Maybe someone can explain to me the behind the scenes politics of the last season. Why was Howard Hesseman only on every other episode and why did Bonnie Franklin leave before the last episode?

Oh, and I always thought it was “Walk on the beat.”

I don't know of any "politics" that went on. As far as I know (and this is just wild speculation on my part), Hesseman was not necessarily a full cast member, and even Bonnie wasn't being used as much. It seemed like much of the action was occurring over at the Barbara/Mark/Max/sometimes Grandma house anyway.

Besides, it had been a number of years. Many were likely tired, and the original premise (divorced woman raising two kids) had been long over. Schneider had a pilot episode that didn't work, and had left. Julie had been kicked off again, due to that darn love of snow. And once they married off Ann again, there really wasn't much left for the character to do.

The theme song bit: it was. It's kind of an "in joke" (read the thread from the beginning, if it lets you go that far).

Oh, I did. That’s why I was posting my interpretation. Thanks to the link at the beginning of the thread I now know it’s “Up on your feet”. I like my version better. As for Howard Hesseman, he was in the opening credits every other episode which I thought was kind of weird. I watched the show when it was on E! years ago and I was going through my WKRP love phase too so I was particularly interested in him.

CBS is having a reunion special for this show on February 22.

Just took a look at the photos on the CBS site, and they all look really good. Sure, there's been some surgery, and of course airbrushing, but compare this cast reunion to the reunion of the Happy Days cast -- many of the HD cast looked pretty rough.

Valerie looks good -- perhaps because she's got a bit of weight on her. Mackenzie is no longer a junkie, plus has had some (decent) cosmetic surgery, so she's looking probably the best she's ever looked. Pat Harrington looks like he's aged well, and hasn't bloated up or anything. Bonnie Franklin looks pretty much the same, aside from gaining a few pounds. She doesn't seem to have had much, if any, face work done, and looks natural.

Looking forward to this reunion, and hoping that it spurs some net to start running the old episodes again.

No supporting cast in the reunion show? Interesting that Mackenzie agreed to do it since she had a shaky relationship with the show because of her substance abuse issues. I would have liked to have seen Glenn Scarpelli on the reunion show too. Pat Harrington looks good.

It doesn't surprise me that Mackenzie agreed to do the reunion. True, she had issues with the show but they were all problems on HER end. From what I've seen of her in interviews where she talked about her substance abuse problems, she knows she behaved rather badly in those days.

What, no Ron Rifkin in the reunion?

It looks like they won't be part of the group gathering, but they will have interviews with most of them.

I really hope the reunion show gets some good ratings, and then it spurs on a release of this show on DVD.

In the February 25 issue of Entertainment Weekly (with the "Who Will Win?" cover about the Oscars), there's a "TV Q&A" with Bonnie Franklin in connection with the reunion special (CBS, Feb. 22, 9 pm Eastern). It's only one column long, but it has a photo. She still looks much like she did in the '80s.

Here's an article on the reunion show from today's NY Daily News. The reviewer wasn't too thrilled with it but I'm still looking forward to it despite his reviews.

I thought the lyrics were "wop on your feet" as well.

Norman Lear really did start the trend with "Upsetting" endings. Every second episode would end with someone crying, but then audience clapping at the end. Kind of weird, IMO.

I always thought it was "up on your feet", so I looked up the lyrics. Here's what I found:

This is it. This is it.
This is life, the one you get
So go and have a ball.

This is it. This is it
Straight ahead and rest assured
You can’t be sure at all.

So while you’re here enjoy the view
Keep on doing what you do
So hold on tight we'll muddle through
One day at a time, One day at a time.

So up on your feet. Up on your feet
Somewhere there’s music playing.
Don’t you worry none
We’ll just take it like it comes.

One day at a time, one day at a time.
One day at a time, one day at a time.
One day at a time, one day at a time.
One day at a time, one day at a time.

Coincidentally, this is exactly how I felt about Richard Masur's character. I thought David was such a zero that I ended up transferring that zero-ness to the actor, and I remember being surprised years later when I saw Masur in some things that really showed what he could do when he had a well-drawn character and lines that were more interesting than "Now, Ann..." or "Come on, Ann..." I'm sorry, Mr. Masur; you are SO not David, and I apologize.

