On Our Own

Back in 1977 (when I was 15) I loved 'On Our Own'. Maybe it was because it was filmed in NY and I got to see it taped live twice...but honestly, I loved the characters. Bess Armstrong & Lynnie Green were a great team. Some may compare them to Laverne And Shirley, but these were two very different characters. In addition, Dixie Carter was hysterical with her drawling delivery as well. Her comedic timing was impeccable. As an actor I would be honored to work with anyone involved with that show. It was a fun show and I missed it after the one season. There is always so much 'trash' on the air, yet sometimes the good one's get away. Larry

"On Our Own" is about a couple of women who are doing advertising in the late 1970s and the other members of their Ad firm.

I don't mean to say that "Kate & Allie" is the center of the New York TV series universe, however, this program became kind of a template for that series.

The two stars: Lynnie Greene as Maria, the Art Director for the little agency and Bess Armstrong as Julia, the copywriter, were similar personality types to the leads in that future series. This show's creator, Bob Randall, went on to write dozens of episodes of "K&A." Both shows were set in and videotaped in New York, with a live audience, which was extremely rare for any sitcom during this era, and the programs also shared producers.

In addition to our two leads, Gretchen Wyler was the owner of the agency, Dan Resin played her second in command, the "Yes Man" ad agency character that perhaps was perfected by David White as Larry Tate on the magical 60s sitcom, "Bewitched," and John Christopher Jones was a fellow staffer, enamored with Dixie Carter, who played a very affected Euro-Model type, with an equally affected (and almost unbelievable) accent!

Since this still is the 1970s and since the show is about a female-led Ad Agency, the inevitable stories had to do with what we would now consider sexual harassment by male clients (and even occasionally among the men around the office), which is likely why you won't see this series getting any reruns. It's a little disturbing by our 21st Century standards to see these scenarios viewed as "humorous" or even as acceptable.

Despite that difficulty, "On Our Own" still stands as a high profile step to celebrate women having success in business at a time when there were few opportunities for them to climb the Corporate Ladder. And the women of "OOO" stood up for themselves when problems were caused by men in the room, which I have to believe helped nudge society in the right direction.

Showing women who were capable, intent on having success by their own standards and able to stand up for themselves was, perhaps, something audiences of the day weren't quite ready to embrace in the late 70s. But they should have been.

An attempt at creating another "Laverne and Shirley," "On Our Own" also featured the pairing of a cute perky Shirley-type (Julia) and a not-so-cute street-wise Laverne-type (Maria). The best thing about this series was the discovery of Bess Armstrong as Julia. She was very cute in this series which otherwise was a snooze-fest. Not a terrible show, just nothing to distinguish it from any other sitcom.

Like a hazy dream, i am watching on FreeVee and wondering...is this really happening, or rather did this happen in 1978? I guess it did because I am having fun watching. The lead characters are examples of career women being manhandled in a male dominated 70's society, but the humor is maudlin and somewhat excruciating. It was shot in NYC and you can really tell the difference in acting styles, and set design. Exterior shots look like Rhoda's building, but i cant be sure. And sometimes the scripts and pacing feel like a NY stage play, esp since there's quite a bit of cringe in the way the lead girls over act and emote in very silly ways, but it is an incredible unintentional expose on feminism in the 70's. Everyone is sweet natured and people acted kinder. The men in the supporting cast are misfits and all the women are heroes. Dixie Carter is surprisingly bad here and her bad timing is difficult to explain, but Gretchen Wyler is pretty funny and every once in a while a good joke or a comic bit lands well. Bess is the stronger of the two, but her character is often forced to deliver lines all alone onstage, and it is campy. Lynnie is very presentational and indicated a lot and had too many jokes about being Catholic that completely sink with a thud. Her 2 part episode w/Danny Aiello as her love interest is extremely sappy like a Kmart version of Moonstruck. There are workplace ensemble scenes and apartment scenes, and lots of new york extras and actors playing parents and or agency clients. Kay Medford was in ep 3, James Naughton (I Love My Wife) was in ep4. Christopher Hewitt was in ep 5. The wardrobe is from Bloomingdale's and both women have those curled under joan of arc/bowl haircuts from 1978 that look a bit like mushroom caps. The theme song is noisily sung (belty/wail broadway style) and difficult to understand the lyrics until you hear it more than once. It's a sorta cute sitcom but episodes always feel half finished, like a lot of mistakes were included, set walls dont actually look real... as if this were taking place on the new york stage. Still it is fun to discover an ancient, fully -formed sitcom shot in NYC that history and vintage tv networks seem to have forgotten, and i managed to get thru all 19 episodes posted at free vee. Imdb seems to credit both leading ladies with 22 episodes, so maybe there are lost episodes?!

The front of my house and even my current apartment were used in the opening credits. One of the characters opens a window and leans out holding a cup of coffee. I live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I'd love one episode of this to show my husband and child.

It was filmed very quickly in the mid 1970's. I don't think they were here more than two days, it may have only been one day. I just remember being really excited that our building was going to be on TV.

Because of the house I would faithfully watch it each week. Although as an eleven year old I don't think I was quite the target audience and I found it a bit boring.

This same apartment was in the running to be in Spike Lee's Malcolm X. The key selling point to the apartment at that time was that it has bay windows and you could see the living room from the kitchen--it was supposed to be the Boston girlfriend's apartment. We didn't make that one.