"One Day At A Time" premiered 49 years ago (Dec 16, 1975)

[TMC]

https://www.womansworld.com/entertai...ples-and-drama

"One Day At A Time", that ground-breaking sitcom by Norman Lear featuring divorced mother Ann Romano raising her two teenage daughters, debuted 49 years ago this week, on December 16, 1975. The series was created by Whitney Blake and Allan Manings, a husband-and-wife writing duo who had both been actors in the 1950s and 1960s. The series was based on Whitney Blake's own life as a single mother raising her three children (including future actress Meredith Baxter) after her divorce from her first husband.

Producer Norman Lear spotted teenage actress Mackenzie Phillips in the hit movie 'American Graffitti' and wanted to do a sitcom around her. The original pilot shot in early 1975 focused on 'Ann Romano' and her one daughter 'Julie' (played by Phillips). Ann was a single mother who worked as a nurse in a big city hospital, and the focus was to be on the daily (comic) dilemmas of Julie's in school and at home. The title of the show was 'Three To Get Ready'.

When the Blake / Manings project came to his attention, he reworked his original pilot and brought in a second younger daughter, and had the focus on the single unemployed mother who is finding her independence along with her two teenage daughters. The title was changed to 'One Day At A Time' and another pilot was shot - and this was the one which CBS chose out of the two to go forward with.

Actress Bonnie Franklin was 31 when she was cast to play Ann Romano, who uproots her two kids from their home in Logansport, IN to Indianapolis, after her divorce. Lear spotted Franklin on Broadway, when she was a supporting actress in the 1970 musical 'Applause, Applause' (for which she snagged a Tony nom). He met her backstage at one of her performances, and promised her he could make her a TV star within a few years. Franklin didn't believe him, and was hesitant to leave New York City to head to Hollywood when he made her the offer to star in this new TV show, but she did it and became a TV star.

Valerie Bertinelli was cast as younger dependable daughter Barbara Cooper, when Lear spotted her in an episode of the failed family show "Apple's Way" in the early 1970s. Lear was familiar with actor Pat Harrington's work on television in the 60s and 70s, and cast him as the building 'super'.

The show went through many cast changes over the years with much 'backstage drama' (Phillips left after the fifth season due to her much publicized drug abuse over the years), and Harrington, Bertinelli and Franklin stayed with the show for nine seasons, until its final show on May 28, 1984. CBS wanted to keep the show for a tenth season, but Franklin told the network that Season 9 would be their last. Lear tried two different spin-offs in 1984, one starring Bertinelli and the other starring Harrington, but CBS rejected both.

[Bonniegirl]

I wonder if they are going to do anything special in Dec. of this year? It will be 50 years. Maybe Antenna will run a marathon or it would be really cool if Catchy Comedy would have ODAAT on the Sunday binge in Dec. than add it to their schedule. They have other Norman Lear shows.