CNN: History of the Sitcom

[AndyB2008]

"Too New York" was apparently one of several phrases used in "polite company" instead of terms that were openly anti-Semitic, racist, homophobic, etc. That Girl and Rhoda may have only been 8 years apart but television changed quite a but within that time: All In The Family and M*A*S*H proved that a TV series could be socially conscious and still get good ratings. That Girl was a new series with new characters while Rhoda was a spin-off featuring a very popular character; Valerie Harper won three Emmy Awards for her performance on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (she would win a fourth for Rhoda). Rhoda's Jewishness was already established so her family also being Jewish was a foregone conclusion.

There was still plenty of anti-Semitism in the mid 70s: Bridget Loves Bernie depicted a marriage between a Jewish man and an Irish Catholic woman, it was the 5th highest rated show for the 1972-73 season. Despite its high ratings, CBS cancelled Bridget Loves Bernie after receiving viewer complaints about the depiction of an inter-faith marriage.

Bridget Loves Bernie - was Meredith Baxter in that one?

 

[Grant Jennings]

He voiced Krusty's father in the Simpsons.

And in a Roseanne connection, Krusty's voice actor served as her lead out at times when he appeared in Sibs, which flopped so badly it was pulled halfway and the remaining episodes never aired (it ended up on Sky One/Sky Two in Britain though later on, because of The Simpsons connection).

Sibs was basically what partially happened to the soap opera Eldorado here in the UK a year later. ABC saw the success of The Tracey Ullman Show, and thought it would work again. Hence most of the Ullman show writers and producers working on it, Gracie Films as the production company, Dan Castellaneta's casting (because of the success of Julie Kavner with Rhoda) and George Clinton singing the theme.

Don't know if it was a factor besides timeslot, but did the whole Ullman thing put people off watching Sibs in the end regardless of the likes of Jami Gertz and Marsha Mason?

Barely a year later after Sibs died, Fox had Stand By Your Man, a American adaptation of Birds of A Feather with Melissa Gilbert, Miriam Flynn and Rosie O'Donnell in the Sharon, Tracey and Dorien roles. Allan McKeown was EP on this like he was on the original, his WitzEnd production company made it and Sam McMurray was in the cast. Given the connections between McKeown and McMurray, that went down the gurgler, not to mention not being as remembered as Birds of A Feather was.

I had completely forgotten about Sibs. The first episode aired after Roseanne but its regular time-slot was Wednesday nights (before being cancelled a few weeks later), it aired after Roseanne again during the Summer when ABC burned-off some of the remaining episodes. Considering how poorly the show performed, I can't believe ABC picked up a retooled version of Sibs, Related By Birth, the following season.

 

[Grant Jennings]

Bridget Loves Bernie - was Meredith Baxter in that one?

Yes, she and David Birney (I assume his character's name was a deliberate reference to his own name) were the stars, they married in real life after the show was cancelled. A lot of familiar faces including Audra Lindley and David Doyle were in the cast.

 

[Grant Jennings]

Sibs reminds me of another failed sitcom from the same time, also about siblings: Good & Evil. Good & Evil was a soapy sitcom created by Susan Harris (Soap and The Golden Girls) and starred Teri Garr as the evil sister (CEO of a cosmetics company) and Margaret Whitton as the good sister (a scientist who performed experiments on herself rather than harm animals). One of the characters was a blind man who was constantly waking into things and knocking things over, this resulted in protests from the blind community. I remember recognizing the family mansion as being re-purposed sets from Soap and Benson.

 

[AndyB2008]

I had completely forgotten about Sibs. The first episode aired after Roseanne but its regular time-slot was Wednesday nights (before being cancelled a few weeks later), it aired after Roseanne again during the Summer when ABC burned-off some of the remaining episodes. Considering how poorly the show performed, I can't believe ABC picked up a retooled version of Sibs, Related By Birth, the following season.

They didn't pick up Related by Birth fully. They aired the pilot, but passed on a series.

Alex Rocco and Marsha Mason declined to be part of Related by Birth though, although Jami Gertz and Margaret Colin stayed around. Unfortunately they had Dan Castellaneta stick around for that as well.