ONE SEASON WONDERS: Good & Evil

On Wednesdays, I take a look at a series that lasted one season or less. Here is a look at Good & Evil!

GOOD & EVIL

September 25, 1991 - October 30, 1991

6 episodes
ABC

Starring: Teri Garr, Margaret Whitton, Mark Blankfield, Lane Davies, Mary Gillis, Seth Green, Sherman Howard, Marian Seldes, Brooke Theiss, Marius Weyers

Created by: Susan Harris

Plot: This very odd satire focuses on two sisters, one "good" and one "evil." Denise (Garr) is the evil one and the CEO of the family's cosmetics empire while the good one is Genny (Whitton), a world class scientist. Their mother, Charlotte (Seldes) was still a force in the family empire as well. The rest of the cast includes family, friends and subordinates of the two sisters.

Brief Pilot Review:

This pilot started with a very bizarre and off-putting scene with hikers finding Denise's husband (Weyers) after he fell off Everest. We then meet Denise herself and the extent that this pilot worked at all was due in large part to Teri Garr. I'm not convinced the show made her "evil" enough in the pilot to justify the show's title but Garr was engaging nonetheless. I can't say the same for her on-screen sister as Margaret Whitton wasn't particularly strong for a co-lead especially when playing off of someone with Garr's ability. A big problem in the pilot was the sisters were not on screen together for much of the pilot. When the premise is the difference between them, we need to seem them together. A strong performance came from Marian Seldes, who got off a couple funny line deliveries.

I think the biggest problem with the pilot is it wasn't quite sure how much of a satire it was. There were oddities like Genny's daughter (Theiss) being mute and a general heightened sense of reality so it seemed to be a soapy parody but not in the same way that Soap was, which was created by Susan Harris as well. But the early goings made it seem like it could be a sharply written dark comedy. Then the show devolved into some real silliness and bad taste to with an extended bit making fun of Genny's blind boyfriend (Blankfield). I'm talking like 1930s era comedy that played so incredibly lame despite the howls from the studio audience. Even if it wasn't utterly stupid, Blankfield played it so poorly and there was no expectation after that the show could be sharp and witty. It was so sophomoric.

What Went Wrong:

ABC must have known they had a strange one in Good & Evil because they put it in a slot where its chances for success were very small. It aired at 10:30pm at the end of a three hour comedy block. Earlier in the night were established shows Dinosaurs, The Wonder Years and Doogie Howser M.D. as well as newbie Sibs. The lead-in for Good & Evil was Anything But Love, a show that bounced all around the ABC lineup during its four seasons without ever finding a hint of an established timeslot. Historically, three hour comedy blocks have rarely worked because comedies tend not to work in the 10pm hour so trying to launch a new comedy at 10:30pm was a tall order indeed and not something ABC would give to a show 

Although Susan Harris had critical and audience success with shows like Soap, The Golden Girls and Empty Nest, critics were not kind to Good & Evil. It received pretty significant criticism for its depiction of blind people that I railed against in the pilot review above. There was picketing outside ABC from the National Federation for the Blind. The show lasted just six weeks before it was cancelled, much to Harris' chagrin. ABC abandoned the three hour comedy block pretty quickly as fellow freshman Sibs went on hiatus and Anything But Love moved to 9:30pm. Susan Harris had more success with another new show that fall, Nurses on NBC (a spinoff of Empty Nest which was a spinoff of The Golden Girls).

Tomorrow: A recap of Get Smart!

Wednesday in 2 Weeks: A One Season Wonder look at Princesses!