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?

How can a four year old remember the pilot episode of a show? I don't know, but I do. Groundbreaking at the time, it actually featured a divorced mother with her two kids. Very topical, and sedate by today's standards, this show was a huge hit. Of all the people on this show who would have thought Valerie Bertenelli would have the biggest career? And who knew McKenzie Phillips was on heroin? Totally watched during the seventies but everyone pretty much was over it by the early eighties. Still one of the coolest shows of the seventies.

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.

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.

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.