1 9 7 9 (USA)
9 x 30 minute episodes
Screening between 1 February and 16 March 1979, Makin’ It was a sitcom about Italian-American Billy Manucci, who is obsessed with the disco scene – and the Inferno nightclub.
The Manucci family lived in King Street in Passaic, New Jersey.
Billy was played by David Naughton, who sang the Dr Pepper advertisements in the late 70s and went on to star in An American Werewolf In London (1981).
Lou Antonio played his bumbling dad, Joseph, and Ellen Travolta (sister of John) played his mother, Dorothy.
Billy was the middle child – he had a younger sister named Tina (Denise Miller) and an estranged-from-his-dad older brother Tony Herbert Manucci (Greg Antonacci).
Billy was trying to do well in college (he wanted to be a teacher), but there were many distractions – his daytime job at the Tasty Treats ice cream parlour (on an undetermined street with the address 3519).
His two dimwitted best friends were Al “Kingfish” Sorrentino (Ralph Seymour) – who carried a boom box with him everywhere – and numbskull Bernard Fusco (Gary Prendergast).
The show was heavily influenced by Saturday Night Fever (1977). The theme song became a top-five hit two months after the series had been cancelled.
Billy Manucci
David Naughton
Tony Manucci
Greg Antonacci
Tina Manucci
Denise Miller
Joseph Manucci
Lou Antonio
Dorothy Manucci
Ellen Travolta
Al “Kingfish” Sorrentino
Ralph Seymour
Bernard Fusco
Gary Prendergast
