''Charles in Charge'' is an American sitcom television series that premiered on October 3, 1984, on CBS. The series was a production of Al Burton Productions and Scholastic Productions in association with Universal Television and starred Scott Baio, who had previously starred in '' Happy Days'', in the title role. Willie Aames, who had previously been a cast member on '' Eight Is Enough'', also starred as Charles’ best friend Buddy Lembeck.
''Charles in Charge'' joined the CBS Wednesday night lineup at 8:00 pm, placing it against ABC’s hit action series '' The Fall Guy'' and the new
Michael Landon
Michael Landon (born Eugene Maurice Orowitz; October 31, 1936 – July 1, 1991) was an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in ''Bonanza'' (1959–1973), Charles Ingalls in ''Little House on the Pr ...
-led '' Highway to Heaven'' on NBC. At the time, with the exception of their Monday-night comedies ('' Kate & Allie'' and '' Newhart''), CBS's sitcom lineup was not performing well in the ratings and ''Charles in Charge'' did not do much to change that. Still, the network allowed the show to remain in production to complete the 22 episodes it had ordered for the season.
After the February 27, 1985, episode, CBS placed ''Charles in Charge'' on hiatus. Two episodes had yet to air, and CBS aired them on March 13 and April 3, 1985. The network then dropped ''Charles in Charge'' from its Wednesday lineup in favor of the mystery drama series '' Double Dare''; the show was moved to Saturday, where it aired in reruns for several weeks until it was replaced by the drama '' Cover Up''. None of these series were renewed for a second season, nor were either of the two comedies that shared the hour with ''Charles in Charge'' ('' Dreams'' and '' E/R'').
One year later, after seeing the success of some cancelled network series after they were revived for
first-run syndication
Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States where ...
(which was a significant trend at the time), Universal decided to rework and relaunch ''Charles in Charge'' in syndication. The show premiered on local stations at the midway point of the 1986-87 season, with the first episode of the new series premiering on January 3, 1987. Four seasons were produced for syndication, with the last episode airing on November 10, 1990. In total, 126 episodes were produced, 22 in the abbreviated first season and 26 in each of the syndicated seasons.
Premise
The series takes place in
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat, seat of government of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Rutgers University, whose main campus is in New Brunswick) and is 19 years old when the series begins.
First season
Needing a place to live while attending school, Charles applies for a job working for Stan and Jill Pembroke, an affluent couple in search of a live-in housekeeper. An arrangement is reached where Charles would take the job with the Pembrokes while he attended Copeland, and in lieu of a salary, he would receive
room and board
Room and board is a phrase describing a situation in which, in exchange for money, Manual labour, labor or other considerations, a person is provided with a place to live as well as meals on a comprehensive basis. It commonly occurs as a fee at h ...
for his duties as caretaker for their children Jason, Douglas, and Lila, all three of whom are not much younger than he is. In addition to this, as well as his escapades with his best friend Buddy, Charles has a crush on fellow Copeland student Gwendolyn Pierce and spends quite a bit of his free time trying to court her, which never seems to work.
Syndication changes
When the show returned in 1987, only Scott Baio and Willie Aames returned from the original cast, as the producers reworked the story to accommodate the changes in cast.
The second season's first episode featured Charles returning to New Brunswick from his summer vacation, only to discover an unfamiliar family living in the Pembrokes' home. He learns that the Pembrokes left New Jersey while he was away and have moved across the country to Seattle. The new family, the Powells, agreed to sublet the house from the Pembrokes, which included retaining Charles' services as live-in babysitter.
The Powell clan consisted of mother Ellen and grandfather Walter, who was Ellen's husband's widowed father and who was living with them to fulfill his son's role as he served overseas in the U.S. Navy. Like the Pembrokes, the Powells also had three children, daughters Jamie and Sarah and younger brother Adam.
Charles' previously unseen widowed mother Lillian became a central character in the revival series. She was played by
Ellen Travolta
Ellen M. Travolta (born October 6, 1939) is an American actress known for playing Louisa Arcola Delvecchio in ''Happy Days'' and ''Joanie Loves Chachi'' as well as Lillian in '' Charles in Charge'' (1987-1990).
Early years
Ellen M. Travolta wa ...
, which marked the second time that she had played mother to a character portrayed by Baio; she had done the same thing on '' Joanie Loves Chachi'' several years earlier (although she first played cousin Jimmy Baio’s mother on a 1978 episode of “The Love Boat.”)
Cast
Michael Pearlman and Jennifer Runyon are the only other actors, besides Baio and Aames, to reprise their roles on the show after the first season. Pearlman appeared in the second-season premiere, "Amityville". (Lisa Donovan played Jill Pembroke in that episode.) Runyon appeared in "Twice Upon a Time (Part 1)" and "Twice Upon a Time (Part 2)".
In the final two seasons, Sandra Kerns only made three more appearances (once in season 4 and twice in season 5). Baio and Aames are the only two cast members who appear in every single episode.
Shandi Sinnamon
Shandi Sinnamon (born 1952) is an American singer and songwriter.
Career
Shandi was born to a Huguenot family as Shandra Sinnamon in Miami, Florida. After dropping out of high school, she left home for Big Sur, California. Her ambition was to ...
. The theme music was mellower in the first season, and was remixed for the syndication run.
The song was performed by the ''
a cappella
''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...
Universal Pictures released a three-disc set of the first season of ''Charles in Charge'' on DVD in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
on February 14, 2006. Due to poor sales, no further seasons were released.
In September 2007, Arts Alliance America (which subsequently changed its name to Virgil Films & Entertainment during the summer of 2007) announced it had acquired the rights to the series. They subsequently released seasons 2–5 on DVD. Seasons 4 and 5 were Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) releases, available exclusively through Amazon.com.
Streaming
All five seasons of the series were made available for streaming through Amazon Video and season one only on
Hulu
Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...
Plus. In addition, the entire series can be streamed on the NBC.com app.
Syndication reruns
When ''Charles in Charge'' returned to television, an arrangement had been made with stations owned by Tribune Broadcasting to carry the program in first run. Through this arrangement, the show was also able to gain nationwide carriage as its Chicago affiliate,
WGN-TV
WGN-TV (channel 9) is an Independent station (North America), independent television station in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, it is sister station, sister to the company's sole radio property, talk ra ...
, was a national cable superstation.
In 1988, with the series nearing the 100-episode mark, distributor MCA Television began advertising in trade publications that it would begin selling reruns of ''Charles in Charge'' to local stations for a fall 1989 launch. The show reached the mark when the 1988-89 season ended, and the show began airing daily in syndication shortly thereafter. After the final episode aired in 1990, the syndication package added them, as well; the package included the first 22 episodes that had aired on CBS and the 78 that had aired over the first three seasons in syndication.