it regularly. I remember not really caring much for the revival episodes much. I really did not watch most of them. I am going to see how I like the later years at this point in time, decades later.

I think it had a good cast, the show was lively and it was fairly well written, at least for ABC years.

I think one of the things I don't like about it is that most of the characters are too similar to each other. There's the two who are both sweet and naive, Dot and Vicki. And then you have another two who are too similar, as mentioned above, Lois and Jan who are the older ones.

The only character that breaks from all that monotony is Cassie who, as also previously mentioned is too tough a character to warm up to. And comes off as kind of a bitch at times.

For me they just all blend together in a big fat ball of estrogen. At least on similar shows like Designing Women, Alice, and Golden Girls, the characters were all very separate and distinct from the start.

I'll keep tuning in though because I want to see how this show evolves and can't wait till Crystal Bernard shows up later on.

This show has not held up well at all. I remember loving it as a kid. Watching it decades later, I have no idea what I was thinking. It was very canned, and there was very little chemistry between the characters. Ann Jillian comes across as obnoxious with that weird delivery of hers.

And some of the story lines I've seen so far are so cheesy. One of the girls gets upset because she catches her elderly father having sex, and the episode's written like she's 12 years old. :rolleyes:

Several posters on this board were wanting It's a Living to come so bad, yet it seems to have been a disappointment for many. Plus I saw the other thread where the visual quality is horrible compared to most Antenna shows. I like the That Girl pickup and Strokes/Facts are also nice, but there are several other sitcoms that surely could have been better pickups for Antenna. Perfect Strangers, The Real McCoys, Harry Morgan's show December Bride that he did before Dragnet and M*A*S*H, Angie, C.P.O. Sharkey, Get Smart, Harper Valley PTA, Dave's World, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, Boy Meets World, and Punky Brewster for some examples. And shows they previously aired that no one else is airing and it would be nice to return are Too Close for Comfort, Mr. Belvedere, and Bachelor Father.

Antenna TV should’ve picked up The John Larroquette Show.

I was one of the people highly anticipating It's a Living and after viewing it so far, I believe it's one of those shows that's best left a childhood memory. I have it on right now, but barely even paying attention to it as i'm typing this post.

I don't know if it's on another channel, but I would've loved Antenna to get Laverne & Shirley. That's definitely a childhood memory show that I know i'd love seeing again as an adult.
I haven't seen the show in decades but remember it well and refuse to buy the dvd's since i've seen too many reviews on Amazon saying how terrible the dvd's are and I don't want to waste my money.
I'd also like to see Harper Valley PTA as Catsrule suggests, but with only 30 episodes it doesn't seem feasible unless they did a one time Marathon of it.

I was one of the people highly anticipating It's a Living and after viewing it so far, I believe it's one of those shows that's best left a childhood memory. I have it on right now, but barely even paying attention to it as i'm typing this post.

I don't know if it's on another channel, but I would've loved Antenna to get Laverne & Shirley. That's definitely a childhood memory show that I know i'd love seeing again as an adult.
I haven't seen the show in decades but remember it well and refuse to buy the dvd's since i've seen too many reviews on Amazon saying how terrible the dvd's are and I don't want to waste my money.
I'd also like to see Harper Valley PTA as Catsrule suggests, but with only 30 episodes it doesn't seem feasible unless they did a one time Marathon of it.

Laverne & Shirley is on Logo.

I was one of the people highly anticipating It's a Living and after viewing it so far, I believe it's one of those shows that's best left a childhood memory. I have it on right now, but barely even paying attention to it as i'm typing this post.

I don't know if it's on another channel, but I would've loved Antenna to get Laverne & Shirley. That's definitely a childhood memory show that I know i'd love seeing again as an adult.
I haven't seen the show in decades but remember it well and refuse to buy the dvd's since i've seen too many reviews on Amazon saying how terrible the dvd's are and I don't want to waste my money.
I'd also like to see Harper Valley PTA as Catsrule suggests, but with only 30 episodes it doesn't seem feasible unless they did a one time Marathon of it.I agree Laverne and Shirley would be a good pickup. Last I knew Me TV had the broadcast rights, but those might have expired. Harper Valley PTA could air on weekends like The Paul Lynde Show and Lotsa Luck! have, and like previous short-lived shows that aired on Antenna Good Morning World, My Mother the Car, and It's About Time.

I just looked at Logo's schedule and see they also air It's a Living there too. So I wonder if more than one station can get rights to air a show at the same time? If so, then wouldn't Antenna TV be able to get Laverne & Shirley if they really wanted it? They must've paid for It's A Living even though Logo plays it too. Or maybe since it's a dud show it's much cheaper lol.

