Grand (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Grand was a half-hour situation comedy
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...

 that aired on the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 network in 1990
1990 in television
For the American TV schedule, see: 1990-91 United States network television schedule.The year 1990 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1990.-Events:-Debuts:-1950s:...

. The series featured an ensemble cast
Ensemble cast
An ensemble cast is made up of cast members in which the principal actors and performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and screen time in a dramatic production. This kind of casting became more popular in television series because it allows flexibility for writers to focus on...

 including Pamela Reed
Pamela Reed
Pamela Reed is an American actress. She is known for playing Ruth Powers in various episodes of TV's The Simpsons, as Arnold Schwarzenegger's hypoglycemic partner in the 1990 movie Kindergarten Cop and as the matriarch Gail Green in Jericho...

, Bonnie Hunt
Bonnie Hunt
Bonnie Lynne Hunt is an American actress, comedian, writer, director, television producer and daytime television host.- Early life :...

, Michael McKean
Michael McKean
Michael John McKean is an American actor, comedian, writer, composer and musician, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Squiggy's friend, Leonard 'Lenny' Kosnowski, on the sitcom Laverne and Shirley; and for his work in the Christopher Guest ensemble films, particularly as David St...

, John Randolph
John Randolph (actor)
John Randolph was an American film, television and stage actor.-Early life:Randolph was born Emanuel Hirsch Cohen in New York City, the son of Jewish immigrants Dorothy , an insurance agent, and Louis Cohen, a hat manufacturer...

, Andrew Lauer
Andrew Lauer
-Life and career:Lauer may be best known to America acting as "Charlie" on the hit NBC comedy series Caroline in the City. He recently wrapped principal photography directing the motion picture Adventures of a Teenage Dragon Slayer starring Lea Thompson and Wendie Malick. The film will be released...

, John Neville, Joel Murray
Joel Murray
Joel Murray is an American actor who has starred in film and on television.-Early life:Murray, one of nine children, was born and raised in Wilmette, Illinois , the son of Lucille , a mail room clerk, and Edward J. Murray II, a lumber salesman. Murray, along with his siblings, grew up in an Irish...

 and Sara Rue
Sara Rue
Sara Rue is an American television actress. She is best known for the roles she played as Carmen Ferrara on the comedy-drama Popular and Claude Casey on the sitcom Less Than Perfect. She is also known as a spokesperson for Jenny Craig...

. It was created by Michael Leeson
Michael J. Leeson
Michael J. Leeson is an American screenwriter.-Filmography:*Love, American Style *All in the Family *The Partridge Family *The Odd Couple *Happy Days...

, executive produced by Leeson, Marcy Carsey
Marcy Carsey
Marcy Carsey is American television producer. She is best known for her work with fellow producer Tom Werner forming the company Carsey-Werner Productions in 1981.-Life and career:...

 and Tom Werner
Tom Werner
Thomas Charles "Tom" Werner is an American television producer and businessman who, via his investment in New England Sports Ventures, is chairman of the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool Football Club....

. Grand ran for 25 episodes, from January 18 to December 27, 1990.

Premise

Grand was a comedy of manners
Comedy of manners
The comedy of manners is a genre of play/television/film which satirizes the manners and affectations of a social class, often represented by stock characters, such as the miles gloriosus in ancient times, the fop and the rake during the Restoration, or an old person pretending to be young...

, satirizing three social classes in rural Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

. The wealthy upper class was represented by Harris Weldon, founder of the town of Grand and owner of the Weldon Piano Works. Weldon lived in a mansion with his shiftless ne'er-do-well son, Norris, and his Jeeves
Jeeves
Reginald Jeeves is a fictional character in the short stories and novels of P. G. Wodehouse, being the valet of Bertie Wooster . Created in 1915, Jeeves would continue to appear in Wodehouse's works until his final, completed, novel Aunts Aren't Gentlemen in 1974, making him Wodehouse's most famous...

ish manservant, Desmond. The middle class was represented by Weldon's niece, Carol Ann Smithson and her husband Tom who had moved to Grand so Tom could begin a management job at the piano works, but from which he was fired by Harris on his first day. The lower working class was represented by cleaning lady Janice Pasetti, a single mother raising her teenage daughter Edda in a travel trailer.

