Charles in Charge

Charles in Charge is an American sitcom television series that premiered on October 3, 1984, on CBS. The series was a production of Al Burton Productions and Scholastic Productions in association with Universal Television and starred Scott Baio, who had previously starred in Happy Days, in the title role. Willie Aames, who had previously been a cast member on Eight Is Enough, also starred as Charles’ best friend Buddy Lembeck.

This article is about the sitcom. For the episode of American Horror Story: Cult, see Charles (Manson) in Charge.
Charles in Charge
GenreSitcom
Created byMichael Jacobs
Barbara Weisberg
Starring
Theme music composer
Opening theme"Charles in Charge" performed by Shandi Sinnamon
Composers
  • David Kurtz (1987–88)
  • Timothy Thompson (1988–89)
  • Todd Hayen (1989–90)
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons5
No. of episodes126 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
  • Al Burton
  • Co-executive producers:
  • Jane Startz
  • Michael Jacobs (seasons 2–4)
Producers
  • Michael Jacobs
  • (season 1)
  • Roseanne Leto (pilot)
  • Mitchell Bank
  • Todd E. Kessler (seasons 2–4)
Running time22 minutes
Production companies
Distributor
Release
Original network
Original releaseOctober 3, 1984 (1984-10-03) –
November 10, 1990 (1990-11-10)

Charles in Charge joined the CBS Wednesday night lineup at 8 PM, placing it against ABC’s hit action series The Fall Guy and the new Michael Landon-led Highway to Heaven on NBC. At the time, with the exception of their Monday night comedies (Kate & Allie and Newhart), CBS’ sitcom lineup was not performing well in the ratings and Charles in Charge did not do much to change that. Still, the network allowed the show to remain in production to complete the 22 episodes it had ordered for the season.

After the February 27, 1985 episode, CBS placed Charles in Charge on hiatus. There were two episodes that had yet to air, and CBS aired them on March 13 and April 3, 1985. The network then dropped Charles in Charge from its Wednesday lineup in favor of the mystery drama series Double Dare; the show was moved to Saturday, where it aired in reruns for several weeks until it was replaced by the drama Cover Up. None of these series were renewed for a second season, nor were either of the two comedies that shared the hour with Charles in Charge (Dreams and E/R).

One year later, after seeing the success of some cancelled network series after they were revived for first-run syndication (which was a significant trend at the time), Universal decided to rework and relaunch Charles in Charge in syndication. The show premiered on local stations at the midway point of the 1986-87 season, with the first episode of the new series premiering on January 3, 1987. Four seasons were produced for syndication, with the last episode airing on November 10, 1990. A total of 126 episodes were produced, 22 in the abbreviated first season and 26 in each of the syndicated seasons.

Premise

The series takes place in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Charles, whose last name is never revealed, is a student at Copeland College (fictional, perhaps meant to represent Rutgers University whose main campus is in New Brunswick) and is nineteen years old when the series begins.

First season

Needing a place to live while attending school, Charles applies for a job working for Stan and Jill Pembroke, an affluent couple in search of a live-in housekeeper. An arrangement is reached where Charles would take the job with the Pembrokes while he attended Copeland, and in lieu of a salary he would receive room and board for his duties as caretaker for their children Jason, Douglas, and Lila, all three of whom are not much younger than he is. In addition to this, as well as his escapades with his best friend Buddy, Charles has a crush on fellow Copeland student Gwendolyn Pierce and spends quite a bit of his free time trying to court her, which never seems to work.

Syndicated series changes

When the show returned in 1987, only Scott Baio and Willie Aames returned from the original cast as the producers reworked the story to accommodate the changes in cast.

The second season’s first episode featured Charles returning to New Brunswick from his summer vacation only to discover an unfamiliar family living in the Pembrokes’ home. He learns that the Pembrokes left New Jersey while he was away and have moved across the country to Seattle. The new family, the Powells, agreed to sublet the house from the Pembrokes, which included retaining Charles’ services as live-in babysitter.

