It was March of 1984. Ronald Reagan was President and in an election against Walter Mondale, the former Vice President and perhaps the worst candidate the Democrats could have chosen, I would often say that if by some miracle Mondale had been elected he would have been the first President forgotten in office. CBS was airing AfterMASH, a spinoff from the popular show MASH, it featured the post Korean war adventures of Colonel Potter, Klinger and Father Mulcahy, who were working in a VA hospital. After a year of low ratings and bad reviews the show was cancelled. The networks had began a new programming plan, mid season replacements, instead of showing reruns or fillers they would introduce new programs to take over the time slot. In this case it was the sitcom Kate And Allie. The show was about two recently divorced women sharing an apartment in New York City and jointly raising their kids.
Kate was played by Susan Saint James, who was best known for her roll of Sally in the crime drama McMillan And Wife, it was part of the NBC Mystery Movies, a rotating series that included other shows such as Columbo and McCloud.
Allie was played by Jane Curtain. She had risen to fame as one of the original Not Ready For Prime Time Players on Saturday Night Live. After the producers had replaced the whole cast she did various movies and TV show until she landed the part on the new sitcom. Both her and Saint James appeared together in How To Beat The High Cost Of Living, a movie about a group of suburban women who plot a robbery.
Kate's daughter Emma was played by Ari Meyers, Allie's daughter Jennie was played by Allison Smith (who had just come off of a Broadway run playing Annie), and Frederick Koehler played Allie's son Chip.
The early episodes also featured the reoccurring character of Roger, played by Jack Gilpin. He would show up in later seasons but only for a coupe of episodes.
The show is an interesting time capsule of the 1980's. It's both a reflection of how situations were handled and how the network dealt with the balance between humor and the issues of the day, especially during the Reagan ideology. It also features pop culture and technology from, wow, 40 years ago. So, lets take a look at the series and see what life was like in the latter half of the 20th century.
Allie's First Date Episode one, Season one.
The first episode premiered on March 19th 1984, it ran between The Scarecrow And Mrs. King and Newhart. It ran opposite the ABC Movie, Rich And Famous and the NBC movie Mr. Roberts.
In the first episode Kate rushes home to get ready for a date but leaves him, David, waiting in the living room with Allie, who is busy putting up wallpaper in a closet. The two have a great conversation while waiting, Kate and David have a so-so date and decide to pass on any future outings, however David then asks if he can ask Allie out instead. Kate, reluctantly, agrees and then helps Allie get ready, since it will be her first date since her divorce. She schedules it on the night her ex, Charles, is picking up the kids, she wants him to see her going out. The date turns into a disaster when Allie can't stop talking about her ex, her dreams of what life would have been and the divorce. When she gets home she hides in the laundry room while her ex drops off the kids so he'll think she's still out. Afterwords her and Kate talk about disastrous dates and plans for the future.
Dated References
The show starts with Kate and Allie coming out of the movie An Unmarried Woman. It is a 1978 film about a woman who after going through a bad divorce finds herself having to make a choice between two men but in the end decides to go it alone. The plot of the movie is a reflection of the plot of the series itself. It's also interesting that theaters use to reshow older movies. Today you'd just stream it at home.
Kate works at a travel agency. In the 80's that was how you made travel plans but today you'd book your trip on line.
When Kate comes home from her date Allie has prepared brandy and coffee for her and David. After Kate comes home alone Allie joins her for a cup of coffee and says "Cafe Amaretto, for times like these" The joke made sense back in the day thanks to the Taster's Choice instant coffee commercials.
Kate tells Allie her plan on getting rid of guys, ignore his calls, tell him she's busy and then make plans "for the future" that will never happen and hope that he'll get the hint and go away. Today people call that "Ghosting" however this was before the internet and the social media.
Jennie is on the phone several times during the episode on a land line. In 1984 cell phones were known as The Brick. They were expensive, had limited range and battery power. And they were only good for one thing, making calls.
Kate and Allie go to the laundry room to discuss the dating David situation, in the background there is a cardboard box with a real address and phone number for an art gallery that handled auctions and appraisals in the 80's, the real company went out of business in 1994. The number is real too, not a Hollywood 555 number and is active today however now it's a construction company that specializes in fixing up retail space in NYC. The current occupant of the address is a wine shop.
When Allie's ex shows up she tries to make him jealous by introducing him to David. She starts talking dramatically and overacting. Kate makes the comment "She's doing Loretta Young", an actress that the kids didn't know. Well, some things don't change.
While on the date Allie compares herself to the women on Phil Donahue, his show ran in syndication from 1970 to 1995 and was the top daytime talk show before Oprah came along.
At the end of the episode Allie asks Kate if she wants to get married, as in the two of them, Gay marriage wasn't legal in those days, except for "Domestic Partnership" in Berkeley California.
David is played by Kelsey Grammer, the same year he first appeared on Cheers as Fraser Crane. The character represented the idea of what men were like in the day, a professional businessman who has one date with Kate, decides she's not the woman for him, asks to go out with Allie instead and after one date moves on from her. He's kind of shallow and self centered. One hopes the male figures in the show get better as it goes along, hopefully.
The Very Loud Family
This episode premiered on March 26th 1984 in the same time slot as last week. It ran opposite movies on both NBC (Best Kept Secrets) and ABC (Neil Simon's Only When I Laugh)
The kids have projects for school. Chip is making a map, Jennie is doing fashion through the decades by making dresses of the various years for her Barbie dolls. Emma, glued leaves into a book. Allie suggests that Kate is being too lenient and should push her, so she ends up doing a video of a "modern family", hers. Jen gets a bad haircut and refuses to take off her hat, she's got an Annie Hall look going on, Chip wears his Spiderman costume. After a week Kate and Allie want Emma to wrap up her film but she wants to keep going, she gets mad and tells off her mother for pushing her. Allie has Kate keep going with the film behind Kate's back. The top projects are shown at a parents night, including the film. While videoing Emma's father calls and cancels their Saturday plans, Emma keeps it in the film because it's real.
