.gif)
Benson (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Benson is an American television sitcom
which aired from September 13, 1979, to April 19, 1986, on ABC
. The series was a spin-off
from the soap opera
parody
Soap
(the title character, portrayed by Robert Guillaume
, had first appeared on the earlier series as the wise-cracking yet level-headed black butler for the highly dysfunctional Tate family); however, Benson discarded the soap opera format of its parent show in favor of a more conventional sitcom structure.
) had been hired to be the head of household affairs for scatterbrained and widowed Governor
Eugene Gatling (James Noble
), and his daughter Katie (Missy Gold
). Governor Gatling was cousin to Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond
) and Mary Campbell (Cathryn Damon
), the two sisters on whose families the stories centered on Soap
. The state of which Gatling was governor remained unidentified throughout the series, although Soap had taken place in Connecticut. The outside shots of the governor's mansion reveal a few palm trees on the property. Accordingly, that would limit the states in which Gatling was governor to the Gulf coast, south Atlantic coast or south Pacific coast states.
In spite of his somewhat off-center personality, Governor Gatling proved to be a very capable, caring and commanding figure when a crisis arose.
The show revolved around Benson's housekeeping dilemmas, his fights with the German cook Gretchen Wilhemina Kraus (Inga Swenson
, one of Guillaume's fellow alumni from Soap), and his interactions with John Taylor (Lewis J. Stadlen
), who assisted Governor Gatling as chief of staff. After the first season, Taylor's job was filled by Clayton Endicott III (Rene Auberjonois
), who was written out by having him run for political office and actually snub his employer's endorsement. He lost the election but returned when Benson asked him to. In spite of their adversarial relationship (during the early years, Kraus' trademark line was a loud "I hear you!"), Benson and Kraus eventually became good friends. Benson also had very good friendships with the Governor's secretary, Marcy Hill (Caroline McWilliams
), and her successor, Denise (Didi Conn
). Marcy left after the second season after getting married. Denise and Pete Downey (Ethan Phillips
) met and later married while working in the governor's mansion, and were expectant parents for most of the third-to-last season. Both were written out, saying they left state government service because Denise got a job working for NASA
.
Benson worked his way up the ladder during the series, going from head of household affairs, to state budget director (at which time his surname—DuBois—was revealed), and eventually was elevated to the position of Lieutenant Governor
. During the final episodes of the 1985–1986 season, Benson ran for governor against Gatling. Kraus (who had herself moved up to head of household affairs) proved to be Benson's biggest supporter during this time as well. So much so, that he made her his personal assistant and campaign manager.
Benson has the distinction of being the first TV series to reference the Internet on an American network television. This occurred on the episode airing February 22, 1985 ("Scenario", season 6 episode 20)—in the episode, the characters were accessing the ARPANET
, the progenitor of the Internet.
Benson also had the dubious distinction of firing a young, then-unknown comedian named Jerry Seinfeld
, who performed as Frankie the courier for three episodes during the 1980 season. Seinfeld would move on to NBC
and star in his own 1990's sitcom Seinfeld
.
At the end of the series' final episode (the seventh season finale), it was election night, and with the race still too close to call, Benson and Gatling, who had strained relations due to the race, made their peace with one another and sat down together to watch election returns together on television. As the broadcaster began to announce that a winner in the close election (with a third candidate also a potential winner) was at last being projected, the episode ended on a freeze frame of Benson and Gatling, leaving the series with an unresolved cliffhanger
. Coincidentally, Guillaume's previous series, and the one from which Benson spun off, Soap, was also canceled with unresolved cliffhangers, though Guillaume had moved on to Benson by that point.
According to the Internet Movie Database
, three endings were supposedly shot involving either a Gatling win, a win by Benson, or a surprise win by a wildcard candidate in the form of a crooked senator, putting both of them out of a job. None of these endings proved satisfactory to anyone involved in the show, so the decision was made to keep the ending unresolved.
In 2007, Benson showrunner Bob Fraser
said that the season ended on a cliffhanger at the request of the network. The show was canceled after the cliffhanger had aired. Fraser indicated that, had the show continued, Gatling would have won the election and Benson would have become a Senator.
released Season 1 of Benson on DVD in Region 1 for the first time. It is unknown if the remaining six seasons will be released at some point.
. The same house was seen in the 1993 movie The Beverly Hillbillies, and in a 2006 U.S. television commercial for the RE/MAX
real estate company.
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
which aired from September 13, 1979, to April 19, 1986, on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. The series was a spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
from the soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
Soap
Soap (TV series)
Soap is an American sitcom that originally ran on ABC from 1977 to 1981.The show was created as a parody of daytime soap operas, presented as a weekly half-hour prime time comedy. Similar to a soap opera, the show's story was presented in a serial format and included melodramatic plot elements such...