Looking back on this with a now-adult perspective, I wonder if they felt they HAD to give Ann a boyfriend as a pre-emptive strike against any potential rumors that she might be a lesbian. That might have been a little too hot to handle in the 70's.

From that NY Daily News article:

I think that's fairly accurate. I used to watch it in reruns with my sister but looking back I'm not exactly sure why.

You and me both, muchsarcasm. I watched this show a lot, and never, ever enjoyed it. The only possible reason is that it was on just before, or just after, or in between something else that I did like.

Looking back on it, I can't believe the miscasting: Mackenzie Phillips as a sexpot? Valerie Bertinelli as a wallflower? Absolutely unreal.

A bunch of us at work one day several years ago took a vote: who was the Most Annoying Sitcom Queen of the mid-1970s? Bonnie Franklin, Valerie Harper or Linda Lavin? Bonnie won.

That NY Daily News quote sums it up perfectly.

I love the thread title and understood it instantly.

May have to check out the reunion. Guilty pleasure, then and now . . .

I always thought the song said "womp on your feet", funny thing is that on the reunion show Mackenzie Phillips said she always thought that too.

IMHO, it's the high amount of drahhhma (tm Laurie Smith) in most Norman Lear sitcoms that made them not age so well. I watched One Day at a Time when it first aired (yes, I am old, shut up or I'll beat you with my cane) and was a couple of years younger than Barbara, so this was a big fave of mine. It was so modern and topical and actually dealt with sex. The eps where Julie ran off with Chuck were SHOCKING. I can't even really think of something modern to compare it to, but it was a big deal.


Actually, Julie was supposed to be a rebel and back in the olden days, wild girls had sex. Barbara wasn't so much a wallflower as a good girl - and sometimes, back in the dark ages, girls who didn't "put out" didn't always have boys beating down their door no matter how cute they were.

Watching the reunion show I realized how ugly their apartment was - even for the 70s - it was hideous!

The reunion show totally ignored the last 4 or 5 years of the show. Talked about Ann's independent. Ignored that she married Howard Hesseman and Barbara married Boyd Gaines. It was weird when they referred to their characters in the first person -- I've never heard an actor do that before, it sounded really affected.
Shelley Fabares looked awful, Nanette Fabray looked quite good -- she must be well into her 80s.
One thing they didn't talk about was how Bonnie Franklin always looked too young for the part -- she never realistically looked like she could be MP's mother.

Quite frankly, I thought that was why this reunion show was done! I can't say I've ever heard anyone "I loved that show! I wonder what the cast is doing now?".

Yeah, that sort of thing always bugged me as well.

The DJs on our local morning show were talking about last night’s reunion show, and one spoke about an interview he did with Mackenzie Phillips a few years ago. He said that she told him that just after she turned 18, Mick Jagger showed up at her door and said he’d been waiting until she was legal so he could do her – so he did.

I liked the show last night. I was just a kid when it was on, but I can’t believe how much I remembered from the clips they showed. Was it really 30 years ago? I loved their apartment when I was a kid too, couldn’t wait until I grew up and got one like it. Now – not so much… Can’t remember this though - what was Alex’s relationship to the family? Ann’s nephew?

Wow, what happened to Shelley Fabares?



Who did Ron Rifkin play?

Well, here in ACC country, the Tarheels played NC State - so the show got bumped to 3:07am this morning. Grrrrr. Good thing the DVR was set to record it - but then the stupid local network started it at 3am (I watched the start this morning and it was already into the show - double GRRRRRRR!). I am looking forward to watching what was recorded later today.

I'm forty, so I was just 10 years old when the show debuted late in 1975. I remember how shocking some of the topics were for TV at the time. I remember I was fascinated because, having no sisters, there was lots of stuff discussed that was not discussed in our home. I found the show fascinating. And I had a huge crush on Valerie Bertinelli/Barbara Cooper.

Is the show dated? Sure it is. How would teens of 2005 relate to the teen issues of 1975 (as Valerie asked on the special)? It would be interesting to see.

I do hope this show starts to come out DVD soon. I'd be right in line to pick it up the day it comes out. Given that other Norman Lear shows are doing well (All In the Family, Good Times), I would expect this one to come too soon (along with Maude - where's the Maude DVDs?).

He was the relative-brought-in-to-boost-sagging-ratings kind of relative.

