ONE SEASON WONDERS: A Year in the Life

On Wednesdays, I look at shows that lasted one season or less. Today I am looking at 1980s flop A Year in the Life!

A YEAR IN THE LIFE

Programming Details:

September 16, 1987 - April 13, 1988

22 episodes

NBC

Starring: Richard Kiley, Trey Ames, Adam Arkin, Jayne Atkinson, David Oliver, Sarah Jessica Parker, Amanda Peterson, Wendy Phillips, Morgan Stevens

Created by: Joshua Brand & John Falsey

Plot: Joe Gardner (Kiley) is a recent widower with four adult children: twice divorced Annie (Phillips), new mom Lindley (Atkinson), black sheep Jack (Stevens) and conservative Sam (Oliver). The rest of the main cast includes other family members like Sam's wife, Kay (Parker) and Lindley's husband, Jim (Arkin) and Anne's children, David and Sunny (Ames and Peterson). 

Brief Pilot Review:

This series came after a very successful miniseries that aired the season before. Because of that, the pilot felt more like an episode in the middle of the season then a pilot so there wasn't really any exposition. I was still able to follow who was who because it wasn't all that complicated but I also think I was at a disadvantage because I wasn't invested in the characters. The show probably should be viewed as a set with the miniseries coming first. This is a tremendous cast with several big names all giving good and real performances. Richard Kiley is strong in the patriarch role and Wendy Phillips is given a lot of material in the pilot. Sarah Jessica Parker is barely used in the pilot, I would have been interested in seeing more than her. 

I think it's really interesting to watch dramas from this era and compare them with family dramas of more recent years like This is Us and Parenthood. There's just a more gentle pace and it's a little jarring to me. It feels like more should be happening and there should be more urgency. But I think that is just an example of how much the TV drama genre has changed since the 1980s. There were a few game-changers in that decade like Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere, but most dramas had a different sensibility and one that we're not used to decades later. It's why I think dramas have a harder time holding up over the years compared to sitcoms.

What Went Wrong:

It's easy to understand why NBC made a series out of A Year in the Life. The miniseries, which aired over three consecutive nights in December 1986, had been a big hit for them the previous season. It had glowing reviews, strong ratings and an Emmy win for Outstanding Miniseries. It also seemed like the kind of show that could sustain itself as a series. NBC placed it on Wednesday nights as the centerpiece of a drama lineup that had fellow gentle dramas Highway to Heaven and St. Elsewhere (A Year in the Life came from the same creative team as St. Elsewhere). Both those shows were past their peaks by 1987-88 though and the whole night struggled. For a network that was crushing it on so many nights at the time, there wasn't much room for error from shows that weren't hacking it.

Although the series lasted just one full season, the acclaim did continue to an extent with Richard Kiley winning the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. Another factor could have been the gentle drama about relationships sphere was being completely absorbed by a different new series - thirtysomething on ABC - which premiered the same fall and captured the zeitgeist much more. Many actors went on to more success and the creative team, which had hit it big with St. Elsewhere, hit it big again a couple years later with Northern Exposure.

Tomorrow: A look at the fourth season of Parks and Recreation!

Next Wednesday: A look at 1990s flop Too Something!