Great but Forgotten: Kate and Allie (TV)

[TMC]

http://greatbutforgotten.blogspot.co...-allie-tv.html

It's rare that a relatively recent TV show that was both a critical and ratings success could be considered forgotten, but that's exactly what happened to Kate and Allie.

The show's premise certainly didn't stand out all that much. In it, Allie Lowell (Jane Curtin) and her two kids, Emma (Ari Meyers) and Chip (Frederick Kohler), move to New York to share an apartment with Allie's childhood friend Kate McArdle (Susan St. James) and her daughter Jenny (Allison Smith) decide to share an apartment after the two of them divorce. Kate was a stay-at-home mother who needed to learn how to be more independent, while Allie had a job and had trouble trying to be taken seriously in the workplace.

Though the premise seems routine now, it was still unusual to have to independent women characters in a sitcom. But what made the show work was the quality of the writing and the scripts. In a fairly low-key way, they dealt with many social issues -- not only the role of women in society, but other issues like homelessness and what makes a family.

The latter was the basis for the episode I remember the best, where Kate and Allie were threatened with a big rate increase because they weren't a family. They pretended to be a lesbian couple,* claiming that to be a family, too, which backfired when they discovered their landladies were a lesbian couple. But instead of letting hijinks ensue, Kate and Allie told that this was only a ploy, and that they were a family nonetheless.

The show was successful not because of the social issues, but because it was very funny. It wasn't the usual sitcom putdown comedy, but often contained conversations that revealed the characters while making you laugh. It reached the top ten in its first season and kept in the top 20 through most of its run.

Alas, the show jumped the shark at the end of its next to last season. Throughout the run, Allie was learning to be stronger and more independent, and in the final episode, she remarried. She was going to be more of an equal than how she was in her first marriage, but the entire premise of the series was betrayed. The final season did poorly in the ratings and the show was canceled.

Despite winning several Emmys for Jane Curtin, the show seems to have vanished off the map. Maybe it shows that the concerns of the 80s have become a bit dated, but the show is certainly still funny after all these years.

[tlc38tlc38]

K&A was a great series. I always thought it paired well with "The Golden Girls" or "Gimme a Break!". I wish it would come back in reruns.

[TMC]

One theory for why Kate & Allie isn't so popular in reruns anymore is because it was surprisingly "adult" for a sitcom. What I mean by "adult" is that the episodes were character driven rather than plot driven and focused on adult issues and concerns. Also, the kids weren't typical sitcom kids getting into all kinds of shenanigans and diverting focus from the leads.

[robby76]

Well I was a pre-teen during it's original run and it was one of my favourites. In fact it's one of the very few sitcoms that really do take me back to watching tv at home on a sunny afternoon.

[Chocolate Moose]

I remember really liking it when I was younger and it was brandnew. I'm not interested in it now at all.

[TMC]

Could Broad City, in some respects, be looked at as a modern day variant of Kate & Allie? K&A used to open a lot of their episodes with the two walking someplace in NYC, conversing about something non consequential. Broad City uses the exact same setup.

[opus]

Someone remembered it, ‘cuz complete series being released.

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...daysonline8-20

[rusty spike]

It's sort of now or never for some of the 1980 tv shows to be released. If they keep the show locked away in a vault for another 20 years, there's less chance for the show to be savored by those who originally enjoyed the show.

I'm hoping that this DVD release will cause some buzz for K&A so that it will get picked up for streaming.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by rusty spike

It's sort of now or never for some of the 1980 tv shows to be released. If they keep the show locked away in a vault for another 20 years, there's less chance for the show to be savored by those who originally enjoyed the show.

I'm hoping that this DVD release will cause some buzz for K&A so that it will get picked up for streaming.

Well, next year will officially mark Kate and Allie's 40th anniversary, so then would probably be the most opportune time to do such a thing.

[Fallon97]

I love this show. I would love to see it on DVD.

[TMC]

Why has the show "Kate & Allie" with Susan Saint James and Jane Curtin all been forgotten now?

Multiple reasons, including:

1. It was a dull series - I was dating someone who liked it which is why I have seen more episodes of it than I would have normally. I have tried to watch it again online and I realize now what I realized nearly 40 years ago: It wasn’t a very good series.
   
2. Neither Jane Curtin, nor Susan Saint James were “sexpots” - Neither woman had the “goods” to make the series appealing to male viewers and they stayed away in droves. They don’t remember the series as a result.
   
3. Despite both women being the stars of that program, they were never stars elsewhere - Jane Curtin was prominent on Saturday Night Live's 1970s run and as a costar on Third Rock From The Sun, but she’s never been a a draw on her own. Besides Kate & Allie (and some might say instead of that series), St. James is best remembered for her four seasons as Rock Hudson’s spouse on the 1970s mystery McMillan and Wife. Basically, the stars were never “stars” elsewhere and now their turn on this series has been forgotten.
   
4. It’s not very funny - For a comedy with a comedienne like Curtin in the cast, the series isn’t very funny. You may chuckle or smile at some interactions, but most of the series telegraphs its punch lines three or four beats ahead and even the laugh track seems to struggle with some of them.
   
5. St. James retired after the series ended - Basically beyond the fact that she was the mother of four children at the time, she is married to Dick Ebersol, who was becoming staggeringly wealthy due to his work in the NBC network. Her retirement meant that it would have been up to Jane Curtin to keep the flames ignited and that didn’t happen. Curtin went on to Third Rock and Kate & Allie disappeared into the ether.

Again, Kate & Allie is a really terrible show.

For some reason it was briefly quite popular (It’s first four seasons it was in the Top Ten or Twenty for the season as far as ratings). However, by its fifth and sixth season, it had fallen into the Lower Thirties and Forties and it was cancelled when the network declined a seventh season.

[biffbronson]

Mixon writes, "Again Kate & Allie is a really terrible show."

It wasn't enough to call it terrible, he doubles down and says "really terrible."

What a ridiculous take. Please don't post this moron's stuff here. It was a well-written series, it was very popular for its early seasons especially, the acting was fine, the leads were appealing, it lasted 6 seasons, it did well in the ratings, its actors had Emmy nominations and wins, the critics liked it...

It's one thing to say he didn't care for it, but Mixon loses all credibility with "really terrible." Idiotic. Even though it's not a high priority for me, I have some of the DVDs and eventually will get more. Not forgotten!

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TMC

One theory for why Kate & Allie isn't so popular in reruns anymore is because it was surprisingly "adult" for a sitcom. What I mean by "adult" is that the episodes were character driven rather than plot driven and focused on adult issues and concerns. Also, the kids weren't typical sitcom kids getting into all kinds of shenanigans and diverting focus from the leads.

10 Hit '80s Sitcoms Nobody Talks About Anymore

Unfortunately, the show's final season was a divisive one, thanks to the program's entire starting concept being thrown out once Allie was married.

An underwhelming finale can mar a program's entire long-term reputation — just ask "How I Met Your Mother." This alone makes it unsurprising that "Kate & Allie" hasn't endured as a beloved cultural institution. A proposed 2021 reboot on NBC that never went anywhere further reinforced how little momentum or energy this brand has today. The lack of major retrospective reappraisals has also kept this '80s sitcom from finding a new, modern audience.