Major Dad ran from September 1989 until September 1993 on CBS.
John MacGillis ( Gerald McRaney) was a dedicated career Marine officer stationed at Camp Singleton in San Diego, California, whose well ordered life was turned upside down when he fell in love with Polly Cooper ( Shanna Reed), a liberal reporter who had interviewed him for a local paper. Within weeks of their meeting John and Polly, a widow with 3 young daughters were married and he had moved into her house. A man of discipline, John had a hard time adjusting to being a father to 3 girls-Elizabeth( Marisa Ryan) into rock music and boys; Robin ( Nicole Duboc), intellectual and sensitive; and Casey ( Chelsea Hertford), just to cute for words. The conflict between his conservative views and Polly's liberal convictions were a constant source of conflict, but fortunately they all learned to adjust and compromise. At the base his staff included eager to please Lt. Holowachuk ( Matt Mulhern), bright Sgt. James ( Marlon Archey), and his perpetually perky secretary Marilee Gunderson ( Whitney Kershaw), daughter of the base commander. Chip ( Rod Brogan), was Elizabeth's boyfriend.
At the start of the second season, John and his family relocated to Camp Hollister, in Farlow Virginia near Washington, D.C. where he was now staff secretary to the base's gruff eccentric commanding officer, Gen. Marcus Craig ( Jon Cypher). Lt. Holowachuk had also been transfered to Camp Hollister, becoming his aid de camp, and Gunny Bricker ( Beverly Archer) was his new secretary. Polly's new job was feature editor of The Bulldog, Camp Hollister's newspaper.
Vice President Dan Quale appeared in a November 1990 episode celebrating the 215th anniversary of the Marine Corps. Some episodes delt with the real-life Military buildup and war that took place in Kuwait and Iraq during the winter of 1990-1991. At the end of the season John started formal adotion proceedings for the girls.
That fall again, reflecting real-world situations Camp Hhollister was faced with possible closure as part of the government's efforts to reduce military expenditures. Gen. Craig was determined to save as much money as possible to keep congress from shutting it down, so he promoted Polly to editor of the Bulldog at a 10% sallery cut.
In the final episode telecast in the spring of 1993, John was transfered to the White House.
A Review from The New York Times
By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: September 15, 1989
CBS is slipping the first episode of ''Major Dad'' into a special hourlong ''Premiere Preview,'' with Angela Lansbury as host (Sunday at 8 P.M.). The executive producers and writer are Earl Pomerantz and Richard C. Okie; the director is Will Mackenzie. The major of the title is Mac MacGillis, a tough and seasoned soldier adjusting to life on a stateside base. He is portrayed by Gerald McRaney, about the only asset this series can claim. Mac is approached by a liberal newspaper reporter (Shanna Reed) for an article about today's Marines.
The piece turns out to be less than flattering. Nevertheless, Mac ends up having dinner at the reporter's house and by the end of a half-hour, the liberal mother and the conservative disciplinarian have decided to get married. She comes with three daughters, ranging in age from 6 to 13. They are, of course, adorable. Too bad they had to get trapped in such a tired premise. In its eagerness to whip up offbeat family situations, television can be exasperating.
An Article on Major Dad that ran in my local newspaper in September 1990.
'Major Dad' star: Show will deal with mideast
Gulf crisis has emotional effect on Shanna Reed
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
SCRIPPS HOWARD
HOLLYWOOD-There may be nobody in show business more emotionally and professionally affected than Shanna Reed by the swift American military buildup in the Persian Gulf.
Ms. Reed is the daughter of one ex-Marine and the step-daughter of another ex-Marine. She's the wife of a third Marine on " Major Dad," Monday at 8:30 p.m. on CBS-TV.
But have no fear: There's no immediate likelihood that Maj. John McGillis ( Gerald McRaney) will soon be posted to Saudi Arabia. The fall's first few episodes will see him working on a transfer from the fictional Camp Singleton to the even more-make-believe Camp Hollister, Va., a supply center.
" I can't imagine the writers would send Mac to the Mideast," Ms. Reed said over breakfast the other day in the decidedly un-Leatherneck surroundings of Beverly Hills' fabled Polo Lounge. " It would be a different show."
But the movement of thousands of Marines has had a big effect on Ms. Reed.
