Angie

"Angie" was a program that was doomed to last no more than one season. First of all, it ran on ABC in the late 1970s, which pretty much sealed its fate as a ratings flop. Moreover, it had all of the right elements, in the wrong combination. In a way, the show was very ahead of its time. In another, it had very little new to offer.

Donna Pescow played Angie, a working class Italian-American woman working as a waitress in a Philadelphia Diner, who dreamed of a better life. She was often visited by her "rough around the edges" sister, who criticized her conservative nature, and her smothering mother who criticized her lack of a husband. In the third episode, she married Brad, a regular customer at the diner, only to discover AFTER the wedding that Brad was the heir to a huge family fortune. But her new found wealth didn't keep her from working at the diner, especially after Brad bought her the diner for her birthday. Angie turned her downtown restaurant into a success, while living in her uptown penthouse apartment.

"Angie" had a strong cast. It was well written and it's "working class humor" was right for the times. But the "rags to riches" storyline and slapstick humor did little to set it apart from the sea of sitcoms that filled the airwaves in 1979.

I had a bit of a crush on Donna Pescow when I first saw her in Saturday Night Fever, so when Angie premiered in the spring of 1979, I was ecstatic. She was even more gorgeous on this show, and this was a pretty decent sitcom. It also was in the Top 5 for its first few weeks, but unfortunately it only ran about a season and a half. The basic premise was Angie Falco, a waitress at a Philadelphia coffee shop, falls in love with Brad, a pediatrician and one of her regular customers. It's basically a "working-class Cinderella meets her knight in shining armor" story, and they elope when the two families cannot agree on the upcoming wedding details. The show actually changed quite a bit during its short run. After the wedding, Angie still works as a waitress and moves into Brad's lavish mansion, complete with butler. Shortly thereafter, Brad surprises Angie by purchasing the coffee shop and Angie becomes the manager. Not long after that, Angie puts the mansion on the market and they move to a smaller, cozier, but still opulent home (with Brad's office located downstairs). No sooner are they settled in, then Angie sells the coffee shop and purchases a beauty salon, which she manages and where her mother (Doris Roberts, in a role where she truly shines) works after giving up her newsstand job. There was plenty of good acting and well-written comedy here, but the constant changes in a relatively short series life apparently made the regular viewer dizzy (and the "every once in a while" viewer wonder what the hell happened if they missed a couple episodes!). Despite all that I still enjoyed this show and would love to see it make a comeback on TV Land someday, or perhaps be issued as a DVD set.

Many people don't know the reason why this excellent and popular sitcom was cancelled. It got top ten ratings when it was scheduled after "Happy Days" on Tuesday nights, when Laverne and Shirley was moved from that same time slot to Thursdays. By the end of the season, "Laverne and Shirley" was doing horribly in it's new Thursday night slot and was almost cancelled. So, ABC returned "Laverne and Shirley " to it's Tuesday night slot with great success. Only ABC moved "Angie" around to different nights where it lost it's ratings lead in and dropped to the bottom of the ratings and was cancelled. In 1985, 5 years after it's cancellation, ABC aired the show's re-runs at 10AM weekdays, and had great success. It later appeared in syndication. Proof this show deserved a chance. If you wanna help get this under-rated classic show released onto DVD, we gotta convince paramount to do it!! If you really wanna help get "Angie released on DVD, please go to the following URL and quickly register and cast your vote..This website is responsible for getting tons of TV shows released, as it submits all results to the studios! PLEASE VOTE FOR "ANGIE" at http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=709

It's the opening song about this show that gets me. A very well written sitcom, this show was, but laughs a few, really, like many other comedies of this type that still pulled you in,and had you. Regardless, I really enjoyed this show in my teens which really captured New York city cafe culture, with it's two assets, Pescow, no real oil painting, and 'Flying High' Hays, who deliver their acting chops, especially Pescow, who really brings it. I found her much more attractive in my young '80's' years, but the one I really liked was Deborah Lee Scott, as the kind of jealous, less successful sister who was always falling out with men, after falling out of bed with them. Scott had went on to do Police Academy 3, as the wife of the accident prone Fachler. Also the great Doris Roberts as Angie's mum, way before liking Raymond. There were many other, of these kind of late 70's sitcoms, Angie, being a slightly memorable one, though nothing to write home about. Yet again, it's the song that gets me. Good quality show.

Donna Pescow & Tom Hayes were great in this TV series, which I could not remember the name of for almost three decades. It was the first time I saw them and they seemed to work so well together. I watched the series regularly and when it was cancelled I was really bummed.

I lost track of these two great actors until I saw Tom Hayes in the fabulous 'Airplane', one of my all-time favorites. I became an instant fan of Tom Hayes again, but I still missed seeing Donna Pescow.

Donna was so cute, beautiful, sexy (in that innocent way) and yes lovable. Actually she was the spitting image of my high school sweetheart and the love of my life (an Italian beauty). I was watching Saturday Night Fever tonight and recognized Donna playing the character Annette. Finally, I was hopeful that through the credits I would see her name and let my sweetheart know the beauty I thought she looked like. The credits rolled by so quickly I missed her name! I found this site when I Googled 'Saturday Night Fever cast' and finally got to remember Donna Pescow and some of her other credits.

After 34 years apart and without any contact, my high school Sweetheart and I found each other and have rekindled our romance. Four year later, finding Donna on this site borough a smile to my face and relieves a frustration I have had for many years. And now I won't forget 'Angie' again. Thank you.