W: Who's Watching the Kids?

 

Who's Watching the Kids?

Believe it or not, the letter W was a hard one for this challenge. So I had to dig a little and perhaps mention something I never saw (but have read about in books on TV) or just barely saw. I then remembered seeing reruns of this short-lived sitcom from 1978 on TV Land in 1997. At that time, the still-new cable station was playing old shows that did not last long, and I happened to catch a few episodes of this one. Most likely I did not watch it the first time it was on, at least not that I can remember:) It only ran for three months in the fall of 1978. I'm not sure how many episodes I saw on TV Land, as only nine aired before the series was cancelled in December of 1978.

The show was created by Garry Marshall, and was a reworking of an earlier series, Blansky's Beauties starring Nancy Walker. Both shows were about Las Vegas showgirls, and shared some of the same cast members. Who's Watching the Kids?, however, emphasized the younger siblings of two showgirls. Showgirls Stacy Turner (Caren Kaye) and Angie Vitola (Lynda Goodfriend, later to play Lori Beth on Happy Days) shared an apartment, and both had younger siblings living with them: Stacy's sister Melissa (Tammy Lauren) and Angie's brother Frankie (Scott Baio, already known as Chachi on Happy Days). Also on hand were the girls' landlady Mitzi Logan (Marcia Lewis), Larry Parnell (Larry Breeding), a weather reporter next door who was assigned the task of watching the kids, and Bert Gunkel (Jim Belushi), Larry's cameraman, who also helped Larry keep an eye on Melissa and Frankie. Kids aired on NBC even though Blansky's Beauties had been on ABC.

Larry Breeding later starred on another short-lived series, The Last Resort. In 1982, he filmed a sitcom pilot called It's Not Easy, with Gerald McRaney. The new show was to begin that fall, pending the fate of McRaney's previous series, Simon and Simon. When that show was renewed at the last minute, It's Not Easy was put on hold until replacement for McRaney could be found. Breeding then died in a car accident in September 1982. His final appearance had been earlier that year on an episode of Laverne and Shirley. And for the record, It's Not Easy finally made it to the air in the fall of 1983 (with Ken Howard and Bert Convy replacing McRaney and Breeding, respectively), but was quickly cancelled. Its competition included Cheers on NBC and wait for it---Simon and Simon on CBS.

The series intro is below. Caren Kaye does not appear, as according the comments on this video, she was let go after a few episodes due to retooling. I have not been able to find the intro with her in it. Read the comments for more. It's a lot to explain here, and I can't seem to find anything on this on IMDb or Wikipedia, which you think would have explained this!