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Webster (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Webster is an American situation comedy
that premiered on ABC
on September 16, 1983, and ran on that network until September 11, 1987, but continued in first-run syndication until 1989. Like NBC
's earlier hit Diff'rent Strokes
, it featured a young African American boy adopted by a white family.
After seeing Emmanuel Lewis in a Burger King
Commercial, Lew Erlicht, who served as programming chief for ABC, wanted to feature the actor in his own series. At this time, Another Ballgame producer Stu Silver desired to create an original show based on the lead characters portrayed by Katharine Hepburn
and Spencer Tracy
in the film Woman of the Year
. Silver saw Alex Karras and Susan Clark's on-screen chemistry as being very reminiscent of this.
The network felt the need to cast Lewis in a project quickly, before he grew another inch (like Gary Coleman
, Lewis would end up at 4'3".), and what they had in mind was their own version of NBC's Diff'rent Strokes
; the only similarity being that both shows had young black boys as leads who were very small for their age being raised by white people, and who would retain a certain amount of cuteness even as their portrayers got older.
Also, with the number of comedy pilots greenlighted for that fall's schedule, it was likely that Lewis would not be able to get his own series and timeslot, unless he was worked into already existing comedy projects. So, among others, co-producers on Another Ballgame were approached about working Lewis into the show. Stars Karras and Clark liked the idea of the sudden marriage and instant adoption of a young black boy, and the Webster character was created from there.
The premise of Webster's parents' death, and his adoption into the Papadopolis household, originated with the second phase of the pilot, which had the show's title changed to Then Came You. The only other modification was the network's decision to have the show's major focus to be on the Webster character, instead of it being a split romantic/family comedy; and to phase out cast member Art LaFleur
, who, once getting to air, only appeared in the pilot.
Karras and Clark did not object to this round of changes initially, as creative control was still in their hands with Georgian Bay. However, Clark originally forbade their co-producers and ABC from changing the title to Webster, as she wanted to maintain the ensemble aspect of the series. While early promotions for the sitcom carried the title Then Came You, network politics would end up defying Clark's wish; the brass ultimately settled on Webster just before its September premiere.
Even though the show was an instant hit, the result of the final product was not what Karras and Clark foresaw as their ideal starring vehicle. The first season was fraught with tension, between the couple's disagreements and their protests with Paramount
. After the initial episodes that set up the show's premise (George and Katherine's wedding, Webster's arrival and the resulting adjustments), most of the plots became exclusively Webster-driven, even though it was the writers' intention to include story elements that focused on George and Katherine as much as possible.
The couple battled all season with the brass over production, which resulted in tension on set with everyone present, especially Lewis. Reportedly, Lewis was often whisked away from the set whenever Karras and Clark argued and demanded rewrites. It became so severe that Lewis blamed the trouble on himself.
After the end of season one, things started to cool down, as the network stopped pushing hard for "all Webster, all the time"; Paramount eventually came to an agreement with Karras and Clark that they would continue to get prominent storylines for their characters. The only condition was that Emmanuel Lewis, who ABC saw as a money maker above all else, would get production credit alongside them. As a result, "Emmanuel Lewis Entertainment Enterprises, Inc." was launched.
By season three at the latest, the stormy relations of the first season disappeared on set. The main cast bonded well from then on, with Karras becoming a surrogate father figure to Lewis. As TV director Joel Zwick
remarked on the E! True Hollywood Story
, "as far as TV sitcom families go, it took them longer than most to acclimate to each other."
, revolves around Webster Long, a seven-year-old black
orphan
(Emmanuel Lewis
) whose biological parents, Travis and Gert Long, were recently killed in a car accident. He is then taken in by retired football star George Papadopoulos (Alex Karras
), with whom Travis had played professional football
in the 1970s, and his wife Katherine (Susan Clark
), an upper crust
socialite with no housekeeping skills whatsoever.
George and Katherine's new married life was part of the premise, but it was Webster who was the main focus of the show. The Papadopoulos' lived in a luxurious high-rise apartment in Chicago, with burly George now working as a sportscaster at local station WBJX-TV, and Katherine becoming an accomplished family psychologist.
Sarcastic social climber Jerry Silver (Henry Polic II
) was Katherine's male secretary, who was her professional and personal confidant. Although the series is set in Chicago, the apartment complex shown in exterior shots of the first two seasons is actually The Mirabella condominium building, located at 10430 Wilshire Blvd, in the Westwood district of Los Angeles, California
.
