Maybe This Time
Encyclopedia
Maybe This Time is an American sitcom
which aired on ABC
from September 1995 to February 1996. Created by veteran TV creator Michael Jacobs and his longtime colleague, Bob Young
.
The series stars Marie Osmond
as a recent divorcee and mother running the family bakery with her mother (Betty White
) while raising her 11-year old daughter (Ashley Johnson
). The show's supporting cast includes Amy Hill
and Craig Ferguson
(in his first television series after moving to the United States), and a then-unknown Dane Cook
, who joined the cast midway through its run.
which the elder two owned and operated in Haverford, Pennsylvania
, a suburb of Philadelphia
. Thirtysomething Julia Wallace (Osmond), recovering from a divorce, puts her work running the bakery with her mother Shirley (White) and raising her daughter Gracie (Johnson) over trying to find romance once again. Julia's take comes much to the objection to the man-obsessed Shirley (a variation of White's Sue Ann Nivens
from Mary Tyler Moore
) and the pre-adolescent Gracie who was waiting for her first kiss at the series outset. Outside of the opposite sex, the dynamics of the relationships between the three characters are explored.
Julia and Shirley were helped at the bakery by Scottish émigré Logan McDonough (Ferguson) whose views complemented those of his bosses. The most frequently seen customer on the series was Kay Ohara (Hill), owner of the pawn shop down the street from the bakery. Assorted other townspeople also came in and out of the bakery as well.
). The introduction of Nicky coincided with Julia dating his father, Nick Sr. (Robert Cicchini
) though their date did not progress any further unlike their children.
as co-creator Michael Jacobs' other ABC series, Boy Meets World
. Ben Savage
and Rider Strong
appeared in the episode "Acting Out" as their characters from that series who stopped by the bakery.
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...
which aired on 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...
from September 1995 to February 1996. Created by veteran TV creator Michael Jacobs and his longtime colleague, Bob Young
Bob Young (TV producer)
Bob Young, born Robert S. Young Jr. in Knoxville, Tennessee, attended college at the University of Pennsylvania and soon after his graduation began working in stand-up comedy in Philadelphia with fellow comedian Bob Myer in a duo called Myer and Young. Once Bob moved out to Los Angeles he began...
.
The series stars Marie Osmond
Marie Osmond
Olive Marie Osmond is an American singer, actress, doll designer, and a member of the show business family The Osmonds. Although she was never part of her family's singing group, she gained success as a solo country music artist in the 1970s and 1980s...
as a recent divorcee and mother running the family bakery with her mother (Betty White
Betty White
Betty White Ludden , better known as Betty White, is an American actress, comedienne, singer, author, and former game show personality. With a career spanning seven decades since 1939, she is best known to modern audiences for her television roles as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and...
) while raising her 11-year old daughter (Ashley Johnson
Ashley Johnson
Ashley Suzanne Johnson is an American actress, best known for her two-season role as Chrissy Seaver in the TV show Growing Pains, and for her voice work in television series such as Teen Titans and Ben 10 Alien Force....
). The show's supporting cast includes Amy Hill
Amy Hill
Amy Marie Hill is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles as Mrs. DePaulo in That's So Raven, Mrs. Kwan in The Cat in the Hat, the Kylie Minogue-inspired singer, Penny Candy from The Puzzle Place, and the voice of Jasmine Lee Amy Marie Hill (born May 9, 1953) is an American...
and Craig Ferguson
Craig Ferguson
Craig Ferguson is a Scottish American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, and producer. He is the host of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, an Emmy Award-nominated, Peabody Award-winning late-night talk show that airs on CBS...
(in his first television series after moving to the United States), and a then-unknown Dane Cook
Dane Cook
Dane Jeffrey Cook is an American stand-up comedian and film actor. He has released five comedy albums: Harmful If Swallowed; Retaliation; Vicious Circle; Rough Around The Edges: Live From Madison Square Garden; and Isolated Incident. In 2006, Retaliation became the highest charting comedy album...
, who joined the cast midway through its run.
Characters
| Actor | Character |
|---|---|
| Marie Osmond Marie Osmond Olive Marie Osmond is an American singer, actress, doll designer, and a member of the show business family The Osmonds. Although she was never part of her family's singing group, she gained success as a solo country music artist in the 1970s and 1980s... |
Julia Wallace |
| Betty White Betty White Betty White Ludden , better known as Betty White, is an American actress, comedienne, singer, author, and former game show personality. With a career spanning seven decades since 1939, she is best known to modern audiences for her television roles as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and... |
Shirley |
| Ashley Johnson Ashley Johnson Ashley Suzanne Johnson is an American actress, best known for her two-season role as Chrissy Seaver in the TV show Growing Pains, and for her voice work in television series such as Teen Titans and Ben 10 Alien Force.... |
Gracie Wallace |
| Amy Hill Amy Hill Amy Marie Hill is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles as Mrs. DePaulo in That's So Raven, Mrs. Kwan in The Cat in the Hat, the Kylie Minogue-inspired singer, Penny Candy from The Puzzle Place, and the voice of Jasmine Lee Amy Marie Hill (born May 9, 1953) is an American... |
Kay Ohara |
| Craig Ferguson Craig Ferguson Craig Ferguson is a Scottish American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, and producer. He is the host of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, an Emmy Award-nominated, Peabody Award-winning late-night talk show that airs on CBS... |
Logan McDonough |
| Ross Malinger Ross Malinger Ross Aaron Malinger is an American actor who co-starred as Jonah Baldwin in the 1993 romantic film Sleepless In Seattle. He starred in the 1997 comedy Toothless, along with Kirstie Alley, portraying the second main character of the film... |
Nicky |
| Robert Cicchini Robert Cicchini Robert Cicchini is an American film and television actor.Among Cicchini's film appearances are his roles as Lou Pennino in The Godfather: Part III, Jimmy Ozio in Primary Colors and Mitch Casper in The Watcher.... |
Nick Sr. |
| Dane Cook Dane Cook Dane Jeffrey Cook is an American stand-up comedian and film actor. He has released five comedy albums: Harmful If Swallowed; Retaliation; Vicious Circle; Rough Around The Edges: Live From Madison Square Garden; and Isolated Incident. In 2006, Retaliation became the highest charting comedy album... |
Kyle |
Synopsis
The series revolved around two elements, the relationships between three generations of women and the bakeryBakery
A bakery is an establishment which produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cakes, pastries and pies. Some retail bakeries are also cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who wish to consume the baked goods on the premises.-See also:*Baker*Cake...