Grand mocked soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

 conventions by featuring numerous story arcs which carried through several episodes, most notably Harris' attempts in the first season to secure a date to take to a ceremony honoring him at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

, Janice's struggle to come to terms with her divorce while fending off the amorous attentions of police officer Wayne Kazmurski, Tom's attempts to first hide from Carol Ann the fact that he had a teenaged son from a previous marriage and then his attempts to integrate the son into their lives, and Harris allowing Desmond to believe that he was actually Norris's father, although Harris knew it was not true. The pseudo-soap-opera format was abandoned after the second episode of Season 2, but resumed in the series' final four episodes. A 26th episode was filmed but never aired.

Grand was the story of three interconnected families. It was more of a satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

 of soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

s than it was a traditional situation comedy
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...

; the program often mocked the conventions of soap opera. The three families were the wealth
Wealth
Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem...

y Weldons, the impoverished
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

 Pasetis, and the middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....

 Smithsons.

The Weldons were the wealthiest family in the small town of Grand, Pennsylvania; they owned the largest industry, a piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 factory which was starting to fall on hard times due to the declining sales of its pianos, a situation that patriarch Harris Weldon (John Randolph
John Randolph (actor)
John Randolph was an American film, television and stage actor.-Early life:Randolph was born Emanuel Hirsch Cohen in New York City, the son of Jewish immigrants Dorothy , an insurance agent, and Louis Cohen, a hat manufacturer...

) blamed on Asian imports. In Weldon's household were his dimwitted son, Norris (Joel Murray
Joel Murray
Joel Murray is an American actor who has starred in film and on television.-Early life:Murray, one of nine children, was born and raised in Wilmette, Illinois , the son of Lucille , a mail room clerk, and Edward J. Murray II, a lumber salesman. Murray, along with his siblings, grew up in an Irish...

) and the acerbic butler, Desmond (John Neville), whom Weldon kept despite his acid tongue as he had once been responsible for saving Weldon's life. Weldon's housekeeper Janice Paseti (Pamela Reed
Pamela Reed
Pamela Reed is an American actress. She is known for playing Ruth Powers in various episodes of TV's The Simpsons, as Arnold Schwarzenegger's hypoglycemic partner in the 1990 movie Kindergarten Cop and as the matriarch Gail Green in Jericho...

) barely scraped by on what Weldon paid her; she lived in a mobile home
Mobile home
Mobile homes or static caravans are prefabricated homes built in factories, rather than on site, and then taken to the place where they will be occupied...

 with her obese
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...

 daughter, Edda (Sara Rue
Sara Rue
Sara Rue is an American television actress. She is best known for the roles she played as Carmen Ferrara on the comedy-drama Popular and Claude Casey on the sitcom Less Than Perfect. She is also known as a spokesperson for Jenny Craig...

). In between these two extremes were Weldon's niece Carole Ann Smithson (Bonnie Hunt
Bonnie Hunt
Bonnie Lynne Hunt is an American actress, comedian, writer, director, television producer and daytime television host.- Early life :...

) and her husband Tom (Michael McKean
Michael McKean
Michael John McKean is an American actor, comedian, writer, composer and musician, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Squiggy's friend, Leonard 'Lenny' Kosnowski, on the sitcom Laverne and Shirley; and for his work in the Christopher Guest ensemble films, particularly as David St...

), who was constantly hoping to improve his financial position by getting a position, preferably an executive one, at his wife's uncle's factory.

This program was less successful than the somewhat similar Soap
Soap (TV series)
Soap is an American sitcom that originally ran on ABC from 1977 to 1981.The show was created as a parody of daytime soap operas, presented as a weekly half-hour prime time comedy. Similar to a soap opera, the show's story was presented in a serial format and included melodramatic plot elements such...