Webster also had an uncle, Phillip Long, played by Ben Vereen
, who had issues with Webster living with a white couple and sought to adopt him and take him to live in Chicago's South Side, not to mention acrimony between himself and George. After his numerous attempts at the latter during the second season, Phillip moved to Hollywood to launch an acting career. In the later seasons, Phillip would return in a few guest appearances.
One interesting aspect of the show was Webster's choice of names for his adoptive parents. Shortly after being adopted he took to calling George by his first name, George. Katherine he took to calling Ma'am. This was addressed in one episode where Katherine asked Webster why he used such a formal name for her. Webster explained that by referring to Katherine as Ma'am he was calling her as close to 'Mom' as he he could come without actually calling her Mom and disrespecting his birth Mother.
Shortly into the second season, Webster accidentally burned down the family's apartment with a science kit and the family moved to a large Victorian
house located at 1432 North State Parkway in Chicago's Gold Coast (41.908825°N 87.628949°W).
The show continued on with its usual tone, besides some of the newer inventive plots. Many more of Webster's friends and classmates passed through, including Rob Whitaker (Chad Allen
). A recent product of divorce whose mother had custody of him, Rob was kidnapped by his father in one episode, which led the Papadopoulos', Rob's mother, and the community to rally in hopes of finding him.
When he returned, it was Katherine who successfully intervened with Rob's father. Later in the third season, for unexplained reasons, Rob's last name became Joiner. Bill and Cassie Parker (Eugene Roche
and Cathryn Damon
) leased the Victorian house to the Papadopoulos' during the show's second and third seasons, until George and Katherine bought it outright (this was Damon's last TV series role, as she died from cancer a year after leaving Webster). A thread of drama was added when Bill and Cassies runaway daughter and grandson appeared for one episode, setting up a tearful reunion.
Jerry, who was a more prominent member of show in the first season (receiving the "co-starring" heading in the opening credits after the show's three leads), had since become an occasional character, but would continue for the entire series. George's jovial aging father, George Sr. (Jack Kruschen
), known to all as "Papa" Papadopolis, began appearing occasionally in the fall of 1985. Over the course of the fourth season, ratings dropped sharply. The show, which had been a Nielsen
top 30 series, ranked 46th by the end of the season. ABC chose not to renew Webster.
), who moved in when his parents went off to work in Nigeria
, on assignment for the United Nations
.
Nicky provided Webster with a sort of "brother figure", and the two got along famously. However, Nicky was gone from the show at the start of season six (Nemec would later reach greater fame as the star of Fox
's Parker Lewis Can't Lose
).
While plots continued to mature somewhat with Webster's onset of pre-teendom, the same "cutesy factor" remained, thanks in part to Lewis' timing and portrayal. However, this was something Lewis was slowly getting tired of, despite the fact that he had more creative control over Webster at this point (with Emmanuel Lewis Entertainment Enterprises co-producing with Karras and Clark's Georgian Bay Ltd.).
Early in the 1988-89 season, with Lewis clearly outgrowing the title role, Karras and Clark also decided that the time was right to move on. The last episode was taped in early 1989 (but aired that March), which did not signify an end of any sort, but was played out as a high event - the cast went on a space adventure with guest star Michael Dorn
as Lt. Worf, from Star Trek: The Next Generation
(in the episode, "Webtrek").
aired reruns of the show from September 22, 1997 to March 13, 1998. It also aired on WGN September 21, 1998 to September 2, 1999 (which was, as of January 2010, the last time that Webster appeared on national television).
Webster also aired on Chicago's local station Me-TV and WMEU-CA
(now known as Me-TV's sister station MeToo since March 2008) from 2006-09.
, under license from CBS Home Entertainment has released the first three seasons on Region 1 DVD, as of August 9, 2011.
Ratings data from TVTango.com
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 premiered 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...
on September 16, 1983, and ran on that network until September 11, 1987, but continued in first-run syndication until 1989. Like 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...
's earlier hit Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from November 3, 1978 to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985 to March 7, 1986...
, it featured a young African American boy adopted by a white family.
