S: Sisters

 

 Sisters

Though it had a six-season run and was rerun on Lifetime for a few years, this NBC drama from the mid-90s isn't widely seen today. It performed surprising well on Saturday nights at 10PM. It was notable in that several soon-to-be famous stars made appearances. Ashley Judd and Paul Rudd had recurring roles, and Kirsten Dunst appeared in two episodes. And it was another pre-ER role for George Clooney. 

This was one of my must-watch shows. I'd always wanted to have a sister and I kind of felt like I did as result of watching this show.

The title characters were four adult sisters and their everyday lives and challenges. The girls, whose late father had wanted boys, were thus given boyish nicknames. Alexandra (Swoosie Kurtz, of the previously mentioned Love, Sidney), the oldest was called Alex, Theodora (Sela Ward), the second sister was known as Teddy, Georgiana (Patricia Kalember, formerly of ABC's thirtysomething) became Georgie, and the youngest, Francesca (Julianne Phillips) was known as Frankie. Their widowed mother Beatrice Reed (Elizabeth Hoffman) was an alcoholic who later remarried and died at the end of the series. Husbands included Georgie's John Whitsig (Garrett M. Brown) and Mitch Margolis (Ed Marinaro, formerly of Hill Street Blues), originally married to Teddy and later to Frankie (they too, ended up divorcing). Children were Alex's daughter's Reed Halsey Philby (played by three different actresses over the series run, the second of whom was Ashley Judd), Teddy and Mitch's daughter Cat (Heather McAdam) Georgie's sons Trevor (Ryan Francis) and Evan (Dustin Berkowitz). While married to Mitch, Frankie, unable to carry a baby, asked Georgie to be a surrogate mother. Georgie gave birth to Frankie's son, Thomas George. Later on in the series another sister was discovered, the result of their late father's affair years earlier. The newly discovered half-sister was Dr. Charlotte Bennett (played first by Jo Anderson, then by Sheila Kelley--former of L.A. Law). In keeping with the boyish-naming theme, she became known as Charlie. When Julianne Phillips left the series in the spring of 1995, it was explained Frankie had gone to Japan to market a kids' toy (She would return for the series finale, however). Charlie thus became a regular for the final season (1995-96). As for other characters who came and went, there is such long list to put here! Click above to read everything you need to know.

A gimmick of the show had the characters interacting with their younger selves, played by younger performers. Usually it was just the sisters themselves who has this, but other characters did the same on occasion. (Dunst was seen twice as Cat's younger self, Kitten). A sample is in the clip below, from the pilot episode: 

Originally each episode opened with the title characters hanging out in a  steam room, but was changed beginning in season three (this video does not allow playback on other sites). The pilot episode, when aired on NBC, cut out the steam room opening due to a line (something I dare not mention!), though the scene did get shown on Lifetime.

Some clips from the show:

Not to be confused with Sister, Sister [ABC (1994-95), WB (1995-99)], about twins separated at birth and adopted by different families. After a chance encounter at a shopping mall, they force their very different adoptive parents to move in together so that the twins can get to know each other--sort of The Parent Trap crossed with The Odd Couple.