I didn't realize Good Morning World & Lotsa Luck had less than 30 episodes each and I really loved when Antenna played them once a week on Saturday nights. So yeah, they could easily do that with Harper Valley PTA too.

Another short lived sitcom i'd love to see again is "It Takes Two". An early 80's Patty Duke sitcom with only 22 episodes.

Rights for cable networks like Logo and broadcast networks are usually separate, unless the broadcast networks are owned by the same company like Escape and Bounce, or Me TV and Decades. But if Me TV had the rights to something, rival broadcast network Antenna TV wouldn't be able to buy the show as well.

Rights for cable networks like Logo and broadcast networks are usually separate, unless the broadcast networks are owned by the same company like Escape and Bounce, or Me TV and Decades. But if Me TV had the rights to something, rival broadcast network Antenna TV wouldn't be able to buy the show as well.

I see. Thanks for explaining. If it's only on a cable network now, hopefully one of the broadcast stations will pick it up soon. I get Cozi, Decades, Laff, Antenna, and Light TV, so i'd be happy if it came to any one of those channels. But not if it went to MeTV or Get TV as I can't pull those in.

If we're talking shows we'd like to see on Antenna, the ones I most want to see are: Chico and the Man, The New Dick Van Dyke Show, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Nanny and the Professor, Room 222, Julia, and Bachelor Father. Shows like Laverne & Shirley and Happy Days I highly doubt would come because MeTV still has the rights to them but they are not currently airing. I also would like to see Charles in Charge on Antenna and I agree that Harper Valley PTA would be a good addition to Antenna

If we're talking shows we'd like to see on Antenna, the ones I most want to see are: Chico and the Man, The New Dick Van Dyke Show, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Nanny and the Professor, Room 222, Julia, and Bachelor Father. Shows like Laverne & Shirley and Happy Days I highly doubt would come because MeTV still has the rights to them but they are not currently airing. I also would like to see Charles in Charge on Antenna and I agree that Harper Valley PTA would be a good addition to Antenna

Chico and the Man would be a nice addition.

Seems we have gone off topic, but will add three words.........

THE NEW GIDGET

Much the same as perhaps hapless scripts, but even the one season of gidget has been resurrected countless times, yes because Sally Field played the role as perky as Sandra Dee!

Caryn Richmond (aka Mrs. Greg Brady) played her role as "Auntie Gidget" to the max (and Im not talking Bayside) to a wonderful cast that included the legend William Schallert as her father.

Part of Missing television, and speaking of Sandra Dee roles, Anyone for the one season 1965 color ABC "Tammy" starring Debbie Watson, actually released on DVD overseas nearly a decade ago in brillant remastered color except for one episode. I transferred the entire set to american standard DVD, very hillbilly, but another one for my other thread about diginet country themed "Circle" who's only two sitcoms consist of F-Troop & Jeff Foxworthy.

I am just saying Antenna TV has taken huge leaps to find "Lost Television" and im talking far from classics, remember they did start with Circus Boy (Great) brought back "It's About Time", "My Mother The Car" "Joey Bishop", "Small Wonder".......plus Lynde, Lotsa Luck, Good Morning World, etc.

So wish they would keep digging into the countless shows regarding of scripts or how they holdup today, and I truly believe "The New Gidget" at least deserves a return, which was a huge success in first run 1980's syndication.

I look at Antenna's afternoon and evening schedules, and it seems like they're trying to attract female viewers. It's a Living fits that pretty well. I think that the show is a lot funnier once they get to the syndicated years.

Why are they concerned about females?

I'm sure there's enough of them that watch ATV.

The second season began tonight on It's a Living and there's a bit of improvement over the first. They cut loose those 2 characters, Vicki & Lois who were just carbon copies of Dot & Jan and added Maggie, played by Louise Lasser who was "Mary Hartman" (until now I had no idea she was on this).

The characters are now much more distinct from each other and even Ann Jillian's Cassie is less brash and crude. So far it looks like this may be a better season to watch over the first one.

If he does not want to buy the DVDs of Laverne and Shirley because of edits, he is not likely to want to watch the show on Logo. They butcher shows to death with several of their shows barely making 20 minutes in runtimes.

At least the DVDs have fair runtimes even with several music edits/substitutions. You can still get 23 plus minutes of Laverne and Shirley episodes even with a scene cut here and there.

Some episodes run short on the DVD but none of them run at an atrocious 19 minutes and a couple of seconds like the ones on Logo.