Production history
Alex Karras and Susan Clark were married in real life as well as on the show. After starting their own production company, Georgian Bay Ltd., ABC approached the couple about a sitcom development deal, which resulted in the proposed series titled Another Ballgame. In this, Karras was the ex-NFL player who quickly found true love on a cruise with socialite Katherine (Clark), and the premise was a raucous romantic comedy. ABC picked it up for the fall 1983 schedule, but major changes would occur before the premiere.After seeing Emmanuel Lewis in a Burger King
Burger King
Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain...
Commercial, Lew Erlicht, who served as programming chief for ABC, wanted to feature the actor in his own series. At this time, Another Ballgame producer Stu Silver desired to create an original show based on the lead characters portrayed by Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
and Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...
in the film Woman of the Year
Woman of the Year
Woman of the Year is a romantic comedy film. The movie is about an emancipated woman, chosen "Woman of the Year", and her colleague-turned-husband and their efforts to negotiate a path to marital bliss....
. Silver saw Alex Karras and Susan Clark's on-screen chemistry as being very reminiscent of this.
Gary Coleman
Gary Wayne Coleman was an American actor, known for his childhood role as Arnold Jackson in the American sitcom Diff'rent Strokes and for his small stature as an adult. He was described in the 1980s as "one of television's most promising stars". After a successful childhood acting career, Coleman...
, Lewis would end up at 4'3".), and what they had in mind was their own version of NBC's Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from November 3, 1978 to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985 to March 7, 1986...
; the only similarity being that both shows had young black boys as leads who were very small for their age being raised by white people, and who would retain a certain amount of cuteness even as their portrayers got older.
Also, with the number of comedy pilots greenlighted for that fall's schedule, it was likely that Lewis would not be able to get his own series and timeslot, unless he was worked into already existing comedy projects. So, among others, co-producers on Another Ballgame were approached about working Lewis into the show. Stars Karras and Clark liked the idea of the sudden marriage and instant adoption of a young black boy, and the Webster character was created from there.
The premise of Webster's parents' death, and his adoption into the Papadopolis household, originated with the second phase of the pilot, which had the show's title changed to Then Came You. The only other modification was the network's decision to have the show's major focus to be on the Webster character, instead of it being a split romantic/family comedy; and to phase out cast member Art LaFleur
Art LaFleur
-Life and career:La Fleur was born in Gary, Indiana. He played football in 1962 as a redshirt at the University of Kentucky under Coach Charlie Bradshaw as chronicled in a 2007 book, The Thin Thirty....
, who, once getting to air, only appeared in the pilot.
Karras and Clark did not object to this round of changes initially, as creative control was still in their hands with Georgian Bay. However, Clark originally forbade their co-producers and ABC from changing the title to Webster, as she wanted to maintain the ensemble aspect of the series. While early promotions for the sitcom carried the title Then Came You, network politics would end up defying Clark's wish; the brass ultimately settled on Webster just before its September premiere.
Even though the show was an instant hit, the result of the final product was not what Karras and Clark foresaw as their ideal starring vehicle. The first season was fraught with tension, between the couple's disagreements and their protests with Paramount
Paramount Television
Paramount Television was an American television production/distribution company that was active from January 1, 1968 to August 27, 2006.Its successor is CBS Television Studios, formerly CBS Paramount Television...
. After the initial episodes that set up the show's premise (George and Katherine's wedding, Webster's arrival and the resulting adjustments), most of the plots became exclusively Webster-driven, even though it was the writers' intention to include story elements that focused on George and Katherine as much as possible.
The couple battled all season with the brass over production, which resulted in tension on set with everyone present, especially Lewis. Reportedly, Lewis was often whisked away from the set whenever Karras and Clark argued and demanded rewrites. It became so severe that Lewis blamed the trouble on himself.
After the end of season one, things started to cool down, as the network stopped pushing hard for "all Webster, all the time"; Paramount eventually came to an agreement with Karras and Clark that they would continue to get prominent storylines for their characters. The only condition was that Emmanuel Lewis, who ABC saw as a money maker above all else, would get production credit alongside them. As a result, "Emmanuel Lewis Entertainment Enterprises, Inc." was launched.
