Joe and Valerie

1 9 7 8 – 1 9 7 9 (USA)
8 x 30 minute episodes

This short-lived NBC comedy was an attempt to copy the success of Saturday Night Fever (1977) and featured the romantic ups and downs of two kids from Brooklyn – apprentice plumber Joe Pizo (Paul Regina) and department store cosmetics salesgirl Valerie Sweetzer (Char Fontane) – who met at a disco when Joe bet his buddies $5 that he could lure her away from her partner on the dance floor.

Regular characters included Joe’s father, Vincent (Robert Costanzo); Valerie’s divorced mother, Stella (Pat Benson in season 1 and Arlene Golonka in season 2); Valerie’s friend, Rita (Donna Ponterotto) and Joe’s buddies, hearse driver Paulie (David Elliott) and chauvinist Frank (Bill Beyers and Lloyd Alan). Joe and the other two guys share an apartment and call themselves ‘the Big Three’.

The second season began with the marriage (on 12 January 1979) of Joe and Valerie – with Vincent insisting Valerie wore his wife’s old and outdated wedding dress, Paulie and Frank arguing over who would be Best Man, and Stella threatening to cancel if her ex-husband showed his face at the wedding – and followed their efforts to begin married life together.

Joe Pizo
Paul Regina
Valerie Sweetzer
Char Fontane
Frank Berganski
Bill Beyers (1)
Lloyd Alan (2)
Paulie Barone
David Elliott
Rita
Donna Ponterotto
Stella Sweetzer
Pat Benson (1)
Arlene Golonka (2)
Vincent Pizo
Robert Costanzo