I guess that's true, SCL. I'm looking back from the distance of 30 years; at the time, the casting didn't seem so odd. Mackenzie wasn't so much of a sexpot as an "out-of-control" teen; today, Julie and Ann would be on Maury Povich or Rikki Lake!

Oh yeah, I forgot about Howard Hessman.

I don't think Alex wasn't even a relative. Wasn't he Nick (Ron Rifkin's character - one of Ann's boyfriends)'s son that moved in with Ann after Nick died or something? Or am I remembering wrong.

I haven't seen the show yet (yes, I taped it and Yes, I am a geek) But in response to the questions about Shelley Fabares...she had a liver transplant about a year ago so if she didn't look great that may have something to do with it.

Bonnie Franklin *could've* been M.P.'s mother, but she would've been Very Young Indeed (B.F. born January 1944, M.P. born November 1959).

I was surprised to learn on the visit to IMDB which gave me the answer above, that Valerie Bertinelli is only five months younger than Mackenzie. Yow. Growing up with Papa John definitely takes its toll.

Shelley Fabares is also 62 years old and looked like Gwen Stefani back in The Return to Saturn era. Spiky pink and blonde hair. Not a good look, for Gwen at age 30 and definitely not for Shelley at age 62.

The voiceover of Julie's character while they were showing newspaper clippings of Mackenzie's real life drug problems was so cheezy. The show looked like it was one of those Lifetime channel biographies.

That's right. Nick was also Ann's business partner. Anyhow, Nick died in a car accident. Since his ex-wife had just remarried and moved to Chicago, Ann agreed to let Alex stay with her for awhile. Eventually, Alex did move to Chicago to live with his mother.

Does anybody at all have the One Day at a Time reunion taped?? My mom really wants to get a copy of it, she really loved that show when it was on, so if you have it taped, let me know & I will pay you whatever for it, you'd really be doing us a big favor :) Thanks!!

Sapphire@rogers.com

I guess I'm in the minority; I always knew it was "up on your feet".

I couldn’t stand Ginny Wroblicki; what an annoying self-involved twit with bad fashion sense she was. I always thought of her as "the white Willona"… another neighbor I'd move across state lines to get away from.

I finally watched the special. I can't believe Boyd Gaines didn't get a single mention.

For which he is grateful, I'm sure.

This was true of all three of Ann's major relationships on the show; Richard Masur, Ron Rifkin and Howard Hesseman. And I think it may have been an intentional move to keep the show grounded in realism.

Ann Romano was a middle-aged, middle-class woman with a modest income and two kids. Her clothes were dull and inexpensive, her apartment was crowded and shabby and her dating options were limited. Unless she was the kind to go out looking for bad boy losers (which Ann definitely wasn't), most of the men available to her would be guys like these, nice but unexciting. She could have done a lot worse.

Sitcoms today have largely lost any interest in being grounded in some kind of reality (unemployed twentysomethings have fabulous apartments, fat blue-collar slobs are married to hot babes, etc.). If ODAAT was being made today, Ann would be romancing her sizzling hot poolboy or would be persued by a millionaire who wanted to whisk her off to Paris for the weekend. But she'd still be a poor divorcee keeping it real.

I used to watch this show, I'm a little younger than VB and MP. Now, when I think back, it wasn't very good. At the time, I liked Barbara, she had what I then felt were cool clothes. I didn't like close-ups of Julie - MP's complexion was horrible. It may have been due to the drug use. I know many teens have bad skin, but it's not something we often see up close on television.

I missed the reunion special, don't think I missed anything.

Sigh....I so loved this show! Ann reminded me of my mom (without all the sex, hee!), in that she, my brother and sister and I all grew up together. She never acted like she was a saint, but she made damned sure that we kids never wanted for anything, and all that she got was from standing on her own two feet, never asking anything from anyone.

My favorite eppys....

Barbara discovering that she can't have children
Barbara marrying Mark
Julie running away (Ann to Julie - "Okay, Julie; DON'T COME BACK!")

My favorite sister was Barbara, loved how she kept true to herself in wanting to wait until she was married before having sex (okay, I couldn't relate there, ha!)

Hopefully it will soon be released on DVD, I've been waiting long enough dammit!!

For those of you that have Digital Cable, uncut reruns are being shown....just look under "TV Entertainment", and you'll find ODAAT there. They are showing them from the beginning, too.

