The Three Best KATE & ALLIE Episodes of Season One

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https://jacksonupperco.com/2022/01/2...of-season-one/

Kate & Allie stars SUSAN SAINT JAMES as Kate and JANE CURTIN as Allie. With ARI MEYERS, FREDERICK KOEHLER, and ALLISON SMITH.



There are two reasons I wanted to cover Kate & Allie here. Well, several — if you count the handful of episodes that I am eager to add to this blog’s figurative rolodex. Beyond those, I’m interested in discussing this series because of its premise and because of its character work. To the first point, if Family Ties is a most revealing example of the 1980s’ traditional family sitcom, then Kate & Allie is a most revealing example of the “modified” version of this subgenre, for, like many shows in this era, it lacks the “typical” two-parent nuclear family of the 1950s but maintains those shows’ (and their ‘80s descendants’) same gently comic energy, relatively muted characters, and affirmation of familial bonds as a fundamental moral good. In other words, tonally and narratively, Kate & Allie has a lot in common with its decade’s most dominant fare (such as Family Ties), only, like the majority in this pile, it allows itself an added, slightly higher concept “wrinkle,” for while there are two parents in the house, they’re both divorced mothers who have essentially pulled their resources together and merged their families. This is non-traditional, enabling additional plots about the conflicts of this blended arrangement, along with dramas about the ramifications of divorce on the modern child — a contemporary notion that hopes to derive empathy for this unfortunate social trend, while also being more relatable to those who have experienced it. And although an adherence to family sitcom conventions is inherently “conservative” in terms of values (just like Family Ties), dealing with an unideal social reality and celebrating a new lifestyle as a viable alternative due to necessity could also make the show seem socially progressive — a post-Lear-ian premise that, like One Day At A Time, enjoys being called groundbreaking for reckoning with the phenomenon of divorce and single-parenting, and within a genre used to a more “traditional” depiction of the nuclear family. However, if the “wrinkle” added to this domestic premise seems Lear-ian, and there are indeed a few stories throughout the run self-conscious about a social statement being imparted, Kate & Allie would rather be affiliated with the MTM brand, offering two strong, independent women making it on their own — or together — in plots that, as a whole, care more about their relationship than the Lear-ian consequences of the sociopolitical premise.



This is reflected in the title, which was originally Two Mommies — a name that evokes the unique premise and its social implications — before it was tellingly changed during development to Kate & Allie, indicating a shift in priorities to the two leads, or, at least, their relationship. This implied move to a more relationship-focused understanding of the series will be a trend we follow in this coverage — how the show, as it runs out of ways to reiterate its “modified family” “wrinkle” in story, starts attempting to supplant its initial premise with elements of the buddy comedy, in the grand tradition of Laverne & Shirley, Mary & Rhoda, and Lucy & Ethel (or, Lucy & Viv)… Well, not exactly like them, for while Kate & Allie is cognizant of an affiliation with the greats — and, tangentially, this series, the most-watched sitcom of the 1983-’84 TV season, launched an effort by CBS to directly target the female demographic, eventually existing alongside two more hits with similar themes and a shared audience appeal, Designing Women and Murphy Brown — its style is different than its predecessors. For instance, this might seem like an updated take on The Lucy Show — which was about two single moms raising their broods together under one roof, only with one divorce between the two of them and no room at all for it within weekly story (proof of the new post-Lear-ian possibilities presented to Kate & Allie) — but it’s, comedically, not at all interested in Lucille Ball’s, or Laverne & Shirley’s, primary comic concern: broad, physical humor. What’s more, it doesn’t use Kate and Allie like The Mary Tyler Moore Show deploys Mary and Rhoda. And this brings me to the second reason I wanted to cover Kate & Allie: the chance to share thoughts on this series’ character work, which is fascinating… and, well, frustrating. Let’s start right at the top: this series’ chief creative guide — the man who turned Two Mommies into Kate & Allie, and who served as director/producer for its first five seasons — is Bill Persky, whose most well-known prior credits were That Girl, another sitcom about independent femininity (but with a slapstick bent and sillier tone, along with other ideals more reflective of its era), and the series that had made all this possible: Carl Reiner’s The Dick Van Dyke Show, for which Persky was a regular co-contributor.