Duet (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Duet is an American sitcom
that aired on Fox
from April 19, 1987 to August 20, 1989 (the first Paramount Television production ever to air on that network). The series stars Matthew Laurance as Ben Coleman, Mary Page Keller
as Laura Kelly, Chris Lemmon
as Richard Phillips, and Alison LaPlaca
as Linda Phillips.
). Richard and Linda were a high-powered yuppie
couple. He was in the family patio-furniture business and she was a studio executive. Linda's boss at World Wide Studios was Cooper Hayden (Larry Poindexter
), who eventually became infatuated with Jane Kelly. Richard later quit his job to become a professional pianist. Geneva (Arleen Sorkin
) was the Phillipses' wisecracking, sexy maid who sometimes fraternized with the sisters.
In the 1987-88 season finale, Linda gave birth to a daughter, Amanda, who grew into a three-year-old (Ginger Orsi) capable of speech by the start of the series' third and final season. When the 1988-89 season began, Ben and Laura had married, and Linda had lost her job at World Wide Studios. Linda then sought a partnership in Laura's catering business. Just prior to the end of that season, Linda met real estate mogul Ted Nichols, played by guest star and LaPlaca's then-boyfriend, Philip Charles MacKenzie
. Ted schmoozed her into joining his realty firm, selling upscale properties to snobs just like herself. Shortly after, Fox announced its cancellation of Duet, and with LaPlaca as its breakout star, both she and MacKenzie shared the lead in its spin-off
, Open House
.
.
The theme music over the opening titles was composed by Buddy Budson, and in the first two seasons performed by Ursula Walker and Tony Franklin.
Beginning in season two, the opening titles changed to begin featuring clips of the characters in scenes from the show. These were book-ended by the show's title appearing in gold on a maroon leather-textured photo album cover, which opened to reveal the series of episode clips, and the photo album closing, with creators Ruth Bennett and Susan Seeger being credited in gold on the album cover. In season three, the same sequence style remained, but the theme music was rearranged into a complete synth/electric guitar instrumental, with the guitar taking the place of the notes sung by vocalists Walker and Franklin.
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...
that aired on Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
from April 19, 1987 to August 20, 1989 (the first Paramount Television production ever to air on that network). The series stars Matthew Laurance as Ben Coleman, Mary Page Keller
Mary Page Keller
Mary Page Keller is an American actress known for roles on both daytime and primetime television.-Career:On daytime, Keller played the role of Amanda Kirkland on Ryan's Hope and the role of Sally Frame on Another World...
as Laura Kelly, Chris Lemmon
Chris Lemmon
-History:Lemmon was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actress Cynthia Stone and actor Jack Lemmon. With a natural talent for music, he was encouraged by his father to study piano. Lemmon considered playing piano professionally after having graduated from the California Institute of the...
as Richard Phillips, and Alison LaPlaca
Alison LaPlaca
Alison LaPlaca is an American actress best known for the role of acid-tongued yuppie Linda Phillips in the Fox sitcoms Duet and its spin-off Open House, both of which aired in the late 1980s....
as Linda Phillips.
Synopsis
Ben is a struggling mystery novelist while his girlfriend Laura is a caterer with her younger sister Jane (Jodi ThelenJodi Thelen
Jodi Thelen is an American actress.Born in St. Cloud, Minnesota, Thelen made her screen debut as Georgia Miles, "a willfully free-spirited girl, naive and narcissistic" in Four Friends in 1981....
). Richard and Linda were a high-powered yuppie
Yuppie
Yuppie is a term that refers to a member of the upper middle class or upper class in their 20s or 30s. It first came into use in the early-1980s and largely faded from American popular culture in the late-1980s, due to the 1987 stock market crash and the early 1990s recession...
couple. He was in the family patio-furniture business and she was a studio executive. Linda's boss at World Wide Studios was Cooper Hayden (Larry Poindexter
Larry Poindexter
Larry Poindexter is an American actor and singer born and raised in Dallas, Texas.-Life and career:Poindexter is currently best known for his role in 2003's S.W.A.T., where he played by the book LAPD Captain Tom Fuller who went head to head with Samuel Jackson's Hondo...
), who eventually became infatuated with Jane Kelly. Richard later quit his job to become a professional pianist. Geneva (Arleen Sorkin
Arleen Sorkin
Arleen Sorkin is an American actress, screenwriter, presenter and comedienne. Sorkin is known for portraying Calliope Jones on the NBC daytime serial Days of our Lives and for voicing Batman DC comic supervillainess Harley Quinn in Batman: The Animated Series and the many animated series and...
) was the Phillipses' wisecracking, sexy maid who sometimes fraternized with the sisters.
In the 1987-88 season finale, Linda gave birth to a daughter, Amanda, who grew into a three-year-old (Ginger Orsi) capable of speech by the start of the series' third and final season. When the 1988-89 season began, Ben and Laura had married, and Linda had lost her job at World Wide Studios. Linda then sought a partnership in Laura's catering business. Just prior to the end of that season, Linda met real estate mogul Ted Nichols, played by guest star and LaPlaca's then-boyfriend, Philip Charles MacKenzie
Philip Charles MacKenzie
Philip Charles MacKenzie is an American actor and television director. He is best known for his role as Donald Maltby on Brothers, and as Ted Nichols on Open House, which he worked on with his current wife Alison LaPlaca.-Career:...
. Ted schmoozed her into joining his realty firm, selling upscale properties to snobs just like herself. Shortly after, Fox announced its cancellation of Duet, and with LaPlaca as its breakout star, both she and MacKenzie shared the lead in its 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...
, Open House
Open House (TV series)
Open House is an American sitcom that aired on Fox from August 27, 1989 to July 21, 1990. The series was a spin-off of the Fox series Duet...
