The Terrible Catsafterme

SEASON 1 – ABC

• 001. Pilot – 9/30/2009
  • Frances “Frankie” Heck (Patricia Heaton) is a middle-aged mother living in Orson, Indiana, and working as a used car saleswoman while trying to raise a family with her husband Mike (Neil Flynn). Their oldest son Axl (Charlie McDermott) is a sarcastic loner who rarely comes out of his room and when he does only wears his boxers, their daughter Sue (Eden Sher) is an awkward teen who has trouble fitting in, and their youngest son Brick (Atticus Shaffer) is a quirky misfit who whispers to himself and whose best friend is his bookbag. We meet Frankie stranded in the middle of a rural road with no cell phone reception wearing a Super Woman outfit. She recounts the actions that led her there, primarily that Brick told her that she needed to dress that way for his book report – which turns out to not be until the following week – and a customer named Gail (Amy Farrington) steals the car from her during a test drive and leaves her stranded. Also Sue tries out for the show choir and gets accepted, but her family later finds out that she is just part of the crew. While posing for a picture that her mother is taking, she wrecks the performance by not putting a box step in the right location. Axl gets suspended from the football team for calling the coach a moron. Chris Kattan is Frankie’s friend and co-worker Bob, Brian Doyle-Murray is her boss Mr. Ehlert, Peter Breitmeyer is her work nemesis Pete Miller, Jeanette Miller is Aunt Edie, Frances Bay is Aunt Jenny, and Patricia Belcher is Brick’s teacher Mrs. Rettig. Bob Clendenin is the voice on the car lot P.A. 9/15/14

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SEASON 1 – TV Land

Created by Matthew Carlson

Theme music by Chris Allen Lee

• 001. Pilot – 6/4/2014
  • High-powered California investment banker Jennifer Doyle (Jaime Pressly) is expecting a promotion to Senior Vice President at Bale Capital, but instead her boss Don Hirsh (Jeffrey Tambor) and his lackey Clay (Patrick Fabian) let her go due to her anger issues. She and her teenage daughter Gretchen (Dylan Gelula) burn through their savings, and soon Jennifer is forced to get rid of her condo and move in with her mother Maggie (Jessica Walter). She also takes a job working in the bar run by her brother Wayne (Ethan Suplee) and his wife Stephanie (Nora Kirkpatrick). She asks her mother about her old friend Dina Simac (Missi Pyle), and she tells her that Dina doesn’t want to see her. She later runs into Dina at the bar, and Dina is forced to admit that things are not right between them, but expects Jennifer to know the reason. She does meet a nice guy named Ethan (Tommy Dewey) at the bar who has two daughters. Stephanie seems to want to lecture Jennifer about everything, and starts to drive Jennifer crazy. Jennifer tries to look for a more suitable job at an employment agency, but the ladies there, Ronnie (Cleo King) and Doreen (Jaime Moyer) only make fun of her when the learn that Jennifer used to make $250K a year. Jennifer’s mother is a counselor and offers to make Jennifer her patient. Jennifer has to wait on Dina’s table along with her L.A. Lesbians softball team. Jennifer forces Dina to tell her why she is mad at her, and Dina tells her it is because she changed. Dina needed her help by just being a friend when she went through her divorce, but Jennifer just threw money at the problem by giving her a gift card for a massage. Jennifer promises to start over like the old days and re-build the foundation of their friendship. Stephanie is just upset that Jennifer is taking a break from work so soon to talk to her. Gretchen and her mother chat about their new situation, and Gretchen is supportive and tells her that maybe things are happening in their lives as they should. Amanda Olmstead is Maggie’s new secretary Lorna. Trevor Larcom is the pinata boy Connor. Elizabeth Anna is Sandy with the L.A. Lesbians. Rachel DeGenaro is Connie from H.R. 8/31/22

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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. In 1948 two ‘live television test programs’ were aired, the first with Herb Vigran (April 13), the second with Buddy Gray (April 20). Bendix then 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 and was replaced by Jackie Gleason. 

