ONE SEASON WONDERS: Delta

For my One Season Wonder this week, I'm taking a look at Delta!

DELTA

September 15, 1992 - August 25, 1993
17 episodes
ABC

Starring: Delta Burke, Earl Holliman, Beth Grant, Nancy Giles, Bill Engvall and Gigi Rice

Created by: Miriam Trogdon

Plot: Delta Bishop (Burke) is an aspiring country singer who moves to Nashville after a divorce. She moves in with her cousin, Lavonne (Rice) and her husband, Buck (Engvall). She gets a job at the Green Lantern Bar, working for Darden Towe (Holliman)

Brief Pilot Review:

Delta Burke is definitely a comedic force. She was the breakout star of Designing Women thanks in part to her snappy line deliveries and larger than life presence. It's interesting to see her here as the center of a show because even as a breakout, she was still part of an ensemble with pretty even-sized roles on Women. What's especially interesting is that she seems to be lacking that bravado that was her hallmark. Although there are lots of elements that are very broad (the setting, the premise, Delta Burke's hair), Burke was playing everything in a surprisingly understated way that didn't really work. It seems like they were trying to ground the character and create a sympathetic figure but it played against type for Burke and the whole pilot felt low energy.

I thought this was a decent premise but I just didn't buy Burke as a country singer. It didn't help that her performing skills in the pilot weren't anything special either. The other problem was even though Burke was not playing to her strengths, she was still the strongest member of the cast. The rest of the cast did not make much of an impression at all. They weren't even caricatures, which would have probably annoyed me but at least been more interesting. They were just bland. Too much of the pilot was focused on Delta's on-screen ex-husband (guest star Kevin Scannell) who was not a series regular and he too was bland. The whole thing was a snoozefest.

What Went Wrong:

Delta existed due to the misfortunes of another series. As mentioned, Delta Burke was a breakout star on Designing Women before she had a very, very publicized falling out with the showrunners. The feud played out in tabloids, magazines, TV interviews and everything else it could in 1991 and Burke was released from her contract at the end of the 1990-91 season. After one year off, she was ready to come back to TV and prove that she was ready to carry a show on her own and free from the grips of her previous show. Country music was becoming a major force at the time so coupling a show set in Nashville about an aspiring country singer with the star power of Burke seemed like a good bet for ABC.

ABC gave Delta a preview after Roseanne, it's #1 show, on Tuesday nights. But its actual slot was Thursdays at 8pm. A few years earlier, that would have been a likely death knell for any network not named NBC but NBC itself was in a bit of a transition on the night with The Cosby Show having ended the previous season and its spinoff, A Different World, tasked with leading off the night for the first time. While the NBC lineup struggled, it was not due to Delta. It tanked in the ratings and was pulled off the night in December. It resurfaced on Tuesdays much later and Burke even switched back to her trademark brunette but the damage was done. The series was cancelled after one season and Burke shockingly reconciled with the Designing Women characters to play her old character in 1995's Women of the House, which also lasted just one season.

Tomorrow: A look at Season Four (Part 2) of Perfect Strangers!

Next Wednesday: A One Season Wonder look at Camp Wilder!