(the title character, portrayed by Robert Guillaume
Robert Guillaume
Robert "Bob" Guillaume is an American stage and television actor, best known for his role as Benson Du Bois on the TV-series Soap and the spin-off Benson, voicing the mandrill Rafiki in The Lion King and as Isaac Jaffe on Sports Night...
, had first appeared on the earlier series as the wise-cracking yet level-headed black butler for the highly dysfunctional Tate family); however, Benson discarded the soap opera format of its parent show in favor of a more conventional sitcom structure.
Series summary
In the show, Benson DuBois (Robert GuillaumeRobert Guillaume
Robert "Bob" Guillaume is an American stage and television actor, best known for his role as Benson Du Bois on the TV-series Soap and the spin-off Benson, voicing the mandrill Rafiki in The Lion King and as Isaac Jaffe on Sports Night...
) had been hired to be the head of household affairs for scatterbrained and widowed Governor
Governor (United States)
In the United States, the title governor refers to the chief executive of each state or insular territory, not directly subordinate to the federal authorities, but the political and ceremonial head of the state.-Role and powers:...
Eugene Gatling (James Noble
James Noble (actor)
James Noble is an American actor best known for his portrayal of the slightly daffy Governor Eugene Gatling on the 1980s sitcom Benson. He began his career in soap operas, most notably, The Brighter Day; As the World Turns, The Doctors and A World Apart...
), and his daughter Katie (Missy Gold
Missy Gold
Missy Gold is a former American child actress. She is best known as portraying the Governor's daughter, Katie, on the TV sitcom Benson ....
). Governor Gatling was cousin to Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond
Katherine Helmond
Katherine Marie Helmond is an American film, theater and television actress, who played Emily Dickinson on Meeting of Minds, as well as such fictional characters as Jessica Tate on Soap, Mona Robinson on Who's the Boss?, Doris Sherman on Coach, and Lois Whelan on Everybody Loves...
) and Mary Campbell (Cathryn Damon
Cathryn Damon
Cathryn Lee Damon was an American actress, best known for her roles on television sitcoms in the 1970s and 1980s....
), the two sisters on whose families the stories centered on Soap
Soap (TV series)
Soap is an American sitcom that originally ran on ABC from 1977 to 1981.The show was created as a parody of daytime soap operas, presented as a weekly half-hour prime time comedy. Similar to a soap opera, the show's story was presented in a serial format and included melodramatic plot elements such...
. The state of which Gatling was governor remained unidentified throughout the series, although Soap had taken place in Connecticut. The outside shots of the governor's mansion reveal a few palm trees on the property. Accordingly, that would limit the states in which Gatling was governor to the Gulf coast, south Atlantic coast or south Pacific coast states.
In spite of his somewhat off-center personality, Governor Gatling proved to be a very capable, caring and commanding figure when a crisis arose.
The show revolved around Benson's housekeeping dilemmas, his fights with the German cook Gretchen Wilhemina Kraus (Inga Swenson
Inga Swenson
Inga Swenson is an American actress.Inga Swenson was a graduate of Central High School in Omaha, Nebraska, Class of 1950...
, one of Guillaume's fellow alumni from Soap), and his interactions with John Taylor (Lewis J. Stadlen
Lewis J. Stadlen
Lewis J. Stadlen is an American stage and screen character actor.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, New York to voice actor Allen Swift, Stadlen studied acting with Sanford Meisner and Stella Adler...
), who assisted Governor Gatling as chief of staff. After the first season, Taylor's job was filled by Clayton Endicott III (Rene Auberjonois
Rene Auberjonois
René Murat Auberjonois is an American actor, known for portraying Father Mulcahy in the movie version of M*A*S*H and for creating a number of characters in long-running television series, including Clayton Endicott III on Benson , Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Chef Louis in The Little...
), who was written out by having him run for political office and actually snub his employer's endorsement. He lost the election but returned when Benson asked him to. In spite of their adversarial relationship (during the early years, Kraus' trademark line was a loud "I hear you!"), Benson and Kraus eventually became good friends. Benson also had very good friendships with the Governor's secretary, Marcy Hill (Caroline McWilliams
Caroline McWilliams
Caroline Margaret McWilliams was an American actress best known for her portrayal of Marcy Hill on the television series Benson and Sally on the television series Soap...
), and her successor, Denise (Didi Conn
Didi Conn
Didi Conn is an American film, stage and television actress.-Personal life:Conn was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of a clinical psychologist. "Didi" was her childhood nickname...
