One Day at a Time

Just like Ann Romano (Franklin), this show's a survivor.

"One Day at a Time" is one of those great shows that came out in the '70s that showed how far women had come in TV terms. In the '60s, you'd never have seen a show about a divorced woman who moved to Indianapolis with her daughters (Phillips, Bertinelli) to start a new life for themselves.

And what a great character they had in Ann Romano: spirited, opinionated, a fighter and someone who didn't take the bull that men fed her and fought tooth and nail for everything she had. A lot of that strength was from anger, naturally, but she modulated it well.

Then there was always Schneider (Harrington), the apartment super where she lived. Something of a ladies' man, he was always around to fix someone's pipes (if you know what I mean), but Ann wisely kept her distance. She knew a goof when she saw one, and Schneider's scenes were largely played for laughs. Good choice.

In fact, the whole series had a great run and never lacked for story lines (women's rights, divorce, suicide, runaways) but was a real showcase for Franklin, who was terrific. Hey, TV suits; give her another series as good as this one!

Ten stars for "One Day at a Time", a TV series whose "Time"-ing was perfect.

Ann Romano (Bonnie Franklin) is newly liberated after divorcing her husband. For the first time, the 34 year old is in charge of her own life. She moves to Indianapolis with her rebellious daughter Julie Cooper (Mackenzie Phillips) and younger daughter Barbara Cooper (Valerie Bertinelli). The building has an intrusive super named Dwayne Schneider (Pat Harrington Jr.).

The show struggles to find the extra characters. With Mackenzie Phillips' drug problem, the show really only could maintain three main characters for the entire run. Of the ancillary characters, I like Bob Morton the most. He is the classic clueless innocent and a great butt of the joke. He and Barbara running away to Chicago is probably my best memory of the show. David Kane is probably the easiest to incorporate but Ann's love life needs more drama than he could deliver. Eventually, she ends up with Alex and Nick Handris. For some reason, Nick is abandoned and she keeps Alex to give the show some youth energy. Francine is a good work foil although she could have connected with Schneider to give her more screen time. No matter who they tried, the show never fully incorporated these extra characters. For all the attempts, I'm always surprised that the show didn't try to incorporate Mackenzie Phillips' real life drug problem. One expects the dark subject matters from a Norman Lear show and this show has that. It just doesn't have Mackenzie's troubles. Maybe it cuts too close to home.

Overall, I always find Ann too angry. It actually fits when she's fighting with Julie but whenever Julie leaves, Ann is simply angry. She needs a bit of Barbara in her role. Talking about Barbara, she isn't allowed to build on characters of her peers. She has Bob at first but she never has a long-term female best friend. It's not until Mark that she gets a partner. As for Max and Mark, they are great late show additions. They do need to stay closer to the apartment. It seems obvious that they could stay together in apartments next door. The characters need better connectivity. This is a show with the mission of showing the new world of the divorced mother. Despite the many potholes in the road, it achieves that over its nine seasons run.

I'm surprised to see a comment praising Bonnie Franklin. The fact that she was an unknown is completely irrelevant. Many new faces appear, and often carry shows. Bonnie Franklin is quite possibly the worst actress to ever lead a television series. And hence, "One Day at a Time" is one of the worst shows of all time. It was only slightly tolerable for the first season, because of Richard Masur. Once he left, the show became completely worthless, with horrible acting and ridiculous characters -- elevating Pat Harrington's moronic super into a major character was just another bad decision. To this day, I cringe at the thought of this show, and Bonnie Franklin's stupendously bad performances.

This series was okay but I find it hard to watch for one reason: Bonnie Franklin. She is utterly charmless. In episode after episode, men all her irresistible. She is the opposite of attractive; she is repellent. I am not only referring to he negligible looks but her personality and her delivery.Every time she would utter her signature line "Oh my Gawd " stretching out "g-a -w-d ", i wanted to scream. And the ridiculous jokes about her having dyed her hair. She was obviously a redhead with her skin pigmentation. Why bother ?; it is not like Lucille Ball who was not a natural redhead. She is just so obnoxious.During the course of the original run she was reported to have held out for extra money because she was the "star "; this is one case where not only could she have been replaced by another actress, I wish she had been.

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