One Day at a Time

This was one of my favorite shows, at least for the first few seasons that it was on. This was one of the first shows that dealt with divorce and more importantly how it effects the children. Bonnie Franklin did a wonderful job as Ann and Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli were great as Julie and Barbara respectively. However, the character that really made the show was immortal Dwayne F. Schneider played by Pat Harrington. He brought a wonderful sense of humor to offset the more serious moments of the show. However complaint I do have a few complaints about the show. One is that I think that once Julie was written out of the show it should have ended there. Another is that like so many other shows that struggled for ratings, they fell into the trap of bringing on the cute kid character in the form of Alex. Also, if Ann was truly trying to be the modern independent woman, why did she wind up getting married towards the end of the show?

This is one of my all-time favorites except for the last couple of seasons. The early years were great, funny, insightful, and pretty original. Ann dealt with some pretty heavy problems with her kids, found work she liked, and became an old pro at the dating game. It was neat to watch the character mature along with her daughters.

However, like a lot of shows with children/teenagers, they had to come up with a way to keep things going after the kids had grown too old for the story lines. In this case, they brought in a little boy with a pretty contrived plot line to be the new "son". It didn't work well.

Even as a kid, I knew that I was watching something that had never been done before. It made me want to watch it more, if only to see my mother that uncomfortable with the messages conveyed; messages about birth control, the ERA, per-marital sex....can you see where I'm going here? Ann Romano was the divorced mother of two girls, one a potential beauty queen, one not so cute (but you got the idea that was her choice somehow). The chaos in their eyes was, we now know, genuine. The actors were in as much a state of flux as our nation. Women were emerging as independent beings who didn't need a man to make their way in the world. The entire sit-com was played out, probably 90%, in the Romano living room. I think they wore the same 5-6 outfits through-out the entire show. The mostly absent father was played as a philandering, abusive, schmuck and largely only used as a way to man-bash. The maintenance man, Schneider, made phallic gestures with his ever present hammer and was never really fleshed out as a character but at the end of the run he was suddenly more evolved and flirted around with Anne...never made any sense to me at all. I loved the complicated teenage angst, as I was approaching that age myself, and the questions that as a young girl I never realized I was even entitled to ask. It was the 1970's and women were cutting their hair, burning their bras, tossing their inhibitions to the wind...but at my military family household you would never have known it was happening. If I have one criticism of this show, and it's been a 'thing' with me for 30 years, it's the physical language used in the portrayal of Anne by Bonnie Franklin...I never understood her intense anger. She wasn't just driven to make it on her own, you got the idea she was capable of violence if her rights were challenged. It might have been because she was petite but her chin always seemed to be up and stuck way forward...unnauturally posed so that you could actually see her neck rather than her face, and during those shots she was typically photographed from the side...you'd never have seen her face-on otherwise...it was truly 'in your face' and she'd effect that pose while grinning...it was almost maniacal. Again, the actress and the character were both up against a wall. The show had it's critics but refused to back down. A lot was on the line and everyone was watching. There were moments where she seemed less frantic, less controlling, and had touching moments with her daughters...but they were few and far between. By far, the daughters were the central characters, especially Mackenzie Phillips character, Julie. She was too tall, too thin, had acne and was a perpetual wreck...she embodied the way a lot of teen girls felt back then. Everyone wanted to be Barbara; organized, clean, funny, beautiful. A lot went on in that living room!

First off, i want to correct a previous poster who said that Valerie Bertinelli went on to marry the lead singer from Bon Jovi---she didn't marry Jon Bon Jovi, she married Eddie Van Halen, of the group Van Halen. They were married for a really long time, and i think they recently got divorced. They have one son together. Anyway....

I loved this show as a teenager. And i was forbidden to watch it when it started, so i had to sneak it when i was 13, with the volume way down low in my parent's bedroom, constantly watching the doorway to make sure mom or dad didn't come in. I loved this show. It did get a little old once everybody grew up, but i still watched it. Anybody out there remember when the show shifted focus to a house that Barbara and her husband shared with another couple? Was that couple Julie and her husband? I think this may have been the last season of the show.~~Linda

This show was a revolutionary in the women's movement. Bonnie Franklin played red head divorcée and mother of two teenage daughters who moves from Loganport, Indiana to the big city of Indianapolis. Her daughters are played by the wonderful, Valerie Bertinelli, and Mackenzie Phillips. They played Barbara and Julie. Remember Schneider who frequented the apartment as the building handyman. Nan Fabray who played Ann's mother. I loved Richard Masur as Ann's first boyfriend after her divorce. I thought he should have stayed on but it wouldn't work if Ann remarried so soon after the divorce papers were inked. I remember Shelley Fabares on the show as one of her co-workers as well as Mary Louise Wilson as a cocktail waitress neighbor. It was one of the few shows that I could recall was set in Indianapolis. I thought the show was well-written most of the time and the acting was worthy of the Emmys it received. They don't make shows like this. I remember the apartment layout most of all. Despite Phillips' substance problems, Valerie was truly a star in the making. The show grew and evolved and was well-loved by its audience.