Dated References
Kate is looking through old photos of their trip to Central Park. Actual physical photos, not digital on a phone. And she's pasting them in an album, not saving them to the Cloud.
The girls are excited because they got the new Michael Jackson cassette at the record store. A little bit of history, Jackson didn't put out any albums in 84, he had put out Thriller in 82 and would follow up with Bad in 87 but nothing in 84. You know it was a name the writers knew and the audience would too. Kate compares the girl's excitement to when Sgt. Pepper came out. The girls are listening on a Walkman with the two headphone option, wired headphones.
For school Kate said she made a movie about Cesar Chaves and the grape boycott of 1970.
The camera has a separate VHS recorded attached to it by a cord and it has to be carried around with a shoulder strap. Today you could record it on your phone without 10 pounds of equipment.
Chip compares Jen's haircuts to Mr. T. In the day everyone knew who he was and his famous Mohawk.
While shooting her movie Emma filmed Allie coming out of the shower, she refers to it as "The remake of Porky's" The movie had come out two years earlier and was known for the infamous shower scene.
Emma's video is shown to the parents meeting on a big console TV with a built in VCR. That was high tech in 1984.
To convince Jen that there's nothing wrong with a bad haircut the family wears Groucho Marx glasses, with the big nose and mustache, to dinner. When Allie tries to take a bite she has to take them off and makes the comment "How does Gene Shalit eat?" He was a film critic for The Today Show and was known for his giant mustache.
Odd Boy Out
This episode premiered on April 16th, 1984. The lead in show was a Daffy Duck cartoon and it was followed by Newhart. It ran opposite moves on ABC (It's My Turn) and NBC (Jesus of Nazareth Part 2)
Chip comes home from school with a black eye. He's upset because his father never taught him how to fight back. Kate shows him how to fight, the world has really changed. Allie calls Charles, her ex, to tell him to take Chip and his friends to a hockey game so the guys at school will quit calling him a sissy, he offers to take the boys camping over the weekend. Chip says he wants to move in with his father, Allie is upset since the ex's new wife doesn't want anything to do with the kids. Surprise, Charles has an emergency and can't go camping so Kate and Allie host a "campout" in the living room.
Dated References
Kate and Allie come out of the subway, a payphone is ringing. A working payphone, on the street.
Chip gets into a fight at school but this is the pre zero tolerance era so nobody gets suspended. They explain it as Boys Will Be Boys. You can't say that anymore thanks to the Me Too movement.
Allie is worried her son is growing up to be a "sissy". Wow, that wouldn't fly today.
Chip says he wants to be a Wookie and wants to call up the spirit of Darth Vader at a seance, boy, remember that movie Star Wars? Oh wait, that's still popular.
The Family Business
This episode premiered on April 23rd, 1984 in its regular time slot. It ran opposite movies on ABC (A Long Way Home) and NBC (A Doctor's Story)
Kate is up for a promotion at the travel agency but gets passed over for the boss's son in law, so she quits. Allie decides that she should do something with her life but realizes she has no experience (we will find out why in a later episode). Kate gives a piece of Allie's cake to a local gourmet shop and they offer to buy two cakes a week. More places keep ordering cakes and things get out of hand, soon they are overworking because neither Allie or Kate will admit that this isn't what they wanted. Allie has a complete meltdown over the cakes so Kate gets her job back at the travel agency.
In this episode we find out Roger, the upstairs neighbor, is married.
Dated References
Allie calculates how much she can make off her cake baking, $70 a week, the cakes cost her $3 each to bake. She's really excited about that.
While baking cakes the family sings "Mammy's Little Baby". Wow, that would be called racist in the modern world.
Kate is excited to date a guy who looks like Clint Eastwood. You have to remember that this was 40 years ago.
Dear Diary
This episode premiered on April 30th 1984. It ran in its usual time slot and opposite That's Incredible on ABC and the movie Adam on NBC.
Allie is reading an article about how men feel threatened when a woman moves her stuff into his place, she wants to move her stuff from her storage unit in Connecticut. She moves everything and overruns the house, Kate is not happy. Allie takes Kate's coffee cup, she's really not happy since it's her favorite mug. The kids find Allie's old diary, Kate finds out that Allie kissed her high school boyfriend. They have a fight over everything in the house so they come to a compromise, they have a tag sale and get rid of all the excess.
Dated References
Subway $1.80 (in the modern world it's only $3.00 so it's actually a bargain) Cab Fare $5.40 (a cab will cost anywhere from $10 to $70 today) A candy bar costs 50 cents, in the modern world it's $2.00. When you do the math the inflation rate on candy bars is twice that of transportation costs.
Kate compares Allies oversized salt and pepper mills to the World Trade Center. The 9/11 attack wouldn't happen for another 17 years, it was 25 years ago by the way.
Allie is mad that Kate stole her autograph book but all that was in it was Soupy Sales and Pinky Lee (tv personalities from the 1950’s)
Jennie does an imitation of Crazy Eddie, an appliance and electronic wholesaler known for his catchphrase “my prices are insane”. The Security and Exchange Commission discovered the company was using fraudulent accounting, Eddie fled the country but was brought back and eventually wound up in jail. His company was liquidated for bankruptcy in 1989.
So that’s the first five episodes of Kate And Allie. Watching this show is like going through an old scrapbook and saying “remember when…” I’m looking forward to what else I forgot about from way back when.
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