Thea (TV series)
Thea is an American sitcom that premiered September 8, 1993, on ABC, and last aired on February 16, 1994, for a total of 19 episodes. Starring comedian Thea Vidale, the series marked the first time an African American female comedian was the star of a series named after her.[1]
| Thea | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by | Bernie Kukoff |
| Written by | Bill Bryan Lenore G. Bunt Dan Cohen Elias Davis Tom Devanney Michelle Jones Bernie Kukoff David Kukoff David Pollack F.J. Pratt Donald Seigel Terri Schaffer Hicks Chris Sheridan Latrice Williams |
| Directed by | John Bowab Linda Day Paul Kreppel Jay Sandrich Tony Singletary Chuck Vinson |
| Starring | Thea Vidale Adam Jeffries Brandy Norwood Jason Weaver Brenden Jefferson Cleavant Derricks Yvette Wilson |
| Theme music composer | Freddie Washington Benjamin Wright |
| Composer | Kurt Farquhar |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 19 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Bernie Kukoff Andrew Susskind |
| Producers | Tom Devanney Mary Ellen Jones |
| Running time | 22–24 minutes |
| Production companies | Castle Rock Entertainment Columbia Pictures Television |
| Distributor | Sony Pictures Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | September 8, 1993 – February 16, 1994 |
Synopsis
Thea Vidale starred as Thea Turrell, a widowed mother of four who worked in a Houston, Texas, supermarket by day and ran a single-chair beauty salon on the corner of her porch in the evenings.
Although the show initially attracted high ratings, viewership declined steadily over the course of the season, and the series was canceled after 19 episodes, having ended the season in 43rd place.
Cast
Main
- Thea Vidale — Thea Armstrong-Turrell, the show's title role; the no-nonsense widow and matriarch of four children
- Adam Jeffries — Jarvis Turrell, Jr., Thea's deadpan 16-year-old son
- Brandy Norwood — Danesha Turrell, Thea's bashful 15-year-old daughter
- Jason Weaver — Jerome Turrell, Thea's cunning 14-year-old son
- Brenden Jefferson — James Turrell, Thea's seven-year-old son
- Yvette Wilson — Lynette Armstrong-Russell, Thea's younger sister
- Cleavant Derricks — Charles Russell, Thea's brother-in-law
Recurring
- Kenny Ford, Jr. — Leonard Thurman, Danesha's boyfriend
- Miguel A. Nunez Jr. — Rickey, Thea's supervisor at Bagley's
- Arvie Lowe, Jr. — Otis, one of Jerome's friends
- Wesley Jonathan - Riddick, one of Jerome's friends
Guest
- Blake Clark — Roy Bennett, Thea's boss at Mickey's Barbecue
- Dennis Burkley — Walt Henderson, regular customer at Mickey's
- Scotch Byerley — Claude Cooper, regular at Mickey's
Episodes
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Pilot" | Jay Sandrich | Bernie Kukoff | September 8, 1993 | |
| Thea has a hectic routine: working at the supermarket checkout by day, dressing hair by night, and supervising her four demanding children. Jarvis gives his mother $25 which he earned delivering sandwiches during his school lunch hour, but she insists that he keep the money and eat his own lunch in the cafeteria. Danesha returns from taking James clothes-shopping, and James blabs that he had to keep trying on ill-fitting clothes while she talked on the phone to her new boyfriend Leonard, whom she's meeting at the library later. Thea insists that Leonard pick Danesha up at home so she can inspect him. Meanwhile, Jerome is supposedly at a friend's house doing a geography assignment, but Thea finds his geography book and knows that he has been at the video arcade instead, and grounds him before she leaves to attend a memorial service. It's the night of a big video-game competition, and Jerome sneaks out despite Jarvis' attempts to keep him at home, then must face Thea's wrath. | |||||
| 2 | "Jerome Makes the Grade" | Jay Sandrich | Tom Devanney | September 10, 1993 | |
| Jerome is failing English because of his desperate attempts to make the school basketball team. When Thea forces him to finish his book report on "To Kill a Mockingbird", he doesn't make the team but gets a B on his report. Meanwhile, Danesha attempts to submit a video to America's Funniest Home Videos. | |||||
| 3 | "Dirty Laundry" | TBA | TBA | September 15, 1993 | |
| The washing machine breaks down, which means endless trips to the laundromat. Meanwhile, Danesha's boyfriend is in hot water after he kisses another girl, and Thea puts him through the wringer before he can come clean with Danesha. | |||||
| 4 | "How I Got Over" | Jay Sandrich | Michelle Jones | September 29, 1993 | |
| Thea gets a chance to train for manager, but Jerome plans a boxing-match party while Thea is at her night-school class. | |||||
