On Wednesdays, I take a look at a series that lasted one season or less. Here is a look at Sister Kate!
SISTER KATE
September 16, 1989 - July 30, 1990
18 episodes
NBC
Starring: Stephanie Beacham, Harley Cross, Hannah Cutrona, Jason Priestley, Erin Reed, Joel Robinson, Penina Segall, Alexaundria Simmons
Created by: Frank Dungan, Tony Sheehan and Jeff Stein
Plot: Sister Kate (Beacham) is a nun put in charge of a group of unruly kids and teenagers at a Chicago orphanage. The group of kids includes teens finding their way (Cutrona, Priestley, Reed) and precocious children (Robinson & Simmons) among others.
The point of Sister Kate certainly seemed to be Sister Kate matching wits with the group of orphans and I guess it succeeds at that low bar. It felt so much like a lame family sitcom of the 80s with Stephanie Beacham filling the role of the "mother." It was hard for the pilot to service all the orphans so they primarily focused on a story involving Erin Reed's character pretending she wasn't living at an orphanage (which stretches plausibility in several ways). Whether they were a lead or supporting role in the pilot, none of the young actors seemed particularly up to the challenge with some pretty bad acting across the board. The actual best actor in the pilot was Gordon Jump in a guest starring role that was featured significantly before and immediately after the opening credits.
It seemed like an odd choice to make Beacham almost seem like a supporting character in the pilot. She doesn't even appear until several minutes into the episode and then takes a backseat through a lot of the episode to Erin Reed's character. As a result, I felt like I barely got to know Sister Kate in the pilot of a TV show called Sister Kate. It was equally odd to focus that much on Reed when there were a lot of characters to introduce. I know it's hard to introduce lots of characters in a sitcom pilot and it sometimes needs to happen organically but the story was so limiting and Reed (not to mention her on-screen boyfriend) were not up to the task.
NBC was flying high in the late 80s with dominant lineups on a couple different nights. Most specifically Thursday but Saturday was also a home for a popular sitcom lineup. Sister Kate was one of only two new comedies launched in the Fall of 1989 (the other was the weirder The Nutt House on Wednesdays). Sister Kate got a sneak preview on Saturday night after The Golden Girls and then settled in on Sunday nights where NBC had a modest sitcom block. The previous season had included the final season of Family Ties and Day by Day, which struggled to find an audience. Sister Kate was paired with My Two Dads, a series that jumped all around the NBC lineup.
The biggest draw to Sister Kate was that Stephanie Beacham was known at the time for her run on Dynasty and The Colbys with the former show finally going off the air in the Spring of 1989. NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff was bullish on the show's chances, at least publicly. Reviews were all over the place. The Orlando Sentinel called it the "absolute worst" of the freshmen crop but the LA Times said it was the "boldest, brassiest, funniest comedy series of the new season." Beacham was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role but the show couldn't find an audience. It moved to 8:30pm but was off the air by mid-January with burnoff episodes airing in the summer. The failure of Sister Kate allowed Jason Priestley the chance to join Beverly Hills, 90210 and the rest was history for him.
Tomorrow: A look at Season 5 (Part 1) of Get Smart!
Next Wednesday: A One Season Wonder look at The Royal Family!
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