). Marcy left after the second season after getting married. Denise and Pete Downey (Ethan Phillips
Ethan Phillips
Ethan Phillips is an American actor, playwright and author. He is known for television roles such as Star Trek: Voyager's Neelix and Benson's Pete Downey.-Personal life:...
) met and later married while working in the governor's mansion, and were expectant parents for most of the third-to-last season. Both were written out, saying they left state government service because Denise got a job working for NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
.
Benson worked his way up the ladder during the series, going from head of household affairs, to state budget director (at which time his surname—DuBois—was revealed), and eventually was elevated to the position of Lieutenant Governor
Lieutenant governor
A lieutenant governor or lieutenant-governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction, but is often the deputy or lieutenant to or ranking under a governor — a "second-in-command"...
. During the final episodes of the 1985–1986 season, Benson ran for governor against Gatling. Kraus (who had herself moved up to head of household affairs) proved to be Benson's biggest supporter during this time as well. So much so, that he made her his personal assistant and campaign manager.
Benson has the distinction of being the first TV series to reference the Internet on an American network television. This occurred on the episode airing February 22, 1985 ("Scenario", season 6 episode 20)—in the episode, the characters were accessing the ARPANET
ARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network , was the world's first operational packet switching network and the core network of a set that came to compose the global Internet...
, the progenitor of the Internet.
Benson also had the dubious distinction of firing a young, then-unknown comedian named Jerry Seinfeld
Jerry Seinfeld
Jerome Allen "Jerry" Seinfeld is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and television and film producer, known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself in the situation comedy Seinfeld , which he co-created and co-wrote with Larry David, and, in the show's final two seasons,...
, who performed as Frankie the courier for three episodes during the 1980 season. Seinfeld would move on to NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
and star in his own 1990's sitcom Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
.
Series finale
The premise was that initially Gatling was prohibited from running for re-election due to term limits. Later it was revealed that he could run again if he did so as an independent candidate, which he decided to do. By this time, Benson had already won the nomination of Gatling's party, setting the stage for the two to go head-to-head in the general election.At the end of the series' final episode (the seventh season finale), it was election night, and with the race still too close to call, Benson and Gatling, who had strained relations due to the race, made their peace with one another and sat down together to watch election returns together on television. As the broadcaster began to announce that a winner in the close election (with a third candidate also a potential winner) was at last being projected, the episode ended on a freeze frame of Benson and Gatling, leaving the series with an unresolved cliffhanger
Cliffhanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction...
. Coincidentally, Guillaume's previous series, and the one from which Benson spun off, Soap, was also canceled with unresolved cliffhangers, though Guillaume had moved on to Benson by that point.
According to the Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
, three endings were supposedly shot involving either a Gatling win, a win by Benson, or a surprise win by a wildcard candidate in the form of a crooked senator, putting both of them out of a job. None of these endings proved satisfactory to anyone involved in the show, so the decision was made to keep the ending unresolved.
In 2007, Benson showrunner Bob Fraser
Bob Fraser
Bob Fraser was an American television producer, writer and actor.Fraser's most notable work is on the TV show Benson, where he played a recurring role as a state senator for 6 seasons, in addition to serving as a story editor, writer, and later producer of the series .After Benson, Fraser and...
said that the season ended on a cliffhanger at the request of the network. The show was canceled after the cliffhanger had aired. Fraser indicated that, had the show continued, Gatling would have won the election and Benson would have become a Senator.
DVD release
On July 24, 2007, Sony Pictures Home EntertainmentSony Pictures Home Entertainment
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is the home video distribution arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation. It was established in November 1979 as Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment, releasing 20 titles: The Anderson Tapes, Bell, Book and Candle, Born Free, Breakout,...
released Season 1 of Benson on DVD in Region 1 for the first time. It is unknown if the remaining six seasons will be released at some point.
Awards
Over the course of the show's seven-year run it was nominated for a total of 17 Emmys. It won two, including Best Actor in a Comedy Series for Guillaume's second-to-last season portraying the title character, marking the first, and to this day only time an African-American actor has won the award.Setting
The exterior shots of the "governor's mansion" are actually of a private home located at 1365 South Oakland Ave. in Pasadena, CaliforniaPasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
. The same house was seen in the 1993 movie The Beverly Hillbillies, and in a 2006 U.S. television commercial for the RE/MAX
RE/MAX
RE/MAX International is an international real estate company. It was founded in 1973 by David and Gail Liniger in Denver, Colorado, and is still owned by its founders. RE/MAX is an acronym for Real Estate MAXimum....
real estate company.