Working (TV series)

Working took a satirical (and sometimes over-the-top) look at office life within a big corporate company. The show starred Fred Savage as the naive Matt Peyser who had just graduated from college and was ready to climb the corporate ladder. His ideals are constantly challenged by his boss, Tim Deale, played by Maurice Godin. Other characters included dim-witted Jimmy (Dana Gould), under-appreciated secretary Hal (Sarah Knowlton), overly perky Abby Cosgrove (Arden Myrin), acerbic Delaney (Steve Hytner), and no-nonsense manager Evelyn (Yvette Freeman), that Matt makes friends and work with.

Due to faltering ratings, the network attempted to breathe new life into the show during the second season with some cast changes. This included writing out the characters of Jimmy and Hal. They were replaced by Debi Mazar as the ruthless Liz and Rebecca McFarland as Val (As an in-joke, when Matt first sees Liz and Val he mistakenly calls them Jimmy and Hal). During the series run, Danica McKellar, formerly Savage's costar in The Wonder Years, made two guest-appearances playing a woman Savage's character meets in a bar, and of whom he says "she reminds me of a girl I grew up with!"

Ratings for the series didn't improve, however, and NBC canceled Working in January 1999. 35 of the 39 episodes produced were aired.

The show used a sound-alike version of Devo's cover of the song "Working in the Coal Mine", set over top of scenes of work, including marching workers from the film Metropolis, frantic work scenes from Terry Gilliam's Brazil and office scenes from Billy Wilder's The Apartment. The vocals of the theme song were removed for the USA Network broadcasts.

• Fred Savage as Matt Peyser
• Maurice Godin as Tim Deale
• Yvette Freeman as Evelyn Smalley
• Sarah Knowlton as Hal Blum (season 1)[Note 1]
• Arden Myrin as Abby Cosgrove[Note 1]
• Todd Waring (pilot only) and Steve Hytner as John Delaney
• Joey Slotnick (pilot only) and Dana Gould as Jimmy Clarke (season 1)
• Kate Hodge as Chris Grant (10 episodes, season 1)
• Rebecca McFarland as Val Gibson (season 2)
• Debi Mazar as Liz Tricoli (season 2)

Working reaired on the USA Network from 1999 to 2001, including the four episodes that were unaired during its original run.

• Working at IMDb
• Working at TV.com
• Working at epguides.com