You and I have similar (read:
great) taste in comedies.
I have the Logo Channel on my cable system, and they also air this show....but they give it the worst time slots (like, overnights, or at best early morning) so I don't get to binge-watch it like I'd like to. I was a big fan of the show when it was in first-run syndication. I will give Logo credit for airing the whole series (that is, the ABC seasons and the syndicated seasons), but they don't seem to have much faith in the show, given the lousy time slots.
So I've only seen bits and pieces of the two (?) seasons produced for ABC, but it appeared from what I saw that SS (as Lois) was kind of the 'lead' waitress, with the others less-emphasized in season one. When ABC revamped it (even calling it
Making A Living, which is the most bland name they could have come up with) and hired Louise Lasser to be their new waitress it was certainly a change. Lasser's character was appropriately daft and yet likeable, whereas Lois had been stronger and smarter. I think they wanted it to be more of an ensemble but Lasser's character was obviously the most fun for the writers to write for. Jan, Dot, and Cassie were still fun, but it wasn't until the show was revived in syndication (with Amy and Ginger brought on) that it became more of the ensemble effort that worked best for the show.
My favorite of the bunch was actually Nancy. Her bizarre dresses were always a source of laughs. Marian Mercer was always excellent, even when Nancy was at her cartoony meanest to the girls. I also loved Sonny's innate ability to choose the most inappropriate songs to play/sing in the dining room. Inevitably one of the waitresses would slam the lid of the piano's keys on Sonny's hands.
I like that you and I share similar tastes in what we watch on TV. It gives me great pleasure to share ideas with someone such as yourself on a site such as this one. I look forward to it.
My cable provider doesn't include Logo TV, so the only time I ever got to watch
It's a Living was on YouTube, and for a long time there weren't too many clips of the show available there. I first heard about the series after watching
Mae West, an early eighties television film starring actress Ann Jillian as the incomparable Mae West. Compelled, I decided to do some digging on Ann Jillian, and naturally I stumbled across
It's a Living.
Thus my fandom with the show was birthed.
It's a Living aired for two seasons on ABC from 1980 to 1982. Together, the two seasons totaled just twenty-seven episodes, which wasn't much more than a full season's worth of episodes at the time. The first season starred Susan Sullivan as Lois Adams, but she left the show (for reasons I cannot clarify), and she was replaced by Louise Lasser as Maggie McBurney for the season season. The second year was the network's attempt to edge the sitcom as more of an ensemble, but as you said, they still seemed the most interested in writing for the "head waitress," who was Louise Lasser this time.
The abbreviated thirteen-episode first season felt the effects of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists strike in 1980. ABC decided to retool the show extensively, even rebranding the show
Making a Living. This version of the show was not popular either.
Apparently, the show was shuffled around on the schedule during its two-season-tenure, and it failed to find an audience. It received mixed reviews and poor Nielsen ratings, and it eventually got the axe after twenty-seven episodes. The short-run series would prove popularity when it starting airing reruns in 1983, and following Ann Jillian's public announcement of having breast cancer in 1984, the producers of Golden West Television to bring
It's a Living back in first-run syndication to produce new episodes. A number of sitcoms had found a healthy second-life in first-run syndication, among them
Mama's Family,
Charles in Charge, and
Nine to Five.
It's a Living enjoyed a successful revival in popularity during its syndicated life. Crystal Bernard was brought in as naive Texas waitress Amy Tompkins to fill the gap left by Louise Lasser's exit. Ann Jillian would leave the show in 1986 (she had only agreed to do one year in syndication), and she was replaced with Sheryl Lee Ralph as Ginger St. James. With the key roles in place, the series would continue and produce close to another one-hundred episodes before finally concluding in 1989.
I must agree with you about the favorites. Marian Mercer is hilarious, and she plays the role to the hilt. It wouldn't be the same without her. She's so subtle and delicious. I'm also big fans of Ann Jillian and Barrie Youngfellow, who I remember seeing as Joan Crawford in
The Scarlett O'Hara War.
I remember asking my parents about
It's a Living several years ago. Considering I'm far too young to have seen any of the shows were discuss here on SC during their original runs, I figured they would have been able to shed some light on any memories they possibly had of the show. To my surprise, neither of them remembered it at all. Well, my mother had no recollection whatsoever, but my father did have some vague memories of Ann Jillian and her being a TV sex symbol in the early eighties.
I have hunted all over the internet for a copy of this series on DVD. I have found no luck. There's some copies of the first three seasons circling out there now, probably copied from Tubi, but I really want all six seasons.