What Might've Been: Working Girl (1990)

 I remember seeing "Working Girl", with Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, and Joan Cusack, in the theatre with my then-girlfriend in 1988. Nearly 2 years later, the movie becomes a sitcom for NBC as a spring replacement------and bombed.

It's easy to assume too much time had passed between the movie, a subsequent video release, and the show, which top-lined Sandra Bullock in Griffith's role as Tess McGill. Nana Visitor, later of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, was given Weaver's part as Bryn Newhouse. Carly Simon's award winning theme, "Let The River Run", was used, but with another artist covering the track. Said artist was not given screen credit, and it's definitely not Carly. One possibility might've been voice actress-singer BJ Ward, who had a recurring role as Tess' mom, I believe it was, a rare gig in front of the camera for Ward.

Unfortunately, NBC gave up on Working Girl, airing just 8 episodes. The series was originally developed with Nancy McKeon (ex-The Facts of Life) in mind, but it'd be a few more years before McKeon found an adult role that worked for her (The Division).

"Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" was one of the episodes that didn't air, but became available recently on YouTube:

With the video of the movie available by the spring of 1990, viewers voted with their remotes. Sandra Bullock went on to become a major movie star, and thus, TV Land exhumed the series in 1999 for a brief run.

Rating: B+.