" We taped a show a couple of weeks ago in front of a studio audience ," she said, " and the audience was laughing at all the wrong places. Some of them were weeping and we didn't understand why.
" I found out later there were 30 Marine Corps wives in the audience, and my heart went out to them. They were weeping because their husbands had just been sent off. One woman was 24, had been married only five days and had just moved onto a base. Her furniture hadn't even arrived and her husband was already gone. Then we do a show about how our furniture hasn't yet arrived at our new base."
But Ms. Reed admits there's no way she can feel emotional trauma the troop deployment has brought many of her character's real-life counterparts.
" I feel kind of inappropriate playing the character of a Marine wife and not having had the real experience," she said. " But I think I have an awareness of what the situation can be like. It would be hard for me to know directly because I was too young to understand during the Vietnam era."
Ms. Reed who admits to being thirtysomething, said that even though her on-screen husband isn't likely to be sent to the Arabian Desert, the show will take up the Gulf conflict. " I'm curious myself exactly how we'll do it," she said, noting that as of the season's opener, only three episodes had been completed.
" So far, we have a yellow ribbon around a post outside the base office," she said. " And we had one scene where the kids in school are writing letters to soldiers. We can't ignore it. And being Polly Cooper, I'm a reporter working on the base paper. I want her to write about what the wives at home are feeling and how it is to have only minimal contact with their men. Can you imagine not even knowing where your husband is for weeks on end?"
If the Marines both on and off " Major Dad" are in a state of flux and stress, things are not like that at all within the show.
" It feels just great to come back for a second season," says Ms. Reed. " Last year was the first time I started a series from the beginning and went all the way through a year. I learned so much. It feels much more fined-tuned now. We all learned a lot about working with each other because we've had so many hours working closely."
The slender, dark-haired ex-Las Vegas dancer says the year's experience has made her less demanding in her relations with other cast members.
" I've learned to let go some," she said. " I've learned more to see the best in people and think about what makes them tick. Our show is a collective ensemble effort, so we have to really work together."
Ms. Reed says her easy relationship with McRaney has helped matters from the start.
" I don't think the producers expected me to get this part at the time I auditioned," she said. " I had heard they were looking for a big name and I wasn't a name at that point. But Mac and I just clicked. We seemed to connect right from the beginning."
She admits the show's premise of McGillis moving into a household with three kids and winning instant trust and affection is a bit unrealistic.
" I think the relationship of a step-parent coming in is slower-developing than that. It sure was with us," she said of her own childhood experience. " It takes time to trust someone and let them in. In reality, the process was slower and there was some conflict. But we don't have that much time here."
An Article from USA TODAY
Published on October 22, 1990
'Major Dad' stands at ease in its second year of duty
By Jefferson Graham
USA TODAY
HOLLYWOOD-Major Dad is a sophomore success story for CBS.
Last season its ratings were enough to get the series renewed but not good enough to lead off CBS' Monday night.
But moved to 8:30 this fall, Major has ranked as high as No. 10 in the weekly ratings.
Some say that the Iraq standoff made people more aware of the military. Others say viewers dislike Ferris Bueller and Dad wins by default.
Executive producer and star Gerald McRaney has a simplar answer: " People who had never seen the show during football season started watching during summer reruns. And they stuck with us."
Dad is the story of conservative Marine John MacGillis ( McRaney) and the liberal reporter ( Shanna Reed) with three daughters he married.
" On the surface, they seem totally different, but...they're really not," says McRaney. " They're both warriors in their own right."
The kids played by Marisa Ryan, Nicole Dubuc, and Chelsea Hertford also play a large role in the show's success. " This is the first sitcom thats ever been about a military family," says Rick Hawkins who shares executive producer credits with McRaney and Earl Pomerantz.
Last seasom, stories centered on the girls adjusting to their stepfather. This year the family is adjusting to a new home in Virginia. " By the end of the season, what I hope is for John to be accepted as a parent figure by the kids," says McRaney.
The Major moved bases from California to Virginia this year, an attempt to remain realistic to military life.
Producers considered , but declined, doing a show about Iraq. " If we did a story about Iraq now, it would be about boredom and equipment failure," says McRaney . By the time it aired they could be shooting at each other."