By season three at the latest, the stormy relations of the first season disappeared on set. The main cast bonded well from then on, with Karras becoming a surrogate father figure to Lewis. As TV director Joel Zwick
Joel Zwick
Joel Zwick is an American film, television and theatre director. He is best known for his work on Perfect Strangers, Full House, Family Matters and well as directing the films My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Second Sight and Fat Albert.Born in Brooklyn, New York, he was educated at Brooklyn College...
remarked on the E! True Hollywood Story
E! True Hollywood Story
E! True Hollywood Story is an American documentary series on E! that deals with famous Hollywood celebrities, movies, TV shows and well-known public figures...
, "as far as TV sitcom families go, it took them longer than most to acclimate to each other."
Synopsis
The show, set in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, revolves around Webster Long, a seven-year-old black
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
orphan
Orphan
An orphan is a child permanently bereaved of or abandoned by his or her parents. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents is called an orphan...
(Emmanuel Lewis
Emmanuel Lewis
Emmanuel Lewis is an American actor, best known for playing the title character in the 1980s television sitcom Webster. He is tall. Lewis graduated from Midwood High School in 1989 and then Clark Atlanta University in 1997...
) whose biological parents, Travis and Gert Long, were recently killed in a car accident. He is then taken in by retired football star George Papadopoulos (Alex Karras
Alex Karras
Alexander George "Alex" Karras , nicknamed "The Mad Duck", is a former football player, professional wrestler, and actor, best known for his stint with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League from 1958–1962 and 1964-1970 and for his role as Mongo in the film Blazing Saddles...
), with whom Travis had played professional football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
in the 1970s, and his wife Katherine (Susan Clark
Susan Clark
Susan Clark is a Canadian actress, possibly best-known for her role as Katherine on the American television sitcom Webster, on which she appeared with her husband, Alex Karras.-Personal life:...
), an upper crust
Upper crust
"The upper crust" is an English-language idiom that refers to a society's social or economic elites. It is derived from the housekeeping practices of the pre-industrialization British gentry, whose servants baked bread for the household but were permitted to eat only the pan-scorched bottom...
socialite with no housekeeping skills whatsoever.
George and Katherine's new married life was part of the premise, but it was Webster who was the main focus of the show. The Papadopoulos' lived in a luxurious high-rise apartment in Chicago, with burly George now working as a sportscaster at local station WBJX-TV, and Katherine becoming an accomplished family psychologist.
Sarcastic social climber Jerry Silver (Henry Polic II
Henry Polic II
Henry Polic II is a stage, screen, and voice actor best known for his role as Jerry Silver in the American 1980s television series Webster, as well as his frequent game show appearances on such series as Super Password and The $100,000 Pyramid...
) was Katherine's male secretary, who was her professional and personal confidant. Although the series is set in Chicago, the apartment complex shown in exterior shots of the first two seasons is actually The Mirabella condominium building, located at 10430 Wilshire Blvd, in the Westwood district of Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
.
Webster also had an uncle, Phillip Long, played by Ben Vereen
Ben Vereen
Ben Vereen is an American actor, dancer, and singer who has appeared in numerous Broadway theatre shows. Vereen graduated from Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts.- Early years :...
, who had issues with Webster living with a white couple and sought to adopt him and take him to live in Chicago's South Side, not to mention acrimony between himself and George. After his numerous attempts at the latter during the second season, Phillip moved to Hollywood to launch an acting career. In the later seasons, Phillip would return in a few guest appearances.
One interesting aspect of the show was Webster's choice of names for his adoptive parents. Shortly after being adopted he took to calling George by his first name, George. Katherine he took to calling Ma'am. This was addressed in one episode where Katherine asked Webster why he used such a formal name for her. Webster explained that by referring to Katherine as Ma'am he was calling her as close to 'Mom' as he he could come without actually calling her Mom and disrespecting his birth Mother.
Shortly into the second season, Webster accidentally burned down the family's apartment with a science kit and the family moved to a large Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
house located at 1432 North State Parkway in Chicago's Gold Coast (41.908825°N 87.628949°W).
The show continued on with its usual tone, besides some of the newer inventive plots. Many more of Webster's friends and classmates passed through, including Rob Whitaker (Chad Allen
Chad Allen (actor)
Chad Allen is an American actor. Beginning a prolific career as a child actor at the age of seven, Allen is a three-time Young Artist Award winner and GLAAD Media Award honoree, best known for rising to prominence as a teen idol during the late 1980s as David Witherspoon on the NBC family drama,...
). A recent product of divorce whose mother had custody of him, Rob was kidnapped by his father in one episode, which led the Papadopoulos', Rob's mother, and the community to rally in hopes of finding him.
