'' was a long-running
American Situation Comedy which aired on
CBS from
December 16 ,
1975 to
May 28 ,
1984 . Two hundred and nine half-hour episodes were aired.
The show was created by
Whitney Blake and
Allan Manings , a husband-and-wife writing duo who were both actors in the
1950s and
1960s . (Blake's most famous acting role was in the 1960s sitcom
Hazel ). The show was developed by
Norman Lear .
Like many shows developed by Lear, ''One Day at a Time'' was more of a comedy-drama, using its half-hour to tackle serious issues in life and relationships, particularly issues related to
Second Wave Feminism . The show's nine years give it the second-longest tenure of any Lear-developed sitcom under its original title (''
The Jeffersons '', which premiered the same year and ran for one season after ''One Day at a Time'' was cancelled, is number one).
The popular bouncy theme song for ''One Day at a Time'' was composed by legendary Brill Building songwriter
Jeff Barry .
The show starred ) and Barbara (played by
Valerie Bertinelli ). The theme of the series rests on Ann's desire to prove that she could live and raise her children independently.
She was helped in this task by Dwayne Schneider, simply referred to as "Schneider" (
Pat Harrington, Jr. ) who was the superintendent of Ann's apartment building. His "drop-in" visits were so frequent that he functioned as a member of the family. One of Schneider's running gags was his attempts to hide that his middle name was "Florenz" (pronounced like "Florence," he was given that middle name in honor of
Florenz Ziegfeld ).
- A---S---H_(TV_series)" class="copylinks">MASH '', '' All In The Family '') in its mixture of a sitcom format with elements more commonly associated with drama series or made-for-TV movies of the week, including multi-week storylines dealing with social issues such as suicide and premarital sex. This format was lampooned on '' The Rerun Show '' as being a '' Very Special Episode '' sort of series.
Series star Mackenzie Phillips became addicted to cocaine, and was fired in
1980 after many highly publicized absences from the set. She returned in
1981 but fell off the wagon again, and was fired a second time in
1983 .
The basic setup of the show underwent many convoluted twists.
After her divorce, Ann Romano and her daughters moved into an Indianapolis apartment building and Ann got a job as an account executive at the advertising firm of Conners & Davenport. During the
1979 -
1980 season, Julie moved away to Houston with her airline pilot husband Max Horvath (played by Michael Lembeck); this plot device was written in so that Mackenzie Phillips could undergo drug rehab.
During the
1980 -
1981 season, Ann left her advertising job and went into freelance business with Nick Handris (played by
Ron Rifkin ). Ann became romantically involved with Nick, but Nick died in a car wreck caused by a drunk driver, at which point Ann started raising Nick's teenage son, Alex (played by
Glenn Scarpelli ).
During the
1981 -
1982 season, Ann went into business with her ex-nemesis at Coopers & Davenport, Francine Webster (played by
Shelley Fabares ); Julie and Max moved back to Indianapolis; and Barbara got involved with Mark Royer, a dental student (played by
Boyd Gaines ). During the
1982 -
1983 season, Ann married Mark's divorced father, Sam (played by
Howard Hesseman of ''
WKRP In Cincinnati '' fame) and the two daughters moved into a house together.
Julie was written out of the show again in 1983, with the plot line this time being that she deserted her family and disappeared. The show ended with Ann moving to London with Sam and Schneider moving to Florida to take care of his orphaned nephew and niece.
The highest the show ever got in the
Nielsen Ratings was #8 during the
1976 -
1977 season, when it tied with the ''
ABC Sunday Night Movie '' and ''
Baretta '', but it consistently placed in the Top 10 or Top 20 of the Nielsens. However, the network moved the show around on the
Prime Time schedule no less than 11 times.
It was best known in the 1980s as a staple of the CBS Sunday night lineup, one of the most successful in TV history, along with ''
Archie Bunker's Place '' and ''
The Jeffersons .''
''One Day at a Time'' was aired on
E! Entertainment Television in the early and mid-
1990s , at first in the afternoons and then, as time went on, earlier and earlier in the morning. Eventually, the show left the network entirely and hasn't been aired nationally since.
On
February 22 ,
2005 , CBS broadcast in
Prime Time a one-hour program entitled ''The One Day at a Time Reunion Special'', on which clips from ''One Day at a Time'' were shown and the major stars of the program reminiscenced about the series nearly 30 years after it had debuted.