, which had also featured an acid-tongued butler and mocked many of the same soap opera conventions; Grand ran from January to December 1990 (with breaks in May and September) prior to its cancellation.

Cast

  • John Randolph
    John Randolph (actor)
    John Randolph was an American film, television and stage actor.-Early life:Randolph was born Emanuel Hirsch Cohen in New York City, the son of Jewish immigrants Dorothy , an insurance agent, and Louis Cohen, a hat manufacturer...

    as Harris Weldon
  • Pamela Reed
    Pamela Reed
    Pamela Reed is an American actress. She is known for playing Ruth Powers in various episodes of TV's The Simpsons, as Arnold Schwarzenegger's hypoglycemic partner in the 1990 movie Kindergarten Cop and as the matriarch Gail Green in Jericho...

    as Janice Pasetti
  • Bonnie Hunt
    Bonnie Hunt
    Bonnie Lynne Hunt is an American actress, comedian, writer, director, television producer and daytime television host.- Early life :...

    as Carol Ann Smithson (became Carol Ann Weldon in season 2)
  • Michael McKean
    Michael McKean
    Michael John McKean is an American actor, comedian, writer, composer and musician, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Squiggy's friend, Leonard 'Lenny' Kosnowski, on the sitcom Laverne and Shirley; and for his work in the Christopher Guest ensemble films, particularly as David St...

    as Tom Smithson (Season 1 only)
  • John Neville as Desmond
  • Joel Murray
    Joel Murray
    Joel Murray is an American actor who has starred in film and on television.-Early life:Murray, one of nine children, was born and raised in Wilmette, Illinois , the son of Lucille , a mail room clerk, and Edward J. Murray II, a lumber salesman. Murray, along with his siblings, grew up in an Irish...

    as Norris Weldon
  • Sara Rue
    Sara Rue
    Sara Rue is an American television actress. She is best known for the roles she played as Carmen Ferrara on the comedy-drama Popular and Claude Casey on the sitcom Less Than Perfect. She is also known as a spokesperson for Jenny Craig...

    as Edda Pasetti
  • Andrew Lauer
    Andrew Lauer
    -Life and career:Lauer may be best known to America acting as "Charlie" on the hit NBC comedy series Caroline in the City. He recently wrapped principal photography directing the motion picture Adventures of a Teenage Dragon Slayer starring Lea Thompson and Wendie Malick. The film will be released...

    as Wayne Kazmurski
    (Season 1 only)


Recurring cast:
  • Ed Marinaro
    Ed Marinaro
    Ed Marinaro is an American former football player turned actor.-Football career:Marinaro played high school football in New Milford, New Jersey, for the New Milford High School Knights....

    as Eddie Pasetti
  • Jackey Vinson
    Jackey Vinson
    Jackey Vinson is a former child actor of the 1980s. His first film credit, in which he played a young Jack Vinson was the in film Terminal Exposure in 1987. In the 1989 film The Wizard, which is considered to be his most esteemed work, Vinson played Lucas Barton, a video gamer with a selection of...

    as Dylan Smithson
  • Mark Moses
    Mark Moses
    Mark W. Moses is an American actor, known for his roles of Paul Young on Desperate Housewives and Herman "Duck" Phillips on the AMC series Mad Men.-Life and career:...

    as Richard Peyton
  • Sean Phelan as Timmy
  • Eddie Jones
    Eddie Jones (actor)
    Eddie Jones is an American actor known for playing Clark Kent's father Jonathan Kent in the ABC television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and Charles Broden Eddie Jones (born 1937 Washington, Pennsylvania) is an American actor known for playing Clark Kent's father Jonathan...

    as Dr. Frank
  • Carroll Baker
    Carroll Baker
    Carroll Baker is a former American actress who has enjoyed popularity as both a serious dramatic actress and, particularly in the 1960s, as a movie sex symbol...

    as Viva
  • John Michael Bolger
    John Michael Bolger
    John Michael Bolger is an American actor who resides in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan's Westside.Bolger can be seen in the 2009 summer release of Michael Mann's Public Enemies, portraying 1930s East Chicago, Indiana Detective Martin Zarkovich. Public Enemies stars Johnny Depp, Christian...

    as Manny

Production notes

The series at one time was being considered as a one-hour comedy series given the size of its cast.