When he returned, it was Katherine who successfully intervened with Rob's father. Later in the third season, for unexplained reasons, Rob's last name became Joiner. Bill and Cassie Parker (Eugene Roche
Eugene Roche
Eugene Harrison Roche was an American actor . He was the original "Ajax Man" in 1970s television commercials.-Personal life:...
and Cathryn Damon
Cathryn Damon
Cathryn Lee Damon was an American actress, best known for her roles on television sitcoms in the 1970s and 1980s....
) leased the Victorian house to the Papadopoulos' during the show's second and third seasons, until George and Katherine bought it outright (this was Damon's last TV series role, as she died from cancer a year after leaving Webster). A thread of drama was added when Bill and Cassies runaway daughter and grandson appeared for one episode, setting up a tearful reunion.
Jerry, who was a more prominent member of show in the first season (receiving the "co-starring" heading in the opening credits after the show's three leads), had since become an occasional character, but would continue for the entire series. George's jovial aging father, George Sr. (Jack Kruschen
Jack Kruschen
Jack Kruschen was a Canadian-born character actor who worked primarily in American film, television and radio.-Radio:...
), known to all as "Papa" Papadopolis, began appearing occasionally in the fall of 1985. Over the course of the fourth season, ratings dropped sharply. The show, which had been a Nielsen
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...
top 30 series, ranked 46th by the end of the season. ABC chose not to renew Webster.
First-run syndication
The series' popularity and interest among younger viewers prompted Webster to continue in first-run syndication starting in fall of 1987. At this time, the Papadopolis household gained a new member in George's nephew Nicky (Corin NemecCorin Nemec
Corin "Corky" Nemec is an American actor. Nemec is known for playing the title character on Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Jonas Quinn on Stargate SG-1, and Harold Lauder in the ABC miniseries The Stand.-Personal life:Nemec's mother was a graphic artist as well as a painter, writer and poet...
), who moved in when his parents went off to work in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, on assignment for the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
.
Nicky provided Webster with a sort of "brother figure", and the two got along famously. However, Nicky was gone from the show at the start of season six (Nemec would later reach greater fame as the star of Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
's Parker Lewis Can't Lose
Parker Lewis Can't Lose
Parker Lewis Can't Lose is an American teen sitcom that originally aired on FOX from September 1990 to June 1993. During the last season, the series sported the simpler title Parker Lewis. The series was produced by Columbia Pictures Television and was strongly influenced by the feature film Ferris...
).
While plots continued to mature somewhat with Webster's onset of pre-teendom, the same "cutesy factor" remained, thanks in part to Lewis' timing and portrayal. However, this was something Lewis was slowly getting tired of, despite the fact that he had more creative control over Webster at this point (with Emmanuel Lewis Entertainment Enterprises co-producing with Karras and Clark's Georgian Bay Ltd.).
Early in the 1988-89 season, with Lewis clearly outgrowing the title role, Karras and Clark also decided that the time was right to move on. The last episode was taped in early 1989 (but aired that March), which did not signify an end of any sort, but was played out as a high event - the cast went on a space adventure with guest star Michael Dorn
Michael Dorn
Michael Dorn is an American actor, and voice artist who is best known for his role as the Klingon Worf from the Star Trek franchise.-Early life and career:...
as Lt. Worf, from Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
(in the episode, "Webtrek").
Syndicated reruns
USA NetworkUSA Network
USA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...
aired reruns of the show from September 22, 1997 to March 13, 1998. It also aired on WGN September 21, 1998 to September 2, 1999 (which was, as of January 2010, the last time that Webster appeared on national television).
Webster also aired on Chicago's local station Me-TV and WMEU-CA
WMEU-CA
WMEU-CA is a class A station in Chicago, Illinois. It is owned by Weigel Broadcasting, which also owns sister stations WCIU-TV and WWME-CA. The station is an extension of WWME's classic programming format, and brands as "MeToo"...
(now known as Me-TV's sister station MeToo since March 2008) from 2006-09.