McRaney has two projects with wife Delta Burke ( Designing Women). The two will star in the play Love Letters for a week in Los Angeles, and make aTV movie for CBS next spring, a mystery called Love and Curses. McRaney plays a doctor and Burke, a psychologist, who solve a murder in New Orleans.
Fan lands Quayle a visit
If not for Gunnery Sgt. Alva Bricker, Vice-President Dan Quayle would not have appeared on Major Dad.
Bricker is a " man chaser and he's quite good-looking," says actress Bevery Archer.
Her passion for Quayle prompted his press secretary to call Dad executive producer Rick Hawkins to tell him that Quayle enjoys the show. And Quayle agreed to make a guest appearance Nov. 5.
Archer, who was Iola in TV's Mama's Family, joined Major Dad this year as the administrative chief for Camp Hollister's Commanding General. She's a by-the-book Marine and often, a burr in the Major's side.
" The Marine Corps is everything to her," says Archer, who is married.
Archer also wrote for Mama's Family and Tv's Working Girl, but for now, " As long as they want me to act, I'll be happy."
An Article from Entertainment Weekly
Published on February 22, 1991
Television News
The War and 'Major Dad'
Television's military/family sitcom deals with the Persian Gulf war
By Ken Tucker
As a sitcom about a U.S. Marine and his family, Major Dad is in an awkward spot: How can the show acknowledge the Persian Gulf war and still do its job — to inspire laughs in its audience? Starting with the Feb. 4 episode, Major Dad tried to confront this problem. The major (Gerald McRaney), stationed at a Stateside Marine supply base, is just itching to ''get over to Saudi.'' Sure, he'd miss his wife, Polly (Shanna Reed), and his three stepdaughters, but as he explains to Polly in dialogue as stiff as his uniform, ''I have two families: One of them is here, safe at home. But the other one is overseas and in harm's way, and I want to be with that family, to help them.''
Of course there'd be no Major Dad without McRaney. By the end of that episode, he'd been told by his commanding officer that he was to ''stay put,'' that he was serving his country best by doing necessary work at home, shipping supplies to the troops.
Not a word about the gulf was uttered in the following week's show, but the producers have established a way to maintain war updates: At the beginning and end of the Feb. 4 episode, Polly sits in her bedroom writing in her diary and reading the entries aloud. (''Looking at my children, I have to believe in a brighter future and hang on to the hope that some day, they'll live in a world of peace, where no one will ever have to fight over a line drawn in the sand.'') Scenes like this, taped at the last minute for maximum timeliness, could continue for as long as the war goes on. Except for a reference to Polly attending a peace rally, the war in Major Dad has been presented in terms that are either hopelessly sentimental or aggressively pro-war. The expression of any political point of view in entertainment programming is rare and to be encouraged. But I have a question for CBS: When does Shanna Reed get her spin-off series, Peacenik Mom?
This photo gallery contains pictures for sitcoms of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and today, as well as dramas, soaps, reality shows, cartoons, game shows, variety shows, talk shows and late night tv photo galleries.
Please note that all pictures uploaded between August 6-31, 2009 were lost in a database crash. While the photos are still on the server, the information (title, description, number of views, who uploaded them, etc.) attached to each photo was lost. In addition, any photo edits, moves or any other account changes from this period were lost. Our apologies to all members who are missing photos and for the downtime. We appreciate you taking the time to share them with us. Click here for archived files by category which are no longer in the database. We would appreciate it if the original uploaders could re-upload them when they have the opportunity. Thank you.
To upload photos, please choose the appropriate category and login with your existing
message board username and password. If you are new, you will need to
register before
uploading any photos. Only ".jpg" files will upload - ".jpeg", ".gif", ".png" or any other image
format will not work. You will need to convert them to ".jpg". Please upload only sitcom
and tv related photos.
To request any photos be removed, please use the "Report Photo" link that is the bottom of
every photo if you are registered and logged in. This is the quickest and easiest method. You can also
send an e-mail with the url of the photo(s). We will also gladly credit or
link to any site that is the original source of any photos.
If you have any questions, comments, requests for new categories, etc. - please contact us.
All images, logos, and other materials are copyright their respective owners. No rights
are given or implied.
Powered by: PhotoPost PHP Copyright 2004-2012 All Enthusiast, Inc.
