That's Life

It was a really good show and I miss it. It's really too bad that good shows like this end up on the short end of the stick while crap remains on the air. I guess reality show will take over every channel and we will have to watch cable reruns to see good old sitcoms and dramas.

This show brings back so many memories of my friends family. I guess Italian familys are the same everywhere you go.I loved Heather when she was in Stark raving mad. But she is fantastic in this. I hope that we get future season here in Australia.

I came to this website to see if I could find out what happened to this show...I haven't seen it in the listings for awhile and hope it has survived. I didn't watch the pilot, but tuned in a week or so later while channel surfing. I was impressed with what I saw. The characters are very real, and situations are quirky and interesting. The character interaction particularly interests me. In one episode, Lydia is having financial difficulties but doesn't want to ask her father for help, even though she knows he would give it to her. She's fighting to remain independent. Towards the end of the show she takes her laundry to her parents house, telling her mom not to do it...she'll take care of it.

Mom complains about all the money she's always finding in with Lydia's clothes. After Lydia goes upstairs w/her mom, dad sneaks into the laundry room and adds some bills to the clothes in the dryer. A simple thing, but made quite poignant in the way its acted out. There's alot said in this show that's "between the lines", but done in such a way that you can't miss it. Special show.

Of course I watched this show when it first came on because at that time, I too was a thirty-something Italian American chick from the Northeast who had recently gone back to school. I loved it -- total warm fuzzies for me. I was so happy that they'd gotten such amazing talent like Paul Sorvino and Ellen Burstyn. It was the perfect Saturday night show. Lydia had unpackaged pluck, which was nice for a change.

Then the network started playing around with programming, and the show disappeared for a while. Then it had an early season finale, and no one knew if it was coming back. Then, voila!, it showed up for a second season -- with a total makeover. The ex-fiancee was gone, the Italian song opener was gone, and a completely unrelated love interest materialized out of nowhere. Classic network "wow, this show is working great as it is, so let's CHANGE it!" tactic. But despite stretching the limits of reality as it was doing, the show was still good enough to keep watching, so I did. Then it disappeared after January 2002, and they never actually declared the show cancelled. It was gone as if it had never really existed. For a show that had existed for 1 1/2 seasons and had a fan base, that is inexcusable.

I felt this was an excellent show. It had a very strong cast who played a close knit Italian American family with, like all families, both good and bad qualities. This was the backdrop for the main story of their daughter, Lydia, who was trying to be her own person, and discovering just who that was by going to college. It was inspiring and empowering. It was entertaining and had heart. What more do people want? It was quite sad to see it go, especially Heather Paige Kent, who played the lead role of Lydia so well. There must be other great roles out there for her, hopefully soon. Kevin Dillan went on to do well in Entourage, but I liked his role as Lydia's annoying but endearing brother even more.