1 9 8 9 – 1 9 9 0 (USA)
1 x 120 minute episode
6 x 60 minute episodes
This one-season comedy series produced by Walt Disney Television – initially as a two-hour TV movie – featured former I Dream of Jeannie star Barbara Eden as Barbara McCray, a waitress struggling to get her life back together after her husband walked out on her and left her to raise their three children – Ericka (Jennie Garth), Christy (Alison Sweeney) and Bart (David Tom).
Barbara was a waitress at ‘Order in the Court’, a diner next to the Los Angeles Superior Court Building. She lived at 708 Valley Drive and attended classes at Pacific Southwest School in the hope of pursuing a career as a court stenographer. She had married young and missed out on the opportunity to attend college.
Wealthy Yale graduate lawyer Roger Gibbons (Don Murray) was a widower and the father of three children: Amanda (Shawnee Smith), Laird (Byron Thames) and Barlow (Eric Foster).
They lived at 31304 South Birch Street in fashionable Bel Air.
One day Roger decided to have breakfast at Order in the Court and asked for “an ‘Exhibit A’ with no sausage.”
Barbara was his waitress, and it was love at first sight. They dated and became engaged one month later.
They married shortly after and honeymooned (with the kids) at Lake Helgramite, where Laird got a terrible case of poison oak and Ericka injured her back in a water-skiing accident.
The “Blended Family” (the series’ original title) established their new shared home at Roger’s Bel Air mansion.
Amanda and Ericka attended JFK High School, talented violinist Christy attended the Willow Crest School, and Bart was enrolled in the Hank E. Woodruff School.
The show was broadcast on NBC as part of the rotating Magical World of Disney format but showed up irregularly in several different timeslots with no hope of building a regular audience.
The theme tune was performed by Jill Colucci.
Barbara McCray Gibbons
Barbara Eden Roger Gibbons
Don Murray Bart McCray
David Tom Amanda Gibbons
Shawnee Smith Ericka McCray
Jennie Garth Laird Gibbons
Byron Thames Christy McCray
Alison Sweeney Barlow Gibbons
Eric Foster Grandma Zora
Lou Hancock
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Wealthy Yale graduate lawyer Roger Gibbons (Don Murray) was a widower and the father of three children: Amanda (Shawnee Smith), Laird (Byron Thames) and Barlow (Eric Foster).
