Phenom is an American sitcom about a tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 wunderkind that 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 14, 1993 to May 10, 1994. The series stars Angela Goethals

Angela Goethals

Angela Bethany Goethals is an American actress. She is known for her recurring guest appearance on 24 and her roles in the TV sitcom Phenom and the movie Home Alone.- Early life and career :...

, Judith Light

Judith Light

Judith Ellen Light is an American actress. Her television roles include Karen Wolek on the soap opera One Life to Live, Angela Bower on the sitcom Who's the Boss?, Claire Meade on ABC's TV series Ugly Betty and Judge Elizabeth "Liz" Donnelly on Law & Order Special Victims Unit.-Early life:Light...

, and William Devane

William Devane

William Joseph Devane is an American film, television and theater actor.-Life and career:Devane was born in Albany, New York in 1937 or 1939 , the son of Joseph Devane, who was Franklin D. Roosevelt's chauffeur when he was Governor of New York...

.

Synopsis

Fifteen-year-old Angela Doolan (Goethals) has the potential to be a sports superstar but worries about losing her normality and severing her family ties. Angela's father has deserted the family to rediscover his youth and dally with younger women, leaving her mother Dianne (Light) to raise her children (including older son Brian and youngest daughter Mary Margaret) and try to keep a lid on her bitterness. Added to the fray is Angela's obsessive tennis coach Lou (Devane), who is determined to bring out the champion in Angela regardless of the cost to her growth as a person.

Phenom was placed in the ideal time slot of Tuesdays at 8:30/7:30c, between Full House

Full House

Full House is an American sitcom television series. Set in San Francisco, the show chronicles widowed father Danny Tanner, who, after the death of his wife, enlists his best friend Joey Gladstone and his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and...

 and Roseanne

Roseanne (TV series)

Roseanne is an American sitcom broadcast on ABC from October 18, 1988 to May 20, 1997. Starring Roseanne Barr, the show revolved around the Conners, an Illinois working class family...

. The series initially did well in the ratings but failed to sustain strong numbers; ABC pulled the plug on the show after one season.

Cast

• Angela Goethals
  Angela Goethals
  Angela Bethany Goethals is an American actress. She is known for her recurring guest appearance on 24 and her roles in the TV sitcom Phenom and the movie Home Alone.- Early life and career :...
  
   — Angela Doolan
• Judith Light
  Judith Light
  Judith Ellen Light is an American actress. Her television roles include Karen Wolek on the soap opera One Life to Live, Angela Bower on the sitcom Who's the Boss?, Claire Meade on ABC's TV series Ugly Betty and Judge Elizabeth "Liz" Donnelly on Law & Order Special Victims Unit.-Early life:Light...
  
   — Dianne Doolan
• 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....
  
  — Mary Margaret Doolan
• Todd Louiso
  Todd Louiso
  Todd Louiso is an American film actor and film director best known for his role as timid record store clerk Dick in High Fidelity, opposite Jack Black and John Cusack. Other supporting roles include School For Scoundrels. Louiso directed his first film in 2002, the acclaimed Love Liza with Philip...
  
   — Brian Doolan
• William Devane
  William Devane
  William Joseph Devane is an American film, television and theater actor.-Life and career:Devane was born in Albany, New York in 1937 or 1939 , the son of Joseph Devane, who was Franklin D. Roosevelt's chauffeur when he was Governor of New York...
  
   — Lou Del La Rosa
• 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...
  
   — Monica
• Jennifer Lien
  Jennifer Lien
  Jennifer Ann Lien is an American actress, known for playing the alien Kes on the television series Star Trek: Voyager.-Early life:...
  
   — Roanne
• Beverly Mitchell — Clara
• Debra Jo Rupp
  Debra Jo Rupp
  Debra Jo Rupp is an American film and television actress, perhaps best known for her role as Kitty Forman on the long-running Fox sitcom, That '70s Show...
  
   — Sister Mary Incarnata

Production notes

The series was created by Dick Blasucci, Marc Flanagan, and Sam Simon

Sam Simon

Samuel "Sam" Simon is an American director, producer, writer, boxing manager and philanthropist. While at Stanford University, Simon worked as a newspaper cartoonist and after graduating became a storyboard artist at Filmation Studios. He submitted a spec script for the sitcom Taxi, which was...

. Dick Blasucci also served as executive producer alongside Emmy Award

Emmy Award

An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

-winner James L. Brooks

James L. Brooks

James Lawrence Brooks is an American director, producer and screenwriter. Growing up in North Bergen, New Jersey, Brooks endured a fractured family life and passed the time by reading and writing. After dropping out of New York University, he got a job as an usher at CBS, going on to write for the...

 and Danny Kallis

Danny Kallis

Danny Kallis is a television writer and producer. He has written for such programs as The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, The Suite Life on Deck, The JammX Kids, The Sausage Factory, Smart Guy , Who's the Boss?, The Upper Hand, The Charmings, Silver Spoons, Mama's Family and Taxi.He has a company...

.

Phenoms theme song, "The Promise and the Prize", was written and performed by Carly Simon

Carly Simon

Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...

.

Episodes

Episode #	Episode title	Original airdate
1-1	Pilot	September 14, 1993
1-2	"Angela's First Kiss"	September 14, 1993
1-3	"Secrets"	September 28, 1993
1-4	"Angela Gets Crushed"	October 5, 1993
1-5	"Daddy's Home"	October 12, 1993
1-6	"Game Face"	October 19, 1993
1-7	"Angela's Wild Ride"	October 26, 1993
1-8	"Answered Prayers"	November 2, 1993
1-9	"Crazy for You"	November 9, 1993
1-10	"There's No Place Like Home"	November 16, 1993
1-11	"A Lou-Daughter Picnic"	November 30, 1993
1-12	"A Very Doolan Christmas"	December 14, 1993
1-13	"Brian and the Tennis Star"	January 4, 1994
1-14	"My Little Tony"	January 11, 1994
1-15	"Men are Dogs"	February 1, 1994
1-16	"Spring Break-Out"	February 8, 1994
1-17	"What's in a Vow?"	February 15, 1994
1-18	"Dianne's Young Buck"	February 22, 1994
1-19	"Angela's Fifteen Minutes"	March 15, 1994
1-20	"It's a Wonderful Mid-Life Crisis"	April 5, 1994
1-21	"Just a Family of Doolans Sittin' Around Talkin'"	May 3, 1994
1-22	"Strictly Lunchroom"	May 10, 1994

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Result	Category	Recipient
1994	Young Artist Awards	Nominated	Youth Actress Leading Role in a Television Series	Angela Goethals
			Best New Television Series	-
		Won	Best Actress Under Ten in a Television Series or Show	Ashley Johnson (Tied with Ashley Peldon Ashley Peldon Ashley Peldon is an American television and film actress.-Early life and career:Peldon was born in New York City, New York. Along with her sister Courtney, she worked as a child actor.... for Shameful Secrets)