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• 001. Babs’ School Election – 1/2/1953
  • Chester A. Riley (William Bendix), a wing riveter for Cunningham Aircraft Co. plant in Blue View in western Los Angeles, California, finds out that his daughter Babs (Lugene Sanders) is running for president of her college Freshman class. She fears that her opponent Helene Bidwell has a leg up because her father is the Marchant’s Bank president and has given Helene $100 toward her campaign. Riley heads off to work with his friend and co-worker Jim Gillis (Tom D’Andrea), but before he even arrives, he decides to call in sick and head over to see his friend Honest Ed Feeney (Allen Jenkins), a crooked politician he knew from Brooklyn, to see if he can help. Feeney agrees to help Riley sway the vote, and so he gets two of his thugs to use fake registration cards so that they can stuff the ballots. Babs notices the same guy registering for ballots with the one of the election helpers (Beverly Wills), and thinks that he was hired by Helene’s father. The goon admits that he is actually working for Feeney to help Babs garner voters. Babs is humiliated when he says this in front of her classmates and becomes inconsolably and furious with her father. Riley’s wife Peg (Marjorie Reynolds) is also furious with him, and when Riley overhears what is in store for him when he enters the house, he decides to ask his son Chet ‘Junior’ (Wesley Morgan) to sneak food out to him outside. When Peg catches him in the act, the soup winds up on Riley’s head. Riley then gets another idea from Gillis about making campaign promises, so he heads over to the campuses and begins telling all of the young men that if they vote for Babs, she will go to the prom with them. He doesn’t give out their address and tells them to expect a call from Babs. When she never calls, they look up their address in the phone book, and soon the house is flooded with 56 young men looking for a date. Babs is mortified when she sees all of the boys in her house, and she sneaks out with her actual date George, leaving the boys to get into a riot fight in the living room. With the house destroyed, Riley and Peg head to the movies… along with the 56 boys he has to buy tickets for. Henry Kulky is Feeney’s big goon. 7/3/22

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SEASON 1 – NBC

Theme music composed by Richard Mack

• 001. Pilot (aka The Fur Coat)- 10/15/1952
  • Judge Bradley Stevens (Jim Backus) has a talk in his chambers with the Mitchells (Hal March, Shirley Mitchell), who are filing for divorce. He tells them through flashback how he met his wife Joan (Joan Davis) on a flight to Chicago, where she was handling her first flight by herself as attendant. At first, he was irritated at her ineptness, but gradually began to see the humor in it. He relates that this is how a successful marriage works when you marry a ‘character’ like Joan. In fact he knows that she has bought herself a fur coat without his knowledge, and he plans to come home to their house in Lawrence, California early to watch the fun ensue when it was delivered. At home, Joan shares the news of the coat with her neighbor Minerva Parker (Hope Emerson), but she misunderstands and thinks Joan is expecting a baby. Mr. Mitchell stops by to speak to the judge and tells Joan that Bradley’s advice didn’t work and that all men have their breaking point. Joan tries extra hard to conceal the fur coat when it is delivered, telling Bradley that it is a leg of lamb and stuffing it in the freezer. That night she tries to retrieve it, but Bradley won’t fall asleep. Eventually he tells her that he knew all along and it is okay that she bought the coat, which is now frozen stiff. 8/16/14

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SEASON 1 – COMEDY CENTRAL

Created by Sarah Silverman, Dan Harmon, and Rob Schrab

Lead-in narrated by Sarah Silverman

• 001. Officer Jay – 2/1/2007
  • Unemployed Sarah Silverman (herself) lives with her younger sister Laura Silverman (herself), a registered nurse, whose parents died when they were young in Valley Village, California. They are neighbors with gay couple Brian Spukowski (Brian Posehn) and Steve Myron (Steve Agee). Sarah has a cold and drinks enough cough syrup to send her into animated hallucinations and then drive onto a playground. She is arrested, but when Laura shows up and has chemistry with the cop, Officer Jay McPherson (Jay Johnston), he lets her off and gets a date with Laura. Sarah is depressed that she has to watch the TV show Cookie Party by herself and drinks more cough medicine, then tracks down Jay and Laura on a date and drives her car onto a neighbor’s yard and then busts into a TV station as they are filming a weather broadcast. She winds up in jail again, but Jay and Laura come to her rescue. Meanwhile, Brian argues that he is bi-sexual but eventually comes to admit that he is just plain gay. Sarah sings the Doody Song. 8/16/14

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