My Sister Sam

Rebecca Schaeffer was certainly an attractive and fast rising young actress in Hollywood. Her career may have reached new heights had she lived beyond the age of 21. Her tragic death resulted in new laws which guarded personal privacy, and safety. However, the sitcom she was featured in was hardly memorable.

The show was fairly mediocre and lasted a little over a season when it was canceled.

The show is now remembered for the fact one of it's stars was murdered by a lunatic. People should get their information straight before posting.

The show was not canceled due to the death of the actress, It was canceled due to poor ratings a year before she died.

Both Mindy and Samantha really were as nice as Shirley Feeney should have been--and certainly as pretty as Shirley. Miss Dawber is unforgettable, reportedly as nice in real life as on both shows. It was nice to see her without Robin Williams' antics (no offense to a great comedian, but they did get a little distracting).

What I really can't forget, a perfect warm-up for her charms, is the theme song, "Room Enough for Two." It was as warmhearted as the WELCOME BACK, KOTTER theme song--this time with a sweet show to match. I haven't heard anyone sing this song since SAM, but the words were among TV's sweetest.

This is a prime example of a show that started out strong and then plummeted in the ratings. It was a big hit in its first season airing on Monday nights and was a top twenty show. The second season CBS moved it to Saturday nights where it dropped to something like number 88 in the ratings. I can't help but wonder what would have happened had it stayed on Mondays. Pam Dawber and Rebecca Schaeffer worked so well together you forgot that the two actresses weren't sisters in real life. And yes, Rebecca died a year after the show was cancelled, it wasn't cancelled because of her death. I wish this show would be released on DVD.

This was a great series starring Pam Dawber ("Mork & Mindy") as a San Francisco photographer whose life was turned upside down when her teenage sister Patti (Rebecca Schaeffer) came to live with her. Samantha (Dawber) never really knew whether to treat Patti as a friend, sister, or child, and sometimes, she treated her as all three.

The series premiered in 1986, and after mild success on Monday nights, CBS tampered with its schedule and moved it to Saturday nights opposite NBC's successful comedy lineup. Unable to find the show, its audience dwindled to one of the lowest on network TV, and CBS canceled it in mid-1988, after only half of the second season had aired.

A little over a year later (July 1989 to be exact) Schaeffer, then a promising movie star ("Scenes from the Class Struggle In Beverly Hills") was shot and killed in her Los Angeles home by a deranged fan who had idolized her as the young, energetic character she played on "My Sister Sam." Contrary to popular belief, "My Sister Sam" left the air 15 months BEFORE Schaeffer was murdered. Not long thereafter, USA Network picked up syndication rights to the series, eventually running all 44 episodes (including those never shown on CBS).

The show's writing was crisp, sharp and witty, and the acting, especially that of the young, never-before-seen Schaeffer, was top notch. Years later, the WB sitcom "What I Like About You" (2002-2006) re-introduced the premise with some success, but did not match the promise of its earlier sitcom cousin.

It would be a joy to see this show again on DVD.

Both actresses are appealing and lovely, but the show is not much of anything. Honestly without the laugh track you would have a hard time spotting the jokes. Most are slight. None are laugh out loud funny.

When it came out there was some interest because of Pam Dawber's long history as Robin Williams' co star. After this she did one bad movie with John Ritter and one dull TV movie and that's about it. She's appealing but not much beyond Williams' "straight man." As for her younger co star, we won't ever know if she would have done more, sadly. But this series didn't have much for either of them to do except look pretty.