Schoolteacher Hannah Miller (Jamie Lee Curtis) is flying home to Chicago after breaking up with her lover in Los Angeles when she meets Marty Gold (Richard Lewis), a senior writer at Chicago Monthly magazine.
He arranges a job interview for Hannah there, she is hired as a researcher, and she and Marty become great buddies.
A new owner takes over the magazine, changes the name to Chicago Weekly, and trendy new editor Catherine Hughes (Ann Magnuson) promotes Hannah to writer.
The promotion prompts Hannah to move out of her father’s cabin and into an apartment with childhood friend Robin Dulitski (Holly Fulger).
Robin is a dental hygienist, and she and Hannah call each other “Mrs Schmenkman”. In the eleventh grade Hannah and Robin made a pact that if neither of them was married by age 30, they both would tell people their husbands were with the witness protection program. Lani O’Grady was heard as Hannah’s inner voice in several episodes.
The basic premise of the series was similar to that summer’s hit comedy film When Harry Met Sally: Can a man and woman be friends without going to bed together?
Hannah knows she is a very attractive woman and struggles to maintain her figure. She is especially proud of her breasts and calls them “The Girls”.
The editorial offices of the Chicago Weekly are in Room 702. Norman Kiel (Louis Giambalvo) was the original editor. He was replaced by the outlandish and unconventional Catherine Hughes (Ann Magnuson). Jules Bennett (Richard Frank) is Catherine’s mousey assistant, and Mike Urbanek (Bruce Weitz) is a columnist.
Brian Alquist (Joseph Maher) was the very British television critic in the first season episodes. Pressures from the job caused him to go berserk in Marshall Field’s Department Store and smash all the television sets on display in the video department (he is now in a mental hospital).
Hannah Miller
Jamie Lee Curtis Marty Gold
Richard Lewis Jules Bennett
Richard Frank Robin Dulitski
Holly Fulger Norman Kiel
Louis Giambalvo Catherine Hughes
Ann Magnuson Mike Urbanek
Bruce Weitz Patrick Serreau
John Ritter Brian Alquist
Joseph Maher
