The Terrible Catsafterme

SEASON 1

Created by Bonnie Turner and Terry Turner

Theme music composed by Ben Vaughn.

• 001. Brains and Eggs – 1/9/1996
  • Four alien life forms on an extraterrestrial expedition take the life form of humans known as the Solomons and move into an attic apartment in Rutherford, Ohio, owned by landlady Mamie Dubcek (Elmarie Wendel). The leader of the expedition is High Commander Dick (John Lithgow), who gets a job as a physics professor at Pendleton State University. Second in command is Security Officer Sally (Kristen Stewart), the only entity to take on a female form. Tommy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is the oldest being and Information Officer, who has taken the form of a teenage boy. Harry (French Stewart) is seemingly the most dim-witted of the crew, but has a transmitter in his head. As the aliens begin to understand the bodies they now inhabit, Dick finds that he is both appalled and attracted to his colleague anthropology professor Dr. Mary Albright (Jane Curtin), while Tommy finds himself obsessed with teenage sexual desire, and Sally is disgusted at the prospect of having dead cow on her hands as she prepares meatloaf. During his physics class, his students Leon (Ian Lithgow), Bug Pollone (David DeLuise), Aubrey Pitman (Chris Hogan), and Caryn (Danielle Nicolet), discuss how ‘feelings’ are the core of the human experience, which inspires Dick to extend his ‘family’s’ mission. The Solomons attend a party at Dean Sumner’s house, during which Dick expresses his desire to experience feelings with Mary. He ends up kissing her, gets slapped, and gets kissed back. After the party Dick pontificates how fascinating humans are, leading the others to speculate that he has ‘probed’ Mary. Simbi Khali plays secretary Nina Campbell. Jennifer Rhodes is Mrs. Sumner. Marnette Patterson is the volleyball girl. Dan Gilvezan is the voice of the D.J. Susan Leslie is the kissing woman. 1/18/16

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SEASON 1 – NBC

Opening theme song music by John Adair, Steve Hampton, Korbin Kraus, lyrics by Steve Levitan

• 001. Pilot – 9/23/1999
  • New York City editor and nebbish germaphobe Henry McNeeley (Neil Patrick Harris) is given a new assignment by his boss Audrey Radford (Harriet Sansom Harris), and although he hopes it is with respected author Jonathan Dalton (Stanley DeSantis), it turns out it with horror novelist Ian Stark (Tony Shalhoub), who once had a major hit with a book called Below Ground. Henry visits Ian who seems to be suffering a severe case of writer’s block, and he, along with assistant Jake Donovan (Eddie McClintock) seems to have no interest in Henry but rather playing a barrage of practical jokes on him. Henry finally gets tired of it and walks out on Ian, accusing him of being afraid of being a one-book wonder. This finally inspires Ian to start writing again, in a fashion that greatly impresses Henry… but he still wants to leave him because he thinks Ian is crazy. Henry is assigned to Dalton, but finds him so boring, that he returns to Ian, pretending to hang himself as a practical joke, but getting stuck hanging from the ceiling. He pleads with Ian to both help him down and take him back on as his editor… but Ian leaves him hanging both literally and figuratively. Heather Dubrow aka Heather Paige Kent plays Maddie the bartender at the bar where Ian sings in a band. 1/16/16

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SEASON 1 – CBS

Theme song: “The Nanny Named Fran” written by Ann Hampton Callaway, performed by Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway. NOTE: The pilot lead-in utilized the song “If My Friends Could See Me Now” as performed by Gwen Verdon, which was subsequently dropped and replaced in syndicated releases of the pilot episode

