The Terrible Catsafterme

SEASON 1 – Fox

Created by Arthur Silver and Ron Leavitt

This series is a spinoff of the sitcom “Top of the Heap,” which was a backdoor spinoff of the sitcom “Married… with Children”

Theme song: “Vinnie & Bobby” performed by Jimmy Thrill Quill and Danny Harvey, music by Jonathan Wolff.

• 001. Full Heap – 5/30/1992
  • Chicago resident Vinnie Verducci (Matt LeBlanc) has moved into a new apartment alone and taken a job in construction that his childhood friend Bobby Grazzo (Robert Torti). His seventeen-year-old neighbor Mona Mullins (Joey Lauren Adams) has had a longtime crush on Vinnie, but he refuses to date her since she is only seventeen. To celebrate his new job, she gives him a calendar with swimsuit photos of her, with her eighteenth birthday circled. Mona questions whether Bobby is paying rent to Vinnie, and the more Vinnie thinks about it, the more he does in fact want some rent money since he’s been staying there for weeks. Vinnie has also started attending night school at Dick Butkis Community College. Over at the construction site, Bobby introduces Vinnie to all of his co-workers, the heavyset Billy Belli (John Pinette) and the mumbling Jim Wotowski (Mike Genovese). Most of the construction workers are just sitting around and have to deal with the owners Carey (Carey Engel) and Carol Carricarol (Carol Rosenthal). Carol thinks Carey is too wimpy, so she fires everyone. Vinnie is able to sweet talk the Carricarols that the house is like a pregnant woman, and they shouldn’t abandon the project when they’re so close to labor. When Bobby invites the co-workers including all of Jim’s kids, and they make Vinnie watch Beverly Hills 90210 rather than the game, Vinnie decides to insist on rent from Bobby. When he again balks at paying his share, Billy offers to move in and pay rent. This causes a very short-lived fight between Bobby and Billy. Since this means that Bobby will have to move out, he finally comes through and pays the rent. Meanwhile, a giant guy (Jeff Hochendoner) and a little girl (Anndi McAfee) both punch Vinnie and warn him not to date their sister Vernoica, even though it was actually Bobby who had gone out with her. Later, Vinnie and Bobby hit on two French girls at a bar, but Vinnie nearly tricks Vinnie into chasing them out the door when they have merely moved seats. 9/25/23

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SEASON 1 – NBC

Created by Irving Brecher

NOTE: This series is a spin-off from the radio series of the same name which aired on the Blue Network (later ABC) from 1944-45, and then on NBC from 1945-1951, with William Bendix in the title role. Bendix also starred in a film of the same title in 1949, and consequently could not star in the first season of the series because of his contract with RKO Radio Pictures. In 1948 two ‘live television test programs’ were aired, the first with Herb Vigran (April 13), the second with Buddy Gray (April 20). 

• 001. Tonsils – 10/4/1949
  • Chester A. Riley (Jackie Gleason), a wing riveter for Cunningham Aircraft plant in western Los Angeles, California, visits Dr. Harvey (Harry Harvey) when he chokes on a fish bone, only to find out that he actually needs his tonsils removed. He sullenly heads home and breaks the news to his wife Peg (Rosemary DeCamp), son Junior (Lanny Rees), and daughter Babs (Gloria Winters). Riley is scared to death of the operation and discusses it with his friend and next-door neighbor Jim Gillis (Sid Tomack), who suggest that he speak to Mrs. Bennett (Marlo Dwyer), who had recently had her tonsils taken out. Mrs. Bennett mistakenly thinks that Riley’s wife will be having a baby, so Riley is confused by her description of the ‘tonsils’. Before leaving for the hospital, Riley reads his will to his family, confessing that he has stashed away $15 in the radio. In the hospital the nurse (Marie Blake) sedates him and he falls asleep, but Dr. Harvey has to delay the operation. When his family greets him in the waiting room, Riley thinks the operation is over and initially complains of the pain, but then realizes that it was painless. He freaks out again when the doctor shows up and tells him that he is now going to now operate. Dian Fauntelle is Mrs. Bennett’s maid Matilda. 9/21/16

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SEASON 1 – NBC

Theme song: “Thank You for Being a Friend” written by Andrew Gold and sung by Cynthia Fee