The Powell clan consisted of mother Ellen and grandfather Walter, who was Ellen’s husband’s father and who was living with them to fulfill his son’s role as he served overseas in the U.S. Navy. Like the Pembrokes, the Powells also had three children, daughters Jamie and Sarah and younger brother Adam.

Charles’ previously unseen mother Lillian became a central character in the revival series. She was played by Ellen Travolta, which marked the second time she had played mother to a character portrayed by Baio; she had done the same thing on Joanie Loves Chachi several years earlier.

Cast
Actor Character Seasons
1 2 3 4 5
Scott BaioCharlesMain
Willie AamesBuddy LembeckMain
Jennifer RunyonGwendolyn PierceMainGuestDoes not appear
James WiddoesStan PembrokeMainDoes not appear
Julie CobbJill PembrokeMainDoes not appear
April LermanLila PembrokeMainDoes not appear
Jonathan WardDouglas PembrokeMainDoes not appear
Michael PearlmanJason PembrokeMainGuestDoes not appear
James T. CallahanWalter PowellDoes not appearMain
Sandra KernsEllen PowellDoes not appearMainGuestRecurring
Nicole EggertJamie PowellDoes not appearMain
Josie DavisSarah PowellDoes not appearMain
Alexander PolinskyAdam PowellDoes not appearMain
Ellen TravoltaLillianDoes not appearRecurringMain

Michael Pearlman and Jennifer Runyon are the only other actors, besides Baio and Aames, to reprise their roles on the show after the first season. Pearlman appeared in the second-season premiere, "Amityville". (Lisa Donovan played Jill Pembroke in that episode.) Runyon appeared in "Twice Upon a Time (Part 1)" and "Twice Upon a Time (Part 2)".

In the final two seasons, Sandra Kerns only made three more appearances (once in season 4 and twice in season 5). Baio and Aames are the only two cast members that appear in every single episode.

Theme song

The theme song was composed by David Kurtz, Michael Jacobs, and Al Burton, and performed by Shandi Sinnamon. The theme music was mellower in the first season, and was remixed for the syndication run.

The song was performed by the a cappella group The Blanks in the medical sitcom, Scrubs, and was featured on their 2004 album, Riding the Wave.

Home media

Universal Pictures released a 3-disc set of the first season of Charles in Charge on DVD in North America on February 14, 2006. Due to poor sales, no further seasons were released.

In September 2007, it was announced that Arts Alliance America (which subsequently changed its name to Virgil Films & Entertainment during the summer of 2007) had acquired the rights to the series.[1] They subsequently released seasons 2–5 on DVD. Seasons 4 and 5 were Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) releases, available exclusively through Amazon.com.[2][3]

DVD name Ep # Release date
The Complete First Season 22 February 14, 2006
The Complete Second Season 26 November 20, 2007
The Complete Third Season 26 May 20, 2008
The Complete Fourth Season 26 March 24, 2009
The Complete Fifth and Final Season 26 July 28, 2009

Streaming

All five seasons of the series were made available for streaming through Amazon Video and season one only on Hulu Plus.[4]

In addition, the entire series can be streamed on the NBC.com app.

Syndication

When Charles in Charge returned to television, there had been an arrangement made with stations owned by Tribune Broadcasting to carry the program in first-run. Through this arrangement, the show was also able to gain nationwide carriage as its Chicago affiliate, WGN-TV, was transmitting its feed nationwide.

In 1988, with the series nearing the one hundred episode mark, distributor MCA Television began advertising in trade publications that they would begin selling reruns of Charles in Charge to local stations for a fall 1989 launch. The show reached the hundred episode mark when the 1988-89 season ended, and the show began airing daily in syndication shortly thereafter. After the final episode aired in 1990, the syndication package added them as well; the package included the first 22 episodes that had aired on CBS and the 78 that had aired over the first three seasons in syndication.[5]

