'' is a long-running
American Situation Comedy that portrayed a divorced mother, played by
Bonnie Franklin , her two teenage daughters (
Mackenzie Phillips and
Valerie Bertinelli ) and their building superintendent (
Pat Harrington, Jr. ). Two hundred and nine half-hour episodes aired on
CBS , from
December 16 ,
1975 to
May 28 ,
1984 .
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 . The show was developed by
Norman Lear and later
Embassy Television .
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 those related to
Second Wave Feminism . The show's nine years give it the second-longest tenure of any Lear-developed sitcom under its original name (''
The Jeffersons '' premiered 11 months earlier and ran for one season longer after ''One Day at a Time'' was canceled, and is number one, and ''
All In The Family '' changed its title to ''
Archie Bunker's Place '' after season nine, with a shift in focus to Archie Bunker's work place).
The show starred
Broadway , character and former child actress Bonnie Franklin as Ann Romano, a woman who, echoing sentiments common to the
1970s , felt that she had always been either someone's daughter, wife, or mother and wanted to "find herself." She divorces her husband (who never understood why she left; played occasionally by veteran actor
Joseph Campanella ) and moves to
Indianapolis with her two daughters, seventeen-year-old Julie (Mackenzie Phillips), the older, more rebellious one, and the more-mature fifteen-year-old Barbara (Valerie Bertinelli). The theme of the series rests on Ann's desire to prove that she can live and raise her children independently. However during the first season, Ann is courted by steady boyfriend/ lawyer, David Kane (actor/director
Richard Masur ).
She is helped in this task by Dwayne Schneider, always referred to only by his last name (Pat Harrington, Jr.), who is the superintendent of Ann's apartment building. His "drop-in" visits are so frequent that he is effectively an unofficial member of the family. One of Schneider's running gags is his attempts to hide that his middle name is "Florenz" (pronounced "Florence," in honor of
Florenz Ziegfeld ). Schneider also frequently hits on Romano, employing clumsy
Double Entendres she breezily rebuffs.
- A---S---H_(TV_series)" class="copylinks">MASH '', '' Good Times '' and '' 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.
The basic setup of the show underwent many convoluted twists.
After her divorce, Ann Romano (formerly Cooper; she resumed use of her maiden name, while her children kept their father's) and her daughters move into an Indianapolis apartment building and Ann gets a job as an account executive at the
Advertising Firm of Conners & Davenport (Mr. Conners was played by
John Hillerman , Mr. Davenport by
Charles Siebert ). In the beginning of the second season, David proposes to Ann, but she turns him down; David leaves to work as a lawyer in Los Angeles. That same year, a wisecracking neighbor is added, Ginny Wrobliki (
Mary Louise Wilson ), as Schneider's love interest; however, she lasts only one season (it was later reported that
Bonnie Franklin had Wilson fired from the show, accusing her of upstaging her). During the
1979 -
1980 season, Julie moves away to
Houston with her
Flight Attendant husband Max Horvath (director
Michael Lembeck ); this plot device was written in so that Mackenzie Phillips could undergo
Drug Rehabilitation .http://www.nndb.com/people/651/000025576/
The next season, Ann leaves her advertising job (because she refuses to do the required step of relocating to another city) and starts a
Freelance business with Nick Handris (
Ron Rifkin ). They become romantically involved, but Nick dies in a car wreck caused by a
Drunk Driver , at which point Ann starts raising Nick's teenage son, Alex (
Glenn Scarpelli ).
During the
1981 -
1982 season, Ann goes into business with her ex-nemesis from Conners & Davenport, Francine Webster (
Shelley Fabares ); Julie and Max move back to Indianapolis, while Barbara marries her new dental student boyfriend Mark Royer (
Boyd Gaines ). During the
1982 -
1983 season, Ann marries Mark's divorced father, Sam (
Howard Hesseman ), Julie gives birth to a daughter named Annie, and the two daughters and their husbands move into a house together.
Julie was written out of the show again in 1983, with the plot line this time having her desert her family and disappearing. The show ends with Ann moving to
London with Sam and Schneider moving to
Florida to take care of his orphaned nephew and niece.
Mackenzie Phillips became addicted to
Cocaine , and was fired in
1980 after many highly publicized absences from the set. She returned in
1981 , but she had drug problems again, and was fired a second time in
1983 .http://www.nndb.com/people/651/000025576/
The popular bouncy theme song for ''One Day at a Time'', ''This is It'', was composed by legendary
Brill Building songwriter
Jeff Barry .
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 20. 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 '', ''
Alice '', and ''
The Jeffersons .'' Detailed annual ratings are listed below:
- 1975-1976: #12
- 1976-1977: #8
- 1977-1978: #10
- 1978-1979: #18
- 1979-1980: #10
- 1980-1981: #11
- 1981-1982: #10
- 1982-1983: #16
CBS aired daytime reruns of the show for three years. From September it moved to 10am (EST), replacing reruns of ''
The Jeffersons ''. It was replaced in
September 1982 by ''
The $25,000 Pyramid'' .
''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.
In
2006 , the show was available to some Comcast digital cable customers in America as part of Comcast's retro-themed "Tube Time" on-demand network, but it was subsequently removed.
On
April 24 ,
2007 ,
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the first season on DVD for the very first time in Region 1.
