Bare Essence

1 9 8 3 (USA)
11 x 60 minute episodes

Patricia Louise (Tyger) Hayes (Genie Francis) was six years old when her mother, Roberta (Bobbi) Hayes (Jennifer O’Neill) left her and her father, Jack (not seen). Tyger cried so hard she had the hiccups for two days. When she went back to school, she told everyone that her mother had died.

Jack, a low budget Hollywood horror filmmaker, raised Tyger alone. When Tyger graduated from high school, she enrolled at UCLA. She attended classes for four years but never graduated because she was too busy assisting her father on such films as Halloween Sorority Massacre, Flight Inferno, The Wolfman of Tucson and Scream Blood, Mama.

In 1982, when Tyger turned 21, Jack died from a heart attack. At the funeral, Tyger is reunited with her estranged mother, now married for the fourth time, known as Lady Bobbi Rowan, and considered one of the world’s most beautiful women. Lord
Rowan, from whom Bobbi is later divorced, is not seen.

Bobbi extends an invitation to Tyger to visit her in New York, where she lives in a brownstone on Gramercy Park.

Shortly after, Tyger learns that Kellerco, a low profile, privately owned New York conglomerate, had backed her father’s films. Hoping to continue the project Jack started, Tyger decides to approach Kellerco.

Bobbi arranges for Tyger to meet the company owner, Hadden Marshall (John Dehner). Hadden tells her that the film has been declared a tax loss and he can do nothing to help her continue it. He does, however, offer her a job.

Hadden sets Tyger up with his grandson, Chase Marshall (Al Corley), a racing car driver whom Hadden has just made an executive in the hope of getting him into the business. When Tyger discovers that Kellerco is in financial trouble, she convinces Chase to begin a perfume company (at a low inventory and 1,000% markup). Hadden advances them $250,000 to start the company.

They hire Armand Habib (Francois-Marie Benard) of the DeHavilland Fragrances
in Grosse, France, to create the new perfume

“My mother always says women dress for other women, but I know they smell good for men”, says Tyger as she samples the new perfume. “It’s so basic, so primitive. It’s breathtaking, romantic and personal. It’s got to be … Bare Essence”.

With the Kellerco Perfume Company established, serial-like stories relate the power plays, love affairs and intrigues behind big business.

Other Regulars included Ava Marshall (Jessica Walter), Chase’s evil stepmother (married to his late father, Hugh) who seeks to destroy Tyger so her son, Marcus Marshall (Jonathan Frakes), can inherit the Marshall empire (the tension builds after Chase is killed in a racing car accident in Europe); Margaret Benedict (Susan French), Hadden’s sister; Sean Benedict (Michael Woods), Margaret’s son; and Kathy (Laura Brunea), Hadden’s granddaughter.

Patricia ‘Tyger’ Hayes
Genie Francis
Lady Bobbi Rowan/Hayes
Jennifer O’Neill
Ava Marshall
Jessica Walter
Chase Marshall
Al Corley
Sean Benedict
Michael Woods
Margaret Benedict
Susan French
Barbara Fisher
Jaime Lyn Bauer
Cathy
Laura Bruneau
Hadden Marshall
John Dehner
Marcus Marshall
Jonathan Frakes
Muffin Marshall
Wendy Fulton
Armand Habib
Francois-Marie Benard
Alexi Theophilus
Michael Nader
Niko Theophilus
Ian McShane
Alan
Richard Backus
Robert Spencer
Ted Le Plat
Kathy
Laura Brunea