Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Associates: Cast Photo

The Associates, A critically aclaimed half-hour sitcom ran on ABC from September 1979 until April 1980.

ABC had high hopes for this lawyer-comedy show, which, though well received by critics, never attracted a large audience ( it got creamed by One Day At A Time every week).The series revolved around 3 young law graduates who had just joined the prestigious Wall Street firm of Bass and Marshall as associates, beginning their 5 to 7 year trial period. Daughter of a poor New York family, Leslie ( played by the future Mom of the Wonder Years Alley Mills)was recently graduated from Columbia, and felt for the oppressed. Bass And Marshall didn't usually represent the opressed. Tucker ( Martin Short), Leslie's beau was a Midwesterner slightly out of step with his Ivy league colleagues , a little naiive but very charming. Sara ( Shelley Smith) was a Boston Blueblood, bright as well as sexy. They were all at the mercy of a hierarchy, including such oddballs as formidable but slightly dotty Senior Partner Emerson Marshall ( played to perfection by character actor Wilfred Hyde White), and dedicated Junior Partner Eliot Streeter( Joe Regalbuto), who had only one goal-to take over the firm. Waving his hand he exclaimed, in the 1st episode, " I love this firm...I never told it so but it knows."

Counterpointing all this class was Johnny Danko ( Tim Thomerson), the 21 year old mailboy, whose one goal was to make time with beautiful chicks.

The series was created by the group responsible for the 1978 hit Taxi: Jim Brooks, Stan Daniels, and Ed Weinberger. The show's musical theme " The Wall Street Blues," was sung by B.B. King.

A Review From Time Magazine

By Frank Rich

The Associates (Sept. 23, ABC, 8:30 p.m. E.D.T.) Take away the commercials, and a sitcom is only 26 minutes long. Most TV comedy writers use this fact as a justification for giving the audience as little as they can: a couple of laughs, one unexpected plot twist, a happy ending. Yet it does not have to be that way. When those 26 minutes are in the hands of precise miniaturists instead of slobs, TV's most familiar formula suddenly offers a bonanza of comic and emotional possibilities.

The proof can be found in this series about a staid Wall Street law firm; it is the latest triumph from James L. Brooks, Stan Daniels and Ed Weinberger, veterans of Taxi and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. In the new show, these writers have again loaded a simple sitcom premise with a wide variety of well-drawn (and exceptionally well cast) characters, sophisticated jokes and astute social observations. The first episode, which may be a classic of its kind, also manages to work in unforced slapstick gags, a touch of pathos and a double-whammy final punch line.

Even the stock players are revitalized by off-center writing. The obligatory blond bombshell (Shelley Smith) turns out to be a Stanford-educated superachiever. The ancient senior partner (the wonderful British actor Wilfrid Hyde-White) is doddering ("I make my best decisions when I'm asleep") and autocratic, but often he proves to be the wisest person in the room. The firm's most unctuous, corporate-minded lawyer (Joe Regalbuto) may be a back stabber, but he is also a mean wit. When a liberal colleague talks about serving mankind, he replies, "Unfortunately, they're not our clients."

The young associates (Martin Short, Alley Mills, John Getz) must choose between ambition and conscience. As one of them jokes, should he "make a nun crack under crossexamination" to serve a big client? The Associates is not afraid to address the ethical issues, light and serious, that confront the legal profession. This show is only afraid of being unfunny or cheap — and, of that, it apparently need have no fear.

For more on The Associates go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Associates_(U.S._TV_series)