No one can ever deny that this was such an engaging show. The elements are all fabulous. It looked like a creative mix of (Annie, The Sound of Music, and maybe My Fair Lady). It got all the 1980s' innocent feel and brilliant appeal all over it.
(Joseph Bologna) made one of his most amusing, most memorable roles ever. He was simply great as (Nick Foley) the ever sarcastic self-made millionaire who to develop a 'family man' image finds himself overnight as unmarried father for 5, mostly teenager, orphaned girls who he adopted. He was part plebeian businessman, and part magnanimous man, looking kindly on his daughters learning them and learning from them. After more than 15 years of watching, I still remember his witty lines, like "she seemed like someone who turns into bat at night" (about a bossy schoolmaster!). The funny characters, and the live performance, captured my heart colorfully. True that the songs weren't favorite since I'm not a fan of all the 60s rock, but the idea of a musical series in this format with this era as background is just perfect. So, what did go wrong?
As I read, that was too expensive to be made. So after 20 episodes, they canceled it. It's devastating, as I wanted to see this family through the 1960s variables, suffering controversial issues, facing the revolutionary 60s' end and musically, but the marvelous chance had gone away.
After just 3 years, there would be another bold experience, and I mean (Cop Rock - 1990), which was another musical TV show that would be canceled brutally after 11 episodes only. It was a sign that the musical genre couldn't survive on the American TV screen anymore. And I think it's natural after the MTV boom years earlier, with unstoppable flood of music videos 24 hours a day. Still the 1980s is the last days for gems like these to be made.
It's really provoking when you know that at the same year of (Rags to Riches) another show was made but to outlive more than 20 years after, and its name is (The Bold and the Beautiful).. No Comment!
