Kate & Allie

Kate & Allie Information

Kate & Allie is an American television situation comedy which ran from March 19, 1984 to May 22, 1989. Kate & Allie first aired on CBS as a midseason replacement series and only six episodes were initially commissioned, but the favorable response from critics and viewers alike (its first episode ranked #4 out of all the television shows airing that week) easily convinced CBS to commit to a full season in the fall of 1984. The series was created by Sherry Coben.

Overview

The show stars Susan Saint James as the free-spirited Kate McArdle and Jane Curtin as her more traditional childhood friend, Allie Lowell. The premise: the two decide to share a brownstone in New York City's Greenwich Village after their respective divorces, raising their families together.

The show also starred Ari Meyers as Kate's daughter Emma, and Frederick Koehler and Allison Smith as Allie's children Chip and Jennie.

Both Kate and Allie dated men regularly, but were portrayed as strong, independent women, which was still a relative novelty on television at the time. Unlike other successful career women portrayed before them, Kate and Allie were shown to be wise to the games men play, but not averse to remarrying if the opportunity presented itself.

The show was one of the most popular and critically acclaimed sitcoms of the 1980s, consistently ranking in the Top 20 shows until its final season. Curtin won two Emmy Awards for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, while Saint James was nominated in the same category three times.

Curtin and Saint James had previously worked together in the 1980 movie How to Beat the High Co$t of Living.

Series details

At the beginning of the series, Kate worked as a travel agent, while Allie stayed home and took care of the domestic duties. Kate's storylines often revolved around her struggles to be taken seriously in the workplace, while Allie's often revolved around learning to be more independent and sure of herself after her years as a housewife. In the show's fifth season, Kate quit her job and teamed up with Allie to start their own catering service.

In the show's second-to-last season, Allie was dating Bob Barsky (Sam Freed), a television sportscaster who proposed to Allie in the season finale. Following their marriage, Allie and Bob moved into a new apartment in the show's final season "? however, Bob took a job which involved regular travel, and Kate moved into the new apartment as well. This plot development, frequently cited as one of the canonical examples of a television show jumping the shark, led viewers to lose interest, and CBS chose not to renew Kate & Allie for a seventh season.

Regular cast

Susan Saint James as Katherine Elizabeth Ann "Kate" (née Hanlan) McArdle
Jane Curtin as Allison Julia Charlotte "Allie" (née Adams) Lowell (Barsky during the final season when she remarried)
Ari Meyers as Emma McArdle, Kate's daughter. Meyers left the show a few episodes into the fifth season to attend Yale University (although her name remained in the opening credits to the end of the season); she returned for the season-ending 100th episode retrospective.
Frederick Koehler as Charles "Chip" Lowell, Allie's son
Allison Smith as Jennie Lowell, Allie's daughter
Gregory Salata as Ted Bartelo, a plumber whom Kate gets involved with during the second season. The two break up in the season two finale. Ted returns for the fifth season, with he and Kate attempting to rekindle their relationship; by the end of this season, he is gone again.
Sam Freed was featured as three different characters during the series. In the first season he played a married candidate for office named Johnathan Conti who flirts with Allie. At the end of season three he played Keith in the episode "Late Bloomers", which was a backdoor pilot for a proposed spinoff which would have starred Lindsay Wagner. In the final seasons, he was best known as Bob Barsky, the boyfriend and later husband of Allie.
Peter Onorati as Lou Carello, the superintendent in Kate and Allie's new building, who appears in season six. He tries unsuccessfully to win Kate's affections.

Paul Hecht had a recurring role as Allie's ex-husband Charles. Wendie Malick, best known for her role in Just Shoot Me!, had one of her earliest roles as Charles' new wife Claire.

Production

The test name for the script was entitled Two Mommies and was seized upon by Saint James who was able to use the show as a way to work without relocating her family from Litchfield, Connecticut. Kate & Allie was taped on soundstages constructed at the Ed Sullivan Theater (CBS Studio 50) and also at the Teletape Studios at West 81st Street and Broadway in New York City, which at the time was the original studio of the long running children's show, Sesame Street.

Cold opening dialog sequences between Saint James and Curtin documenting city life were featured, shot on location in Manhattan with no laugh track. The theme song Friends by John Lefler and Ralph Schuckett played instrumentally over the title shot of the Empire State Building. Closing credits also included vocals with indicative lyrics, "just when you think/you're all by yourself/you're not."

Under pressure from higher-ups at CBS to quash the suggestion that Kate and Allie were lesbians, the producers were instructed to show Kate and Allie entering separate bedrooms to sleep at the end of each episode. That pressure may have been the impetus for an episode showing Kate and Allie pretending to be lesbians when they were faced with a large increase in rent.

Saint James was pregnant during the taping of the fourth season. Her pregnancy was hidden by filming her behind a desk, under a sheet in a hospital bed, or in a bubble bath. The exception was a flashback which showed both Kate and Allie pregnant.

An episode broadcast in 1987, produced in cooperation with the Coalition for the Homeless, was filmed entirely outdoors, on the streets of Manhattan. The episode was prompted by the likely absence of Saint James, who had been hospitalized due to kidney stones, and featured Allie struggling to find a way home after accidentally leaving her keys and money in a taxi.

The show's final season was affected by the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike.

Ratings

Following are the Nielsen ratings for the show:

1983"1984: #8
1984"1985: #17
1985"1986: #14
1986"1987: #19
1987"1988: #38
1988"1989: #48

According to an essay by Christine R. Catron from the Museum of Broadcast Communications's Encyclopedia of Television, the decline in ratings for the show's last season is attributable to the fact that the show's premise had been fulfilled at the end of the previous season, when Allie accepted Bob Barsky's marriage proposal.

Syndication

The American syndication rights are held by NBC Universal Television Distribution; the show currently airs on RTN. Kate & Allie previously aired on WE tv, until 2007"2008. FremantleMedia owns the international rights, as they own Thames Television and have access to Alan Landsburg Productions and Reeves Entertainment Group product.

DVD releases

United States

Universal Studios Home Entertainment released the first season of Kate & Allie on DVD exclusively in the United States in May 2006. A July 2012 review of the series suggests the series has aged particularly well. In an era of television in which shows such as Real Housewives of Orange County and Jersey Shore constantly showcase young women in degrading and humiliating situations, it is refreshing to see a television show that actually portrays women in a positive light, not as sex objects.

Canada

For the Canadian market, Visual Entertainment has released all six seasons on DVD. On May 4, 2010. VEI released Kate & Allie: The Complete Series, a 16-disc boxset featuring all 122 episodes of the series.

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date
The Complete First & Second Seasons	28	June 6, 2006
The Complete Third Season	23	February 6, 2007
The Complete Fourth Season	25	July 3, 2007
The Complete Fifth Season	24	September 9, 2008
The Complete Sixth Season	22	November 3, 2009
The Complete Series	122	May 4, 2010