Cast
- Emmanuel LewisEmmanuel LewisEmmanuel Lewis is an American actor, best known for playing the title character in the 1980s television sitcom Webster. He is tall. Lewis graduated from Midwood High School in 1989 and then Clark Atlanta University in 1997...
as Webster Long - Alex KarrasAlex KarrasAlexander George "Alex" Karras , nicknamed "The Mad Duck", is a former football player, professional wrestler, and actor, best known for his stint with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League from 1958–1962 and 1964-1970 and for his role as Mongo in the film Blazing Saddles...
as George Papadapolis - Susan ClarkSusan ClarkSusan Clark is a Canadian actress, possibly best-known for her role as Katherine on the American television sitcom Webster, on which she appeared with her husband, Alex Karras.-Personal life:...
as Katherine Calder-Young Papadapolis - Henry Polic IIHenry Polic IIHenry Polic II is a stage, screen, and voice actor best known for his role as Jerry Silver in the American 1980s television series Webster, as well as his frequent game show appearances on such series as Super Password and The $100,000 Pyramid...
as Jerry Silver - Heather O'RourkeHeather O'RourkeHeather O'Rourke was an American child actress who played Carol Anne Freeling in the Poltergeist film trilogy and made several television guest appearances...
as Melanie (1983) - Eugene RocheEugene RocheEugene Harrison Roche was an American actor . He was the original "Ajax Man" in 1970s television commercials.-Personal life:...
as Bill Parker (1984–1986) - Cathryn DamonCathryn DamonCathryn Lee Damon was an American actress, best known for her roles on television sitcoms in the 1970s and 1980s....
as Cassie Parker (1984–1986) - Ben VereenBen VereenBen Vereen is an American actor, dancer, and singer who has appeared in numerous Broadway theatre shows. Vereen graduated from Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts.- Early years :...
as Uncle Phillip Long (1984–1985) - Jack KruschenJack KruschenJack Kruschen was a Canadian-born character actor who worked primarily in American film, television and radio.-Radio:...
as George "Papa" Papadapolis, Sr. (1985–1987) - Chad AllenChad Allen (actor)Chad Allen is an American actor. Beginning a prolific career as a child actor at the age of seven, Allen is a three-time Young Artist Award winner and GLAAD Media Award honoree, best known for rising to prominence as a teen idol during the late 1980s as David Witherspoon on the NBC family drama,...
as Rob Whitaker/Joiner (1985–1986) - Carl Steven as Roger (1986–1987)
- Danny McMurphy as Timmy (1986–1987)
- Gabe Witcher as Tommy (1987)
- Nick DeMauro as Benny (1987)
- Corin NemecCorin NemecCorin "Corky" Nemec is an American actor. Nemec is known for playing the title character on Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Jonas Quinn on Stargate SG-1, and Harold Lauder in the ABC miniseries The Stand.-Personal life:Nemec's mother was a graphic artist as well as a painter, writer and poet...
as Nicky Papadopolis (1987–1988) (credited as Corin "Corky" Nemec)
DVD releases
Shout! FactoryShout! Factory
Shout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...
, under license from CBS Home Entertainment has released the first three seasons on Region 1 DVD, as of August 9, 2011.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| Season One | 22 | January 25, 2011 |
| Season Two | 26 | May 10, 2011 |
| Season Three | 29 | August 9, 2011 |
| Season Four | 23 | TBA |
| Season Five | 25 | TBA |
| Season Six | 25 | TBA |
Nielsen ratings
- 1983-84: #26 (17.47 rating)
- 1984-85: #22 (17.46 rating)
- 1985-86: #41 (15.30 rating)
- 1986-87: #46 (13.80 rating)
Ratings data from TVTango.com
See also
- Diff'rent StrokesDiff'rent StrokesDiff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from November 3, 1978 to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985 to March 7, 1986...
, a similar sitcom from 1978–1986 with Conrad BainConrad BainConrad Stafford Bain is a Canadian-American actor. His television credits include a leading role as Phillip Drummond in the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes and as Dr. Arthur Harmon on Maude.-Personal life:...
, Todd BridgesTodd BridgesTodd Anthony Bridges is an American actor. He is best known for his childhood role as Willis Jackson on the NBC/ABC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, and for his recurring role as Monk on the UPN/CW sitcom Everybody Hates Chris...
, Gary ColemanGary ColemanGary Wayne Coleman was an American actor, known for his childhood role as Arnold Jackson in the American sitcom Diff'rent Strokes and for his small stature as an adult. He was described in the 1980s as "one of television's most promising stars". After a successful childhood acting career, Coleman...