.
Opening titles
The show's first season opening title sequence, showing cast member names written on dresser drawers, dog food dishes and other props, was produced by creator Susan Seeger's brother, David Seeger, and father, noted animator Hal SeegerHal Seeger
Harold "Hal" Seeger was an animated cartoon producer and director who owned his own studio the Hal Seeger Studio ....
.
The theme music over the opening titles was composed by Buddy Budson, and in the first two seasons performed by Ursula Walker and Tony Franklin.
Beginning in season two, the opening titles changed to begin featuring clips of the characters in scenes from the show. These were book-ended by the show's title appearing in gold on a maroon leather-textured photo album cover, which opened to reveal the series of episode clips, and the photo album closing, with creators Ruth Bennett and Susan Seeger being credited in gold on the album cover. In season three, the same sequence style remained, but the theme music was rearranged into a complete synth/electric guitar instrumental, with the guitar taking the place of the notes sung by vocalists Walker and Franklin.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Matthew Laurance | Ben Coleman |
| Mary Page Keller | Laura Kelly |
| Jodi Thelen | Jane Kelly |
| Chris Lemmon | Richard Phillips |
| Alison LaPlaca | Linda Phillips |
| Larry Poindexter | Cooper Hayden |
| Arleen Sorkin | Geneva |
| Ginger Orsi | Amanda Phillips |
Season 1 (1987)
| № | Prod. code |
Episode title | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 001 | "Prelude" | April 19, 1987 |
| 2 | 002 | "Overture" | April 19, 1987 |
| 3 | 003 | "Adagio (a.k.a. Not a Date)" | April 26, 1987 |
| 4 | 004 | "Variations on a Theme" | May 5, 1987 |
| 5 | 005 | "Dissonance (a.k.a. Murdock Exposed)" | May 10, 1987 |
| 6 | 009 | "Lullabye (a.k.a. Ensemble)" | May 17, 1987 |
| 7 | 007 | "Fugue (a.k.a. Old, Old, Old Friends)" | May 24, 1987 |
| 8 | 008 | "Interlude" | May 24, 1987 |
| 9 | 010 | "Liebestraum" | May 31, 1987 |
| 10 | 011 | "Work in Progress" | June 7, 1987 |
| 11 | 006 | "The Long Goodbye" | June 14, 1987 |
| 12 | 012 | "Trio" | June 21, 1987 |
| 13 | 013 | "Passage" | June 28, 1987 |
Season 2 (1987-1988)
| № | Prod. code |
Episode title | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | 014 | "Apart" | September 26, 1987 |
| 15 | 016 | "You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Leaves You" | October 3, 1987 |
| 16 | 015 | "The Cower of Love" | October 10, 1987 |
| 17 | 017 | "Lots of Things Happen" | October 17, 1987 |
| 18 | 018 | "Strange Bedfellows" | October 25, 1987 |
| 19 | 019 | "Satin Doll" | November 1, 1987 |
| 20 | 021 | "Jane's Getting Serious" | November 8, 1987 |
| 21 | 024 | "I Never Played for My Father (Part 1)" | November 15, 1987 |
| 22 | 025 | "I Never Played for My Father (Part 2)" | November 22, 1987 |
| 23 | 022 | "Born, Bred and Buttered in Brooklyn" | November 29, 1987 |
| 24 | 023 | "Fatal Distraction" | December 13, 1987 |
| 25 | 026 | "A Hero is Just a Sandwich" | January 17, 1988 |
| 26 | 027 | "The Package" | January 24, 1988 |
| 27 | 028 | "Baby Talk" | February 7, 1988 |
| 28 | 030 | "Funny Valentine" | February 14, 1988 |
| 29 | 031 | "The Candidate" | February 21, 1988 |
| 30 | 029 | "Special Delivery" | February 28, 1988 |
| 31 | 032 | "Oh My God, I Left the Baby on the Bus" | March 6, 1988 |
| 32 | 034 | "Mommy and Me" | March 13, 1988 |
| 33 | 033 | "Lady on a Grate" | March 20, 1988 |
| 34 | 035 | "Good Intentions" | May 1, 1988 |
| 35 | 020 | "No Reservations" | July 10, 1988 |
Season 3 (1988-1989)
| № | Prod. code | Episode title | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 36 | 40263-036 | "Partners" | October 30, 1988 |
| 37 | 40263-037 | "Deja Two" | November 6, 1988 |
| 38 | 40263-038 | "It's My Party" | November 13, 1988 |
| 39 | 40263-039 | "For Richard, For Poorer" | November 20, 1988 |
| 40 | 40263-040 | "Oh, Boy!" | November 27, 1988 |
| 41 | 40263-041 | "One Man Out" | December 11, 1988 |
| 42 | 40263-042 | "His Mother, Myself" | December 18, 1988 |
| 43 | 40263-043 | "Brother from Another Zip Code" | January 15, 1989 |
| 44 | 40263-044 | "Sister of the Year" | January 29, 1989 |
| 45 | 40263-045 | "The New and Improved Linda" | February 5, 1989 |
| 46 | 40263-046 | "Too Many Cooks" | February 12, 1989 |
| 47 | 40263-047 | "Read Between the Lines" | February 19, 1989 |
| 48 | 40263-048 | "Don't Quit Your Day Job" | February 26, 1989 |
| 49 | 40263-049 | "True Stories" | March 12, 1989 |
| 50 | 40263-050 | "Role Call" | March 26, 1989 |
| 51 | 40263-051 | "Kiss and Break Up" | April 9, 1989 |
| 52 | 40263-052 | "On the Nose" | April 23, 1989 |
| 53 | 40263-053 | "Richie and the Vamp" | April 30, 1989 |
| 54 | 40263-054 | "Open House" | May 7, 1989 |