By the time production began on the last episode of the first season, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 had still not committed to a second season. But, being a production of the network's leading producers Carsey, Werner and Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...

, the series was renewed and given the prized Thursday 9:30pm slot. Believing the show would be cancelled, the final episode of the season was titled "Blow Off," an apparent stab at NBC's indecision regarding the show. The episode concluded with the town of Grand being devastated by a tornado and the disappearance of the entire cast, save for Wayne.

However the show's ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...

 (finishing 15th among mid-season shows) proved to be high enough for NBC to finally order a second half-season (13 episodes). Unfortunately, by the time the network made up their mind, at least two cast members and several members of the production staff had already committed to other projects. The second season wrote out the character of Tom Smithson as an illegal alien who had stolen $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

50,000 from a Texas Savings and Loan and used the tornado as a means to disappear when the FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

 began to close in on him. The character of Wayne Kazmurski and all the recurring characters and their story lines with the exception of Eddie Pasetti were dropped with no explanation.

The reduction in cast and the sudden change in production staff and writers took the show in a dramatically opposite direction from Season 1. The first episode of the second season dealt with what became of Janice's trailer, rather than answering questions about the characters who had disappeared, and the second episode wrapped up Tom Smithson's storyline. The premise of the show then changed from that of a complex comedy of manners to a simple situation comedy, indistinguishable from other sit-coms of the day. The series format abandoned the soap-opera style and half of the second season were standard, stand-alone situation comedy episodes. The result was a major decline in the overall quality of the series. Ratings steadily declined throughout the second season, the decline bolstered by the fact that it was run against ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

's freshman series and media darling Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...

.

The final four episodes of Grand returned the show to its soap-opera format, however instead of featuring identifiable, believable story arcs about the foibles of three economic classes, the arcs were outrageous, improbable stories featuring witchcraft, gangsters, a possible corporate takeover of the piano works, and Carol Ann's decision to adopt a teenager who was raised by wolves.

The series was cancelled after its 25th episode. A 26th episode was filmed, but has never aired.

Because Grand began its first season as a mid-season replacement and ended its second season without airing its final episode, it stands as one of the rare instances of a two-season series having aired its entire run within a single calendar year.

Season 1 (January – April 1990)

Title Airdate
1 "A Tale of One City" 1990·Jan·18
2 "The Pretty Good Mother" 1990·Jan·25
3 "Sex, Lies and Cable TV" 1990·Feb·01
4 "A Boy and His Dad" 1990·Feb·08
5 "Faded Genes" 1990·Feb·15
6 "Legends of Sport" 1990·Feb·22
7 "Deer Hunter" 1990·Mar·01
8 "The Bald, the Blond and the Dead" 1990·Mar·08
9 "Carnegie Hell" 1990·Mar·15
10 "An Obtuse Triangle" 1990·Mar·22
11 "Trigonometry Made Easy" 1990·Mar·29
12 "Czech, Please!" 1990·Apr·05
13 "Blow Off" 1990·Apr·12

Season 2 (October – December 1990)

Title Airdate
14 "Janice Steals Home" 1990·Oct·04
15 "The Chickens Come Home to Roost" 1990·Oct·11
16 "The Healing" 1990·Oct·18
17 "The Return of Yale Pinhaus" 1990·Oct·25
18 "Desmond's Mother" 1990·Nov·01
19 "Norris' Romance" 1990·Nov·15
20 "Roamers and Rumors" 1990·Nov·22
21 "Lady Luck" 1990·Nov·29
22 "One Way Out" 1990·Dec·06
23 "The Mother Load" 1990·Dec·13
24 "Wolf Boy" 1990·Dec·20
25 "The Well" 1990·Dec·27

Unaired final episode

Title
26 "The End of the World as We Know It"

External links

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