• 001. Pilot – 11/3/1993
  • Outspoken Jewish woman Fran Fine (Fran Drescher) is employed as a bridal consultant in Flushing, New York until her boss and boyfriend Danny Imperiali (Jonathan Penner) breaks up with and fires her. Fran begins selling door-to-door cosmetics and stumbles onto the home of widowed British Broadway producer Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy). The butler Niles (Daniel Davis) mistakes Fran for a nanny applicant, and although she is exposed as having no credentials, Sheffield gives her a shot for the weekend since he is hosting a party, and his business partner C.C. Babcock (Lauren Lane), who is clearly interested in Maxwell beyond work, doesn’t want the kids around for it. Fran immediately moves into the mansion and tries to blend into the family by eating at the breakfast table with Sheffield and his three children, the timid Maggie (Nicholle Tom), the impudent Brighton (Benjamin Salisbury), and the youngest Grace (Madeline Zima), who is already in therapy. Her first act is to ignore the wishes of their father and C.C. by getting them prepared to attend the party. Sheffield is initially shocked when they show up, but their polished behavior quickly wins him over and he admits that the party went well. However when he catches Maggie kissing Eddie (James Marsden), one of the catering company’s workers, he blows his top, and ends up firing Fran when she tries to interfere. Maxwell later visits Fran at the home of her mother Sylvia (Renee Taylor) and asks Fran to come back with the stipulation that each of them try to understand the other’s viewpoints on things a little better. Rachel Chagall is Fran’s friend Val Toriello. Dee Dee Rescher is Dottie. 1/17/16

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SEASON 1 – NBC

Created by Hal Kanter

Opening theme song composed by Elmer Bernstein.

• 001. Mama’s Man – 9/17/1968
  • Julia Baker (Diahann Carroll) is an African-American widow whose husband Walter was killed during the Vietnam War, living in Los Angeles and trying to find a job to support herself and her six year old son Corey (Marc Copage). Julia leaves Corey alone at home to go for a job interview with a doctor’s office at AstroSpace Industries for a nursing position. Her interview is with Mr. Colton (Whit Bissell), who immediately rejects her on the basis of her color. Meanwhile at home, Corey, who has been told not to open the door for anyone, has let in the child living downstairs, Earl J. Waggedorn (Michael Link). When Julia returns home she finds a bloody knife on the floor and in a panic, follows the trail downstairs to the Waggedorn apartment where she meets Earl’s mother Marie (Betty Beaird). Earl has a minor cut from trying to cut an orange, but Marie is furious that Corey has been left alone. She soon settles down and offers to babysit Corey. Julia is called back by Dr. Morton Chegley (Lloyd Nolan), who is angry at Colton for dismissing Julia so quickly when the office is in such need of help. He doesn’t seem to care about her race, and calls her back for another interview. Lonely for a father, Corey attempts to fix Julia up with a TV repairman named Dick Privet (Lloyd Haynes), who he meets at the Waggedorn apartment, by unplugging the television. It turns out that Dick is married with a family, but Julia remains optimistic about their future now that she thinks she’ll be getting the job. Charles Lampkin is janitor Charley. William O’Connell is the messenger. Steve Pendleton is the other TV repairman.  1/17/16

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SEASON 1 – NBC

Created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry

Theme music composed by Irving Szathmary 

• 001. Mr. Big – 9/18/1965
  • Agent 86 Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) is called away from an orchestra concert in Washington D.C. to report to the headquarters of CONTROL, a secret U.S. counter-intelligence agency, for his assignment from the Chief (Edward Platt). He is told to meet Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon) at the airport and then to retrieve the stolen Inthermo, a weapon that can convert heat waves into a destructive power, that had been invented by Professor Hugo Dante (Vito Scotti). Mr. Big, agent of KAOS, the international organization of evil, has stolen it and is demanding one million dollars or he will begin to destroy large U.S. cities. Smart leaves with his dog K-13 (otherwise known as Fang, played by Red) and meets up with 99. The pair head to Dante’s lab and encounter his assistant Zelinka (Janine Gray), and a rubber banana that leads them to a novelty store where Mr. Big attempts to evaporate Smart with the Inthermo. Smart notes a fake garbage scow outside the window of the building, on which they find Mr. Big (Michael Dunn), a dwarf, and the Inthermo pointed at the Statue of Liberty. Dante is also on board and informs Smart and 99 that he rigged the Inthermo to detonate when it is fired. The ship, along with Mr. Big, are blown up, while Smart and 99 escape in a lifeboat. NOTE: This pilot episode is the only one that was filmed in black and white. 1/13/14 Read the rest of this entry »