State of Grace

I love this show, it is slightly predictable but is a goodhearted show. Its hard to find shows like that and it is one of the few good shows ABC family has to offer. The characters and easy to like and laugh at. Good hearted comedy is needed more then ever in a society were television is made up of sex, swearing and death.

Ok, so I may be WAY behind on my television watching, but I have just recently found the delightful program entitled, State of Grace. What a pity that this has been cancelled!!

The show centers on two 12-year old girls growing up in the South in the mid 60s. I can speak with authority about this because I was 12 years old, growing up in the south in the mid 60s. Great attention has been paid to detail of the period - from the behavior, to the costumes, to the sets. The incidental music is from the mid 60s and fits right in with the situations that are occurring at the time. For instance, in the episode "Saving Grace", Grace is rebelling a little against the school dress code. When she walks down the hall wearing her mini dress with pop art material, groovy metal flower pin and textured hose, the music that is playing is "England Swings". Carnaby Street fashions were all the rage at that time. I nearly choked when the "sister" made Grace get on her knees in the hall while she measured the length of distance from her hem to the floor. How many times did I have to do that??

Nay-sayers have criticized this show for ripping off "The Wonder Years". I have tried to watch that show, but it is not an experience like "State of Grace" is. TWY just doesn't transport one back to the time like SOG. I just don't get the feeling of the era as I do watching Grace. Also, just because someone has an idea, does that mean no one else can ever expand on that idea? What if we complained that the telephone had been invented and no one else should tamper with it? Where would most people be without their beloved cel phone attached to their ear? In this case, someone took the idea of The Wonder Years, and MADE IT BETTER!

Every actor in this show is absolutely perfect for his or her part. The script is tight and well written - sometimes funny, sometimes poignant. When it's funny, it's really funny. I loved the part in the episode, "Eve of Discussion" where the Rayburns were writing a big ad for the newspaper. When they checked the morning paper for their ad, they found that instead of reading, "You'll sink in our sofas!" it read, "You'll STINK in our sofas!" (I'm chuckling as I write this - OK it sounds a little sophomoric, but you just had to be there.) KUDOS to everyone involved in this production, and thank you for giving me a slice of my youth, if only for a little while.

I loved this show and was very disappointed that ABC (and Disney) didn't give it a chance. It had great storylines by terrific writers, a very talented cast (was especially thrilled to see Faye Grant back on television!) and it always gave me a good feeling after watching it. We need more shows like this on television and less of the reality programming "crap" that all of the networks have gone overboard with.

State of Grace was a fabulous show and one I thought had more depth than Wonder Years (although I was a big fan of Wonder Years also). Perhaps I liked it so much because I am the mother of 2 daughters, perhaps because my daughters are the result of a mixed religion marriage. At any rate, the acting was sublime: both my girls and I adored both Hannah and Grace. The interactions between Hannah's parents and the growth of Grace's mother (played WONDERFULLY by Faye Grant) made the show a delight for parents as well. My little one still gets teary when she hears "Do You Believe in Magic?" Trust Eisner to f*&^ up again.

I miss this series. When the show debuted, it was on the Fox Family cable channel. I found the series to be very well written and well acted. I looked forward to seeing the young characters getting older and dealing with the issues in the 1960's. After the show was renewed for a second season, Fox sold the network to Disney. I knew the show would not last beyond season two and it did not. It was canceled. How did I know it would be canceled? Disney likes to put its own programming all of its channels and the show was not a Disney property. The official reason it gave for canceling the show was that it did not attract enough adult viewers. So, children are not enough to make a "family network" a success anymore? I don't buy that reason. Anyway, it did remind me of the "Wonder Years" but as I recall, "Wonder Years" was added to the ABC schedule after "Stand By Me" was a hit in theaters. If, as some posters here have suggested, this show is a "ripoff" of "Years", is "Years" a ripoff of "Stand By Me"? The bottom line is "State of Grace" deserved more of a chance than it was given and every time I watch the episodes I recorded, I'll miss it even more.