Thirtysomething

Yeah, so they were yuppies, and yes they whined. so what. I loved this program when it first ran. And I watched every episode when it was shown this year on Bravo. Thank you, Bravo! I was disappointed to find out that it was the producers (Hershkovitz and his partner) who had pulled the plug on it back it 1991. They thought that 4 years was enough. It just dropped out of the Fall lineup, so there was never ever any closure to the plot line. Very Disappointing!

The line above was how Lifetime plugged this show about yuppies when they repeated the four series; Fascinating Aida chose to describe the likes of Michael, Eliot et al as "Yawningly Uninteresting People Paid Irritatingly Excessive Salaries." Many non-fans of "thirtysomething" tended to agree, but despite not turning thirtysomething myself until well after I'd seen Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz's compelling series, I begged and beg to differ.

Focusing on Michael and Hope Seligman and their daughter Janey, Eliot and Nancy Weston and their children (Ethan and the other one), and their single friends - professor and Bjorn Borg-lookalike Gary, husky-voiced businesswoman Ellyn and photographer Melissa - they exhibited an Alfie-like tendency to wonder "What's it all about?" but it was done with sensitivity and more humour than you would expect considering the misery they went through, from Michael and Eliot's advertising company closing down to Nancy's battle with cancer. They were prone to indulging in fantasies throughout (the episode "Whose Forest Is This?" was virtually all fantasy, revolving as it did around the children's book Nancy and Ethan wrote together), but unlike a certain Boston lawyer, no dancing babies were involved and the only singing was on the soundtrack (Carly Simon notwithstanding).

"thirtysomething" was essentially the soap for people who hated soaps, but better than that; the creative team proved that it wasn't a fluke when most of them came up with the marvellous "My So-Called Life." But I still think they shouldn't have killed off Gary.

Footnote: Miles Drentell, the slimy rival advertising man who Michael was compelled to work for, returned (again played by David Clennon) in Zwick and Herskovitz's later series "Once and Again," in one of those crossovers you almost never see in the hermetically sealed world of British television, which is one reason I always liked this show and was not happy when Sky One dropped it. (Another reason was Sela Ward, but that's another story...)

The most annoying show about the most annoying people on the face of the earth and that's saying a lot. I was thirtysomething when thirtysomething began it's run and I absolutely loathed it, the characters and the whiny dialogue and the stories about loathsome, whiny, self-absorbed brats who'd had everything handed to them on a silver platter but were still whining because everything wasn't perfect. Whew, how was that for a run-on sentence? But it was hard to care about these characters. It seemed to me that the writers secretly agreed with me, because the dilemmas these yuppies and their larvae faced brought into sharp relief the shallowness of their lives and their lack of empathy for others.

I loved this show so much when it was on and never stopped. It may be my favorite TV show ever, definitely top 5. The negative reviews still get me irate, but it isn't for everyone, obviously. One irk was in the very first show, as everyone was telling Michael not to worry, Hope will lose the baby weight. Hope was as slim as anyone would ever want to be. So yeah, there were some contrived conversations for a brief bit, then they hit their stride and absolutely nailed it show after show.

I'm coming to the conclusion that a lot of people actively hate signs of intelligence. The characters weren't whiny, but they did discuss, a lot. If smart people having real conversations about life is boring or annoying, go watch Cagney and Lacey or Home Improvement. They weren't rich yuppies, the two main families were striving to have a nice home and work life, like most people were then, me included. The other characters chose more alternate lifestyles.

They were the first TV show to have two gay men in bed, even though they just talking. That really made upset people off and I always assumed that the negative reaction hastened the end of the show, Too bad, I would have happily followed the characters along much longer and I wish there had been follow ups later. Sadly, it was never meant to be.

The much awarded television series was about Hope Murdoch Steadman played by Mel Harris (Something So Right) and her husband, Michael Steadman, played by Ken Olin (L.A. Doctors), and their relationships: as a couple, family, friends, at work, and at their place of worship. A series about the relationships of people in their home, school, and society as a whole. The best television series of my adulthood! Television can be a wonderful media if people with brains like this group can get hold of it and do great work.. My husband and I watched it, his boss and his wife watched. It was a great show even for book worms like us! We who were thirty something and could identify with the characters. The show had very good role models. If you take the time to read about it, you can see that they had directors such as Timothy Busfield, Mel Harris, Marshall Herskovitz, Peter Horton, Melanie Mayron, Ken Olin, and brilliant Oscar winner actor Gary Sinise (Forest Gump). What an ingenious group of people. Then the series was just taken off the air by someone obviously not brilliant, which made us all really mad!

There had not been a drama series so well written since then. Thanks to Paul Reiser (The Story of Us) and Helen Hunt (As Good as it Gets) we had the privilege of watching some similar relationships on TV in their comedy Mad About You. Good series like those are hard to come by. I would love to tell more about the rest of the cast, but there are no time and space here. Perhaps one day it will run in syndication in reasonable hours and please do yourself a favor: Watch It! I would record the entire series and watch it over and over! Favorite Episodes: Thanksgiving Dinner; Melissa getting her work in a art show. Less liked episodes: Gary Shepherd played by Peter Horton, dying in a car accident. The series' most shocking scenes! I can still remember when Michael goes to the morgue to identify him. I remember it so vividly after all those years. Those last episodes of the show when Elliot Weston, Timothy Busfield (Quiz Show ) was finally beginning to be a responsible husband because his wife, Nancy Weston, Patricia Wettig (L.A. Doctor) had cancer. Favorite Scenes: Elliot and Michael playing basketball at their creative room in their advertising agency.