Stations that carried Charles in Charge
City Station
Albany WTEN 10
Atlanta WGNX 46[6]
Baltimore WNUV 54[7]
Boston WLVI 56[8]
Bristol WEMT 39
Charleston WVAH 11[9]
Chicago WGN 9[10][11][12]
Cincinnati WXIX 19[13]
Cleveland WUAB 43[14][15]
Columbus WWHO 53[16]
Detroit WPGR 62
Denver KWGN 2[17]
Fort Wayne WFFT 55[18]
Fort Worth KTVT 11[19]
Flint WSMH 66[20]
Greensboro WGGT 48[21]
Harrisburg WPMT 43
Hartford WHCT 18[22]
Houston KHTV 39[23]
Huntsville WZDX 54[24][25][26][27]
Kansas City KZKC 62[28]
Knoxville WKCH 43[29]
Lansing WSYM 47[20]
Las Vegas KRLR 21
Los Angeles KCAL 9
KTLA 5[30][31]
Memphis WPTY 24
Miami WBFS 33[32]
Milwaukee WVTV 18[33]
Nashville WZTV 17
New York WPIX 11[34][35][36][37][38]
Norfolk WGNT 27
Omaha KPTM 42[39]
Orlando WKCF 18[40]
Pensacola WJTC 44[41]
Philadelphia WPHL 17[42]
WGBS 57[43]
Phoenix KNXV 15
Pittsburgh WPGH 53[44][45]
Portland OR KPDX 49
Raleigh WLFL 22[46]
Reno KOLO 8
Richmond WRLH 35
WVRN 63[47]
Sacramento KMAX 31
KTXL 40[48]
Salt Lake City KSL 5[49]
KUTV 2
San Antonio KABB 29[50]
San Francisco KGO 7
San Diego XETV 6
Seattle KSTW 11[51]
Spokane KAYU 28[52][53]
St. Louis KDNL 30[54]
Syracuse WSYT 68[55]
Tampa WFTS 28
Toledo WUPW 36[56]
Tucson KTTU 18[57]
Wichita KSAS 24[58]
York WPMT 43[59]