| 5 | "To Tell the Truth" | Jay Sandrich | Don Siegel | October 6, 1993 | |
| Jarvis lets his younger brother drive and they get into an accident, but the boys don't tell their mother who was behind the wheel. To punish them, Thea cooks up a scheme with Lynette, who pretends to have lost her wedding ring in her trash, now at the bottom of a very fragrant dumpster. | |||||
| 6 | "Artie's Party" | Chuck Vinson | Bill Bryan & Tom Devanney | October 13, 1993 | |
| Conflict brews when Arthur invites Jarvis to his bachelor party but Thea thinks he's too young to attend. | |||||
| 7 | "Here Comes Mr. Gordon" | TBA | TBA | October 15, 1993 | |
| Thea acquires an unwanted admirer. | |||||
| 8 | "Birthday Girl" | TBA | TBA | November 3, 1993 | |
| On her birthday, Thea's treasured gift of tickets to a Motown reunion concert go unused when her boss calls her in to work a replacement shift. | |||||
| 9 | "Danesha Loooves Leonard" | TBA | TBA | November 17, 1993 | |
| When Danesha's romance with Leonard disrupts the household, Jarvis and Jerome hatch a plan to split them up. | |||||
| 10 | "Mama, I'm Full" | TBA | TBA | November 24, 1993 | |
| Thea must work at the market on Thanksgiving, so she entrusts Danesha with the cooking of the family feast. | |||||
| 11 | "Good Stock" | TBA | TBA | December 1, 1993 | |
| Jerome finds he has a knack with stocks, which leads Thea to lend him a real-investment stake. | |||||
| 12 | "A Christmas Story" | TBA | TBA | December 15, 1993 | |
| Jarvis procrastinates putting up the Christmas lights because he's afraid of heights. | |||||
| 13 | "Danesha Project" | TBA | TBA | December 22, 1993 | |
| Danesha teams up with Cliff Croverd, the most popular guy in school, for a social-studies project on single parents. | |||||
| 14 | "Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow" | TBA | TBA | January 5, 1994 | |
| Thea finds herself in a hairy situation when she can't afford mandated improvements to her in-home salon and an inspector wants to close it down. | |||||
| 15 | "Who's Zoomin' Who" | TBA | TBA | January 12, 1994 | |
| Marcella uses Jerome to make her boyfriend Dwayne jealous, while Jerome uses the relationship to meet his own needs. Meanwhile, Thea decides to fix her own plumbing after Charles can't make time to do it for her. | |||||
| 16 | "Of Fish and Men" | TBA | TBA | January 19, 1994 | |
| Danesha is paired with a basketball star for a school project, but he tries to pass all the work off on her. | |||||
| 17 | "Call Me Thea" | TBA | TBA | February 2, 1994 | |
| Thea takes a day off, leaving the kids to do the household chores. She visits her favorite barbecue joint, Mickey's, but Mickey has died and new owner Roy's cooking doesn't come close, so Thea joins the restaurant as the head chef. | |||||
| 18 | "T.C.B." | TBA | TBA | February 9, 1994 | |
| Barbecue-sauce chef Thea is offered a restaurant partnership. | |||||
| 19 | "The Pie Queen and the Loan Duck" | TBA | TBA | February 16, 1994 | |
| Jarvis needs space and privacy to study for his college SATs. Meanwhile, Thea is outraged when she learns that Mitch Mallard, the banker who holds the mortgage on the diner, eats there for free. | |||||
Syndication
Reruns of the show aired on BET from 1994 to 1998 and returned to the same channel on Mother's Day in 2008 but stopped airing a few months later.
Ratings
- Episode 1: 13.6/22, 20.7 million, #11
- Episode 2: 10.4/20, 15.9 million, #29
- Episode 3: 15.0/24, 23.4 million, #10
- Episode 4: 10.1/17, 14.9 million, #52
- Episode 5: 10.5/17, 15.4 million, #52
- Episode 6: 10.3/16, 15.4 million, #53
- Episode 7: 11.2/18, 17.0 million, #40
- Episode 8: 10.0/16, 14.6 million, #57
- Episode 9: 9.7/15, 15.1 million, #55
- Episode 10: 9.3/16, 14.8 million, #56
- Episode 11: 13.6/21, 22.2 million, #23
- Episode 12: 9.6/16, 14.9 million, #54
- Episode 13: 8.5/14, 14.2 million, #61
- Episode 14: 11.4/17, 17.6 million, #45
- Episode 15: 10.2/16, 15.0 million, #58
- Episode 16: 11.5/17, 17.3 million, #47
- Episode 17: 10.1/16, 15.6 million, #59
- Episode 18: 10.7/16, 16.8 million, #48
- Episode 19: 9.2/14, #46 [2]
Award nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Recipient | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Young Artist Awards | Outstanding Youth Ensemble in a Television Series | Brandy Norwood, Jason Weaver, Brenden Jefferson and Adam Jeffries | Nominated |
References
- Littleton, Darryl (2006). Black Comedians on Black Comedy: How African-Americans Taught Us to Laugh. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 252. ISBN 1-55783-680-9.
- http://americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1994/BC-1994-02-28.pdf
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