My Sister Sam served as a vehicle for star Pam Dawber's return to primetime, four years after the end of Mork & Mindy. Unfortunately, it couldn't hang on to its audience, and CBS kept moving it around as a result during the 2nd season, leading to a final cancellation in the spring of 1988, with 12 episodes unaired.
Not only did Dawber return, but it was the last series entry for David Naughton (ex-Makin' It, At Ease). The former Dr. Pepper pitchman played the neighbor to Sam (Dawber) and her teenage sister (Rebecca Schaefer).
Unfortunately, My Sister Sam is also remembered for the tragic murder of Schaefer, a year after the series ended. An obsessed fan who'd been stalking the young actress for three years, perhaps from the beginning of the series' production schedule for all we know, shot her down. There've been several more cases of obsessed fans stalking celebrities in the nearly 30 years since, mostly because some of these people get lost in the fabric of the shows they follow, and forget to separate fiction from reality.
Following is a sample intro:
Executive producer Diane English would rebound with her next CBS project, Murphy Brown, which reportedly is being revived to mark its 30th anniversary.
No rating. Never saw the show.
2 comments:
Another victim of the move to the Saturday death slot (at least it was for ABC and CBS) from the era. As you mention, it held the KATE AND ALLIE audience well during its first season. Seems kind of foolish to move it with K&A nearing the end of its run in hindsight, since SAM would have the same basic demographics and might have been able to lead off the night by 1989 when that happened.
Wasn't a bad show. Not particularly memorable IMO, outside of Kim Carnes' theme song.
CBS moved it for the highly anticipated FRANK'S PLACE, which to be fair was a great show and deserved a better fate. Audiences just didn't warm to it, though, and both it and KATE AND ALLIE suffered the following season.
Who can figure network executives, anyway, Hal?
Post a Comment