Watching them from the beginning, I've noticed three things....

David Kane was a pain in the ass! For crikey's sake, Ann just got divorced, how could he think she'd want to get married again so quickly? The man wanted to put her on serious lockdown.

Schneider's barging into the house was so annoying, second to Willona on Good Times....I loved when Sam came on, he stopped Schneider from barging in right up front.

And finally, we have Julie....man, Mackenzie Phillips should have gotten a friggin' Emmy, she played the most ungrateful, self-centered bitch! Just watched the eppy where Julie wanted to go to a rich school to be near a fairweather friend, and she was actually pissed with Ann because she wouldn't let her go (never mind the fact that Ann barely had the money to get friggin' groceries!) and because Ann didn't want to take David's money (another example of his manipulating her into marrying him).

At any rate, I'm enjoying watching each new eppy every Wednesday!

You know, I used to watch this show all the time, even though like some others of you, I knew even then it wasn't very good. (Still and all, at the time, I would have watched a still picture of Valerie Bertinelli for a half-hour, and left happy.)

Anyway, I know the whole theme song--could sing it for you note for note--but never considered the words, really, until I read them here. They're sort of cool, in a 70s sort of way. Self-empowerment through absolute surrender.

Teague , love your interpretation! I have new respect for the song now. Back then I didn't know what the heck they were doing womping the beat.


As stated a few posts back: Yes! Julie's skin always scared me. I hadn't reached puberty yet when I was watching the show and Julie's closeups (and icky hair) always made me afraid for my future.

I thought it was "whop on the meat". As in, "Oh, they're struggling, so they eat a lot of Hamburger Helper!"

Ariel, LOL. "wop on the meat" is too funny.

And, Teague, I agree that the lyrics were very motivational in a self-enpowerment sort of way.

So, still no word yet on DVDs. Grumble grumble grumble. Hopefully in 2006 if we're lucky.

Bumping up for JillsSophie.

My lyrics included "Walk on the beat" (not bad) "straight ahead and rest assured, you kept your shirt on" (still not too bad) but "while your hands enjoy the view..." hands enjoying the view, eh? Oh, well. I was just a kid!

I hated Bonnie Franklin - bad actress, unnattractive, ugh. But Valerie Bertinelli was enough to make up for it. I still want to be her best friend!

I was really young when I watched this with my mom, and probably only saw the first couple seasons (before getting too busy in grade school). My memories of the show are vague, and strange: I had to look away from the extreme tightness of Barbara's jeans, as they "grossed me out"; I wished that Schneider would wash his jeans once in a while, as they also bugged me; and I thought Ann Romano should wear a bra. I vaguely remember an episode where Ann turned 35 and spent the entire ep talking to herself in the mirror with a lot of self-help affirmations, and I thought she was kind of a crazy lady. Finally, I found Barbara's love of Elton John annoying, and hated that she imitated him during a talent show. Her character always got on my nerves, come to think of it.

I always hated Ann for some reason I've never quite been able to articulate. She always seemed so shrill and "brassy" to me.

This was "must see" TV for me back in the day, but I suspect, if TV Land were to re-run it now, I'd wonder why I liked it so much then. That's happened with a couple others '70's sitcoms upon viewing them years later. Can't decide if that's good or bad!

That said, I'd still like to see it and see if that's what happens.

Preach it! I never liked Bonnie Franklin's delivery. I always felt she tried too hard.

Barbara and Schneider were always my favorites.

I had no problem understanding "up on your feet" but I never could understand the line "straight ahead and rest assured you can't be sure at all."

Even now, after years of knowing what that line is, my ear still hears it as "straight ahead and rest assured, you can't be should on." Which obviously never made a lick of sense, even in my addled teen state, but I would've bet money that's what they were singing.

ETA: In just the same way, the Good Times theme in my head ends "if we love you, we got 'em... Good Times!" Doesn't matter that I know what the real lyrics are, that's what I hear.

I loved this show, but it may be responsible for one of the TV Moments that Scarred Me For Life. I remember one episode in which Ann is turning 36, and Barbara and Julie, with their great teenage wisdom, inform her that since the life expectancy is 72, she is now middle age. I thought of that this year when I tured 36, and, since I don't have teenage kids or one divorce behind me or a nosy janitor, I still feel closer to the kids' age than Ann's.