All Is Forgiven

I think of this show often and I too wish I could see it again. I thought it was very funny and had some very memorable characters. I think it was a victim of not being in a good time slot. As I recall it was on Saturday nights. It was in reruns of cable for a while after it left NBC but had some obvious cuts so the channel could add more commercial time. Cant believe it was back in 1986. So many shows are out on DVD now but I guess there is no market for a short-lived TV series of so long ago. THere are always good shows that get canned because of bad ratings or bad time slots or being bounced around to different days. IF a show doesn't grab an audience right away the axe falls and there is no hope for it.

I loved the plot of this sitcom: a woman gets a job as a secretary at a soap opera then because of a sudden power vacuum becomes the producer during her first day on the job. Bess Armstrong is a fine actress, but the character was too average--she needed to be either crazier or stiffer. Either would have made for more comedy. One scene, however, has stuck in my memory, a comedy classic: the head writer of the show (Carol Kane) is visited by her great lost love from the past, a man she never got to dance with. She is meeting with him in an office while the others wait outside, and she asks them to hum "The Tennessee Waltz" over the intercom so the couple can dance. The music starts out VERY tentatively and they begin to dance. As the music builds and gets more confident, the dancers talk, agree to go somewhere else to get better acquainted, and leave. The hummers continue their song to the empty office, adding harmonies, counterpoints and flourishes, never knowing they're playing to an empty house.

Bess Armstrong is newly married to Terrence KNox and he has a daughter from his first marriage. Shawnee Smith (currently on Becker) was the scene stealing daughter, Sonia. Things were very tense between Armstrong and her new step daughter. Armstrong: "I'm going down to the studio. The video machine just chewed up tomorrow's episode." Smith: "Why? are you going to thank it?"

The other scene Stealer was Carol Kane as the southern Nicholette Bingham, the writer of the show. "The old producer and I used to have heated arguments about the contents of the show. Yes. I felt the show should HAVE some."

Armstrong was to be the center of this universe, but sadly, when neither Smith nor Kane were onscreen, it was boring. ONe episode that guested Gwen Verdon was especially dull. I did not know David Alan Grier was the repair man who got promoted to writer on the show.

The never seen Creator of "All Is Forgiven" the Agnes Dixon/Gloria Monty type overseer who was never shown, we always heard her on the intercom system, asked Armstrong who had just come in for the secretary job, "How long have you been with us, dear?" before she made Armstrong the new producer. Judith Marie-Bergin did what she was supposed to do as the soap diva. The table reading where the terrorist turned out to be (gasp!) Arthur, her psychologist, was hilarious. Deborah Richter, who auditioned in the first episode, spoke to Armstrong. "Are you here for the part of the prostitute turned Senator?" Later, Richter's character obviously got popular, so she giggly informed Armstrong that she needed a dressing room now, because "Today, . . . I have to change!" All I can say is Shawnee Smith and Carol Kane were leagues ahead of the rest. Grier might have been able to contribute but at that time it apparently wasn't clear what he was capable of doing. Still would be good to see this show again tho.

In one scene, Paula and another character are dealing with some problem when a third person interrupts them (I told you that my memories were vague). Paula protests that they can't deal with the interloper's problem because they are too busy dealing with their own. "We have whales to fry!" I love that expression and occasionally use it myself. In another episode, Oliver has been a writer on the show for some time but has been very frugal with his increased salary. His co-workers encourage to splurge with some of his money and treat himself to a new car. He goes out and buys a high-end sports car that is way outside his price range. Now his friends advise him to return the car and get out of the financial obligation. "You can't just return a car like this; they won't take it back!", he protests. Nicolette Bingham, Carol Kane's character, replies in her honeyed southern accent, "Why, Oliver, if you simply inform them that you won't be making the payments, I'm sure that they will be happy to take it back."

Having read the other comments, I have to mention two very funny scenes I still remember from this show. (I do remember also the one where everyone is humming the "Tennessee Waltz" over the intercom.) One scene I remember is when the new head writer comes aboard and meets the soap opera diva. The diva wants to get heads up on what the plots will be, so the writer, who doesn't want to get into trouble, fishes for bribes of new clothing from her by saying (roughly) "Well, you know I would give you the 16 neck, 34 sleeve shirt from my back, but I don't want to be caught with my 32 waist, 34 inseam pants down. Now I'm sure you know that if the size 12 shoe was on the other foot, I couldn't give you any information about upcoming plots." The other moment I remember fondly is where the daughter is on a curfew and explains that she couldn't get home in time for her curfew because she promised a dance to a boy, but the band played 'Stairway to Heaven' - the long version - "and (she explains), you know, you can't dance to that" so she had to wait for a song she could dance to even though she kept telling the boy "I have a curfew." Oh, another moment I remember is when the Bess Armstong character has asked the new (somewhat dim) soap opera actress to go participate in the opening of a new mall, and she runs her opening speech by Bess Armstrong which starts "Welcome to the new _____ mall. Even though shopping malls represent the worst kind of commercialism that is the ruin of our society, I welcome you." Bess Armstrong says that she didn't realize that this was an ethical point with that actress and says she'll try to find someone else whose feeling about shopping malls is a little more positive and the actress says, doubtfully, "okay, if there is such a person." The writing on this show was superb, even though the plots were sometimes a little flimsy. I would love to see episodes of this again.