• 001. The Engagement (aka The Pilot) – 9/14/1985
  • Substitute teacher and brassy divorcee Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur) and obtuse widow Rose Nylund (Betty White) live as tenants in the Miami, Florida home of man-hungry southern belle widow Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan). In their employ is a live-in gay cook named Coco (Charles Levin). Rose, who misses her husband Charlie and now works at a grief counseling center, fears that Blanche is going to accept the proposal of her boyfriend Harry (Frank Aletter) after finally being happy in her arrangement. Meanwhile Dorothy’s mother Sophia, who has had a stroke and no longer has any filter on what she says, finds herself homeless when her nursing home burns down, and comes to stay with the ladies as well. Blanche accepts the proposal, but Rose has a strong suspicion about Harry and minutes before the wedding tries to tell Blanche, but Dorothy stops her. As they wait for Harry to show up for the wedding, and officer (Meshach Taylor) arrives and tells them that Harry has been arrested for bigamy. After a week of mourning, Blanche realizes that her friends have made her happy again. As they head out to celebrate, Sophia heads out for a date at the dog track. F. William Parker is the minister. NOTE: This is the only appearance of Coco. 9/20/16

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SEASON 1

Theme music by Shelly Palmer. 

• 001. Pilot – 9/17/1996
  • The daily operations of the New York City mayor’s office are supervised by Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty (Michael J. Fox). Mayor Randall Winston’s (Barry Bostwick) staff also includes Press Secretary Paul Lassiter (Richard Kind), to whom everyone lies and plays jokes on, City Hall chief of staff Stuart Bondek (Alan Ruck), speech writer James Hobert (Alexander Chaplin), Mike’s secretary Janelle Cooper (Victoria Dillard), and office worker Nikki Faber (Connie Britton). With the city in the midst of a garbage strike, the Mayor makes it even worse when he tells a report that he ‘must be drunk’ when he asks the Mayor if he would march in the gay pride parade. Amidst a barrage of bad press, Mike also contends with his personal life when he realizes that his girlfriend, reporter Ashley Schaeffer (Carla Gugino), has let her lease lapse on her apartment. Although she has been staying with Mike for a year and a half, he becomes paralyzed with fear at the thought of living together. She responds by saying they should take a break from each other.  Mike’s idea to combat the bad press for the mayor is to have James’s claim to be a gay staffer. When the Mayor is deeply criticized by gay activist Carter Heywood (Michael Boatman), Mike decides to give him a job on the mayor’s staff to help be the conservative Mayor’s liberal voice. Mike decides to not only live with Ashley but to get their own new apartment together. Taylor Stanley is the young cheerful intern Karen. 9/21/16

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SEASON 1 – ABC

NOTE: This series began under the title “These Friends of Mine” for the first season, before changing the title to “Ellen” to avoid confusion with the TV series “Friends.”

Created by Neal Marlens, Carol Black, and David S. Rosenthal.

Theme music composed by W.G. Snuffy Walden

• 001. Pilot – 3/29/1994
  • Ellen Morgan (Ellen Degeneres) works at the bookstore Buy the Book in Los Angeles, where she lives with her male roommate friend Adam Green (Arye Gross). While waiting at the California DMV with Ellen, her friend Holly Jamison (Holly Fulger) meets a man in line named Roger Konig (William Bumiller) and gets a date with him. Ellen is unsatisfied with her license photo because she was talking while it was taken. Their other friend Anita (Maggie Wheeler) works with Roger’s roommate and gives her inside information on Roger, including the fact that he barks during sex. When a cashier (Giovanni Ribisi) mistakes Ellen’s license for her husband’s, she decides to return for another photo, this time dressed nicely. This too goes awry when the photographer (Matt Landers) gets a phone call while taking it, and again captures her talking. Ellen rips up both licenses. Anita continues to gather information, first that Holly had broccoli on her face during dinner, and then that Roger plans to leave her after sleeping with her. Ellen leaves a message on her answering machine telling her that he is a slimeball and that she needs to leave him, and then she, Anita, and Adam head over to stop her. When they arrive, they hear Roger barking, but then overhear him tell her that he had planned to leave him, but now is falling in love. They then knock on the door and Ellen attempts to take the answering machine, but she ends up playing the message. Holly then throws Roger out, but admits to her friends that she planned to dump Roger after sleeping with him anyway. Shaun Duke and Lois Viscoli are customers in line. 9/20/16

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