See also

References
  1. "Charles in Charge DVD news: Announcement for Charles In Charge - The Complete 2nd Season - TVShowsOnDVD.com". Archived from the original on 2012-04-19.
  2. Where Does the 4th Season of the Scott Baio Series Currently Stand? Archived 2009-02-08 at the Wayback Machine TVShowsOnDVD.com. January 28, 2009.
  3. Charles in Charge – The 5th and Final Season is Available on DVD in July! Archived 2009-06-07 at the Wayback Machine TVShowsOnDVD.com. June 5, 2009
  4. Amazon Video: Charles in Charge Retrieved January 23, 2013
  5. "Scott Baio Willie Aames 1988 Ad- Charles In Charge MCA TV". Collectors.com.
  6. WGNX 46 (Atlanta) Commercial Breaks (1990/1991)-Part 1 of 2 on YouTube
  7. "Retro: DC/Baltimore/Delmarva Tues, Sept 8, 1987". Radio Discussions. September 7, 2011.
  8. "Retro: Maine Sat, June 6, 1987". Radio Discussions. June 2, 2011.
  9. "Retro:Charleston-Huntington, West Virginia, Saturday 1/10/87 (Excluding PBS)". Radio Discussions. June 1, 2007.
  10. 1989 WGN Charles in Charge promos on YouTube
  11. 1988 charles in charge commercial on YouTube
  12. 1989 WGN Comedy commercial on YouTube
  13. 19XIX Charles In Charge Bump - 1989/1990 on YouTube
  14. 33 minutes of TV commercials from 1986 and 1987 (WUPW WUAB 80s) on YouTube
  15. 90's Commercials Vol. 213 on YouTube
  16. "Retro: Columbus, OH Metropolitan, Monday, Mar. 7th, 1988". Radio Discussions. September 29, 2012.
  17. "Retro: Montana Sun, Aug 27, 1989". Radio Discussions. August 29, 2013.
  18. "Northern Indiana - Sunday, February 26, 1989". Radio Discussions. October 13, 2006.
  19. "Retro: Oklahoma City - Week of April 22, 1990". Radio Discussions. January 19, 2019.
  20. "Retro: Owosso, MI, Sunday, November 15, 1987". Radio Discussions. November 23, 2017.
  21. "Retro: Eastern North Carolina Sat, Oct 6, 1990". Radio Discussions. October 6, 2010.
  22. 80's Commercials Vol. 517 on YouTube
  23. "Retro: Houston Saturday, February 28-Sunday, March 1, 1987". Radio Discussions. March 6, 2010.
  24. Charles In Charge - Promo - 1987 - WZDX 54 - Huntsville Alabama on YouTube
  25. Charles In Charge - Promo - 1990 - Fox 54 Huntsville Alabama on YouTube
  26. Charles In Charge -Bumper - 1987 - WZDX - Huntsville Alabama on YouTube
  27. WZDX Fox 54 - Bumper - 1991 - The Brady Bunch & Charles in Charge Three's Company Mama's Family on YouTube
  28. Weekday Afternoon Commercials (KZKC 62) - September 1989 on YouTube
  29. "Retro: Harlan, KY, Saturday, September 26, 1987". Radio Discussions. December 19, 2017.
  30. KTLA Movie Ending / KTLA Charles In Charge Promo 2/2/87 on YouTube
  31. WON The Plus 5.2's Back In Time-KTLA-TV News,Sports & Movies Intros, Promos & Bumpers (1970s-2000s) on YouTube
  32. "WBFS Miami Weekday Schedules (first 20 years, 1984-2003)". Radio Discussions. August 26, 2014.
  33. "Retro: Milwaukee, WI, Monday October 2, 1989 2 Independents". Radio Discussions. March 27, 2015.
  34. WPIX commercials (April 1990) on YouTube
  35. Charles in Charge (1990 Promo) on YouTube
  36. WPIX 1992 Charles In Charge Commercial on YouTube
  37. 1987 Feb 10 WPIX Commercials on YouTube
  38. An Hour Of "Charles In Charge" On WPIX on YouTube
  39. "Retro: Nebraska/Central-East South Dakota/Sioux City Sat, July 4, 1987". Radio Discussions. July 12, 2010.
  40. "Retro: Daytona Beach, FL broadcast, March 4th, 1991". Radio Discussions. July 17, 2011.
  41. "Retro: Gulf Coast Sat, Sept 12, 1987". Radio Discussions. September 21, 2009.
  42. "SYNDICATED PROGRAMS THAT HAVE JUMPED FROM STATION TO STATION". Radio Discussions. February 12, 2006.
  43. The Best Of WGBS Philly 57, 1986-1988 on YouTube
  44. "Retro: Pittsburgh, Thursday, May 3, 1990". Radio Discussions. May 22, 2019.
  45. Bianco, Robert (August 25, 1987). "2 versions of 'Family Ties,' first-run sitcoms in WPGH lineup". The Pittsburgh Press.
  46. WLFL MON 22 JAN 2001
  47. May 6, 1988 Commercial Breaks – WVRN (Ind., Richmond) on YouTube
  48. "Retro: Fresno Sat/Sun 2/21-22/87 (pt 2)". Radio Discussions. August 16, 2005.
  49. "Retro: Montana Mon, Aug 28, 1989". Radio Discussions. September 2, 2013.
  50. KABB-TV 29 Show Promos and ID 1987 on YouTube
  51. KSTW Charles in Charge promo, 1989 on YouTube
  52. November 5, 1989 commercials (Vol. 2) on YouTube
  53. 1988 Commercial Block - Volume Thirteen - HD on YouTube
  54. KDNL ST. Louis commercials 1990 on YouTube
  55. Charles in Charge topical promo on YouTube
  56. "Laughs for Dessert!". THE VINTAGE TOLEDO TV SITE.
  57. "Retro: Tucson AZ Tue, Dec 10, 1991". Radio Discussions. December 9, 2019.
  58. "Retro: Kansas Sat, May 6, 1989". Radio Discussions. May 3, 2011.
  59. "Retro: Reading/Philadelphia, Saturday, July 25, 1987". Radio Discussions. November 22, 2017.
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