All Is Forgiven

It's New York City. Paula Winters (Bess Armstrong) is marrying Matt Russell (Terence Knox) and meeting his 16 year old daughter Sonia Russell (Shawnee Smith) for the first time. He has a rising health donut company. She interviews for the producer's assistant job at the soap opera "All Is Forgiven" and gets the producer boss job. Nicolette Bingham (Carol Kane) is the head writer. Oliver Royce (David Alan Grier) is the new writer hire in episode two.

This is a late-season NBC sitcom replacement show. They burnt through the nine episodes and dropped it. The workplace sitcom part works pretty well especially with Carol Kane and David Alan Grier. They are really great individually and combined. The home part only half-works. Paula trying to be Sonia's mother is good story material. I've never considered Terence Knox as a sitcom actor. His St Elsewhere character really sticks and he works better in drama. This should really be a workplace sitcom. Maybe Shawnee Smith can be a teen actor on the show.

I think of this show often and I too wish I could see it again. I thought it was very funny and had some very memorable characters. I think it was a victim of not being in a good time slot. As I recall it was on Saturday nights. It was in reruns of cable for a while after it left NBC but had some obvious cuts so the channel could add more commercial time. Cant believe it was back in 1986. So many shows are out on DVD now but I guess there is no market for a short-lived TV series of so long ago. THere are always good shows that get canned because of bad ratings or bad time slots or being bounced around to different days. IF a show doesn't grab an audience right away the axe falls and there is no hope for it.

Terrific show, indeed.

The writing was ahead of its time, but the show never had a chance to smooth out the rough edges. The acting was all a bit stagy and overplayed. I'm sure they would have improved if they'd even had a full season.

One of the best lines came from Terence Knox's character, Matt. He was concerned that the family never had supper together. Here's a paraphrase (most likely) of the lines:

Even the Borgias sat down to eat together....They didn't all get up, but at least they made the effort.

I remember "All is Forgiven" mostly because I was going through a "aren't VCRs neat" phase, and decided it would be cool to tape all of the opening theme songs from the 1986 TV season. Since I've watched that tape a few times over the years, the cast of the show remains clear in my head.

I think the show would've grown on people, but they probably would have had to iron out the kinks between the home life and the work life (like "Barney Miller" did), because they didn't mesh very well.

One scene that stuck with me was a fight between stepdaughter Shawnee Smith and stepmother Bess Armstrong. They were fighting, and Bess thought she had the upper hand, shouting: "When you're old, I'm going to be there, dancing on your cake!" And Shawnee replied, "GOOD, because you certainly won't be able to CHEW it!" Did I mention I love Shawnee Smith? Though the "Saw" films made me see her in a whole new light.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who remembers this show. I enjoyed it a lot, not to mention I'm the same age as Shawnee Smith and had a thing for her. Two lines in the show that stick out for me are when Carol Kane's character said, "You've caught me between social engagements; my debutant party and my funeral." There's also the exchange between Bess Armstrong and her husband, when Bess has booked a vacation to Mexico, but he says he has some news for her. Enthused for her planned trip, she insists he sings the news to her, so to the tune of "Aye Yai Yai Yai," they sing:

Matt: You know my daughter.

Paula: Her name is Sonia Russell.

Matt: Well she got kicked out of school again and she's come to live with us forever.