Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Hope & Gloria: Cast Photo

Hope And Gloria ran from March 1995 until June 1996 on NBC.

Two single women shared a Pittsburgh brownstone, and their complicated lives, in this girl-buddy sitcom. In some ways they were complete opposites. Hope ( Cynthia Stevenson), was a perky, ever-optimistic associate producer of a local tv talk show who couldn't believe that her darling husband Jeffrey ( Jeff Orlandt)-unbeknownst to her, a world class philanderer-had left her after 10 years. Gloria ( Jessica Lundy), was a brassy cynical hairdresser, who knew all to well what a no-goodski her gross, carpet -salesman ex-husband Louis ( Enrico Colantoni) was. She ought to; she had married and divorced him twice.

Despite the fact that Gloria and Louis yelled at each other constantly,they still saw each other and shared the raising of their young son, Sonny ( Robert Garrova); for all the wisecracks, Louis was a pretty good Dad. Dennis ( Alan Thicke), was the vain, egocentric host of The Dennis Dupree Show on WPNN-TV, Channel 5-"The host who cares the most"- and Gwillem Blatt ( Taylor Negron), a high stung program executive.

An Article from USA TODAY
Published in April 1995

With 'Hope,' Stevenson finds glory

By Jefferson Graham
USA TODAY

What a diiference a network makes.

Cynthia Stevenson received good notices for her portrayal of Bob Newhart's daughter on CBS's short-lived Bob sitcom two seasons ago. The only problem was that few viewers saw her porformance. CBS scheduled the show in a weak time slot and regularly bounced it on and off the air.

This spring, Stevenson is working again with Bob's producers, Cheri and Bill steinkellner, but this time on NBC in Hope & Gloria. And the network is strongly behind the show.

Its part of the " Must See TV " Thursday lineup which also includes Mad About You, Seinfeld, Friends and ER. The block receives lots of promotion, and the ratings have been great.

Hope recently tied ER as the No. 2 show one week, and overall it's the highest rated new series of the spring tryout season.

" It still hasn't hit me at all," Stevenson says. " I've been working so hard I haven't had time to catch my breath."

Hope & Gloria is about the friendship of two women in Pittsburgh: Hope ( Stevenson) is a producer for the local Dennis Dupree talk show, and Gloria ( Jessica Lundy) is a hairdresser. Making frequent appearances are Louis, Gloria's ex-husband ( Enrico Colantoni) and Dupree ( Alan Thicke).

Hope & Gloria has done so well that NBC asked the producers to come up with a cliffhanger for the May ratings sweep, a promotional stunt that usually brings in even higher ratings.

Thursday, Gloria and Louis are about to get remarried live on Dupree's show. Hope gets trapped in a closet moments before the wedding. Will she get out in time? Will the wedding even take place?

Since Bob ended, Stevenson has worked on three films, all of which will premiere this year. Opening May 19 is the romantic comedy Forget Paris with Billy Crystal and Debra Winger. She plays the fiance of Joe Mantegna, a friend of Crystal's character.

Stevenson also co-stars with Dana Delany and Olivia D'Abo in Live Nude Girls, about women throwing a bachlorette party and the conversations they have behind closed doors.

At Thanksgiving, Home for the Holidays will be out. Directed by Jodie Foster, the film co-stars Stevenson, Holly Hunter, Anne Bancroft, Steve Guttenberg and Charles Durning.

The movie was offered to her at the same time as Hope & Gloria. She was leaning toward chosing the film work (" How could I say no to working with Jodie Foster and that cast?"), so the Steinkellners worked out a schedule that allowed her to do both projects at the same time.

She filmed two weeks of Hope & Gloria in Burbank, Calif., then two weeks of the film in Baltimore, and back and forth.

" I always play really nice characters," she says. " But in Home for the Holidays I play a bitter, unhappy woman who's a real bitch. It was a blast."

Not that she has anything against being nice. " Some actors like to play big and brassy characters, and I usually go for the opposite. Hope is optimistic. I'm not as naive or consistently sweet as she is , but we both have that thread of goodness."

Stevenson is proud that she has been able to pull off both films and TV. But during her Hope & Gloria summer break, she's taking a hiatus: She and her husband are relaxing for a month in the Italian countryside.

For a webpage dedicated to Cynthia Stevenson go to http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Highrise/1068/cynthias.html

For a Website dedicated to Enrico Colantoni go to http://www.eviltwinltd.com/colantoni/enrico.html

For Alan Thicke's Official Website go to http://www.alanthicke.com/home/index.asp