which the elder two owned and operated in Haverford, Pennsylvania
Haverford, Pennsylvania
Haverford is an unincorporated community located partially in Haverford Township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, USA, but primarily in Lower Merion Township in Montgomery County, about west of Philadelphia. It is on the Main Line, which is known historically for its wealth. As of August 2009,...
, a suburb of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
. Thirtysomething Julia Wallace (Osmond), recovering from a divorce, puts her work running the bakery with her mother Shirley (White) and raising her daughter Gracie (Johnson) over trying to find romance once again. Julia's take comes much to the objection to the man-obsessed Shirley (a variation of White's Sue Ann Nivens
Sue Ann Nivens
Sue Ann Nivens was a fictional character on the long-running situation comedy, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She was played by television perennial Betty White.- The Happy Homemaker :...
from Mary Tyler Moore
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns that aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977...
) and the pre-adolescent Gracie who was waiting for her first kiss at the series outset. Outside of the opposite sex, the dynamics of the relationships between the three characters are explored.
Julia and Shirley were helped at the bakery by Scottish émigré Logan McDonough (Ferguson) whose views complemented those of his bosses. The most frequently seen customer on the series was Kay Ohara (Hill), owner of the pawn shop down the street from the bakery. Assorted other townspeople also came in and out of the bakery as well.
Additions
Midway through the run, two other characters were added. Kyle (Cook), the quarterback of the football team at an unnamed local college, came in to help out at the bakery while Gracie gained an on-again, off-again boyfriend in the streetwise Nicky (Ross MalingerRoss Malinger
Ross Aaron Malinger is an American actor who co-starred as Jonah Baldwin in the 1993 romantic film Sleepless In Seattle. He starred in the 1997 comedy Toothless, along with Kirstie Alley, portraying the second main character of the film...
). The introduction of Nicky coincided with Julia dating his father, Nick Sr. (Robert Cicchini
Robert Cicchini
Robert Cicchini is an American film and television actor.Among Cicchini's film appearances are his roles as Lou Pennino in The Godfather: Part III, Jimmy Ozio in Primary Colors and Mitch Casper in The Watcher....
) though their date did not progress any further unlike their children.
Boy Meets World connection
Maybe This Time was set in the same fictional universeFictional universe
A fictional universe is a self-consistent fictional setting with elements that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm ....
as co-creator Michael Jacobs' other ABC series, Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the...
. Ben Savage
Ben Savage
Bennett Joseph "Ben" Savage is an American film and TV actor and child star of late 1980s and 1990s. Savage is best known for his role as lead character Cory Matthews on the TV sitcom Boy Meets World from 1993 to 2000....
and Rider Strong
Rider Strong
Rider King Strong is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his role as Shawn Hunter on the 1990s sitcom Boy Meets World.-Early life:...
appeared in the episode "Acting Out" as their characters from that series who stopped by the bakery.
Episodes
| Episode # | Episode title | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1-1 | "Please Re-Lease Me" | September 15, 1995 |
| 1-2 | "Maybe This Time" | September 16, 1995 |
| 1-3 | "Gracie Under Fire" | September 23, 1995 |
| 1-4 | "Out, Out, Damn Radio Spot!" | September 30, 1995 |
| 1-5 | "Snitch Doggy-Dogg" | October 14, 1995 |
| 1-6 | "Beasy Body" | October 28, 1995 |
| 1-7 | "Julia's Day Off" | November 4, 1995 |
| 1-8 | "Coach Julia" | November 11, 1995 |
| 1-9 | "The Other Mother" | November 25, 1995 |
| 1-10 | "The Catch" | December 16, 1995 |
| 1-11 | "Judgement Day" | December 23, 1995 |
| 1-12 | "Nick at Night" | January 6, 1996 |
| 1-13 | "Break a Leg" | January 13, 1996 |
| 1-14 | "Lucky Puck" | January 20, 1996 |
| 1-15 | "Acting Out" | January 27, 1996 |
| 1-16 | "Stand Up Your Man" | February 3, 1996 |
| 1-17 | "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" | February 10, 1996 |
| 1-18 | "Whose Life Is It Anyway?" | February 17, 1996 |
Cancellation
The series initially entered the Top 20 with the debut of its preview episode on September 15, 1995, but later ranked #47 in its Saturday night timeslot. ABC canceled the series after the end of its first season.Award nominations
| Year | Award | Result | Category | Recipient |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Young Artist Awards | Nominated | Best Performance by a Young Actress - TV Comedy Series | Ashley Johnson |
| Best Performance by a Young Actor - Guest Starring Role TV Series | Chris Miller | |||