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It's Not Easy ran from September until October 1983 on ABC.
Divorce with a laugh track was the premise of this short-lived comedy , which seemed to suggest that even the kids don't mind it when parents split. Jack and Sharon ( Ken Howard, Carlene Watkins), were the divorced couple who decided to live across the street from one another so they could share custody of their cute children 8 year old Johnny ( Evan Cohen), and 11 year old Carol ( Rachel Jacobs). Sharon had since re-married and her stepson Matthew ( Billy Jacoby), age 14, was also mixed into the stew. They all ran into and out of each other's kitchens-and-lives-as did Sharon's new hubby Neal ( Bert Convy), who wondered if his new family was really his, and Jack's meddling mother Ruth ( Jayne Meadows). One of the favorite pursuits was trying to fix up the athletic Jack with someone new, so that everything would be symmetrical again.
A Review From The New York Times
TV: COMEDY OF DIVORCE
By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: September 29, 1983
TAKING divorce and the concept of an extended family to surprisingly comic lengths, ''It's Not Easy,'' developed, written and produced by Patricia Nardo, makes its debut on ABC-TV at 9:30 this evening. Despite the sensitive but very real subject, it turns out to be one of the season's more promising situation comedies.
The situation is certainly more complicated than most. After getting a divorce, Jack (Ken Howard) and Sharon (Carlene Watkins) decide to live across the street from each other. If nothing else, it will make raising their two children - 11-year-old Carol and 8-year-old Johnny - less awkward. Jack lives with his somewhat brassy mother, Ruth (Jayne Meadows). Sharon lives with her new husband, Neal (Bert Convy), who has a 14-year-old son Matthew (Billy Jacoby) from his first marriage. The action keeps shunting between the two homes.
Jack, a jogging outdoorsy type who runs a sporting-goods store, has to keep telling his mother that ''that man'' across the street is really his former wife's husband. ''She remarried,'' he explains, ''they had an ice sculpture and everything.'' Strolling across the street, Jack is jokingly friendly with Neal and still calls his ex-wife by the supposedly endearing name of Britches. The nattily dressed Neal quickly notes that ''she's no longer your Britches, she's my Ruff- ruff.''
Things get touchy when Jack, supposedly suffering from loneliness, reveals that he has been dating Sherry Gabler (Christine Belford), a long- time neighbor whom Sharon despises. The suddenly jealous Sharon cries to Jack, ''I thought we hated her.'' ''I lied,'' he confesses. The understanding Neal points out that ''we can't say we feel nothing about the people we were married to.'' Then he adds, ''Those are people who hurt us, who completely failed us.'' Worse yet, says Sharon, ''our children look like them.'' The half hour ends with the observation that ''this is not going to be easy.'' Probably not, but the introduction indicates that this could be a show worth watching.
Here is Bert Convy's Obituary
Bert Convy, 57, an Actor and Host Of Television Game Shows, Dies
AP
Published: July 16, 1991
Bert Convy, an actor and host of television game shows, died today at his home in Brentwood here. He was 57 years old.
A brain tumor was diagnosed in April 1990, said his manager, Howard Hinderstein. He had been admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center here after collapsing during a visit to his mother, who had been hospitalized for a stroke.
Mr. Convy won an Emmy award in 1977 for his work as the host of the CBS show "Tattletales." He also served as the host of the game shows "Win, Lose or Draw" and "Super Password," and he was a guest host on the "Tonight" show starring Johnny Carson.
His film credits include "Semi-Tough," "The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders," "The Man in the Santa Claus Suit," "Help Wanted: Male," "Love Thy Neighbor" and "Hero at Large." A Start in Baseball
Mr. Convy was born in St. Louis. When he was 7, his family moved to Los Angeles, where he later attended North Hollywood High School. A star first baseman, he signed with the Philadelphia Phillies a day after graduating and played with the team's farm clubs in Klamath Falls, Ore., and Miami, Okla. He quit baseball after two years.
He flirted with an acting career while attending the University of California at Los Angeles, and was a singer in a rock band called the Cheers.
He turned to acting full time in 1956 and was in the musical "The Billy Barnes Revue" in Los Angeles before moving to New York. He appeared in 10 Broadway shows, including "Nowhere to Go but Up," "Cabaret" and "The Impossible Years." He created the role of Perchik, the young revolutionary, in "Fiddler on the Roof," and played the reporter Hildy Johnson in a 1969 Broadway revival of "The Front Page," which starred Robert Ryan.
His television credits include his own prime-time variety show, "The Late Summer Early Fall Bert Convy Show," and guest roles on "77 Sunset Strip," "Perry Mason," "Father of the Bride," "Love, American Style" and "The Partridge Family." He also starred in "The Snoop Sisters" and "It's Not Easy" and was the host of the short-lived "People Do the Craziest Things."
His first marriage, to the former Anne Andersen, ended in divorce this year. He is survived by his second wife, Catherine, whom he married five months ago, and by three children from his first marriage, Jennifer, Joshua and John.
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