Maggie Winters aired from September 1998 until February 1999 on CBS.
An eternally optomistic wife, after being dumped by her dentist husband for his hygienist, returned to her hometown for a little emotional support in this single girl comedy. Having divorced the louse, Maggie ( Faith Ford) left Chicago and moved in with her dumpy, doting mom Estelle ( Shirley Knight), in Shelbyville, Indiana, determined to get back on her feet, both emotionally and financially. It was like opening a dusty school yearbook. She immediately connected with chattery high school pals Robin ( Jenny Robertson), now happily married to husband Jeff ( Robert Romanus) and with 3 kids, and Lisa ( Alex Karpp Horner), the bossy owner of a small boutique. Tom ( Brian Haley), the macho football star of their high school years, was now the bartender at Sonny's, where they hung out and were treated to stories of his glory days. Needing a job, Maggie went to work at Hanley's , a local department store, where her boss turned out to be none other than Rachel ( Clea Lewis), another high school classmate, who had resented Maggie's popularity then, and was ready to take it out on her now.
What was that about " you can't go home again"?
A Review From The New York Times
TV REVIEW/NEW SEASON; Starting All Over, With Mom
By CARYN JAMES
Published: September 30, 1998
In one of the most backward-looking, unpromising of mini-trends, television producers seem determined to prove that you can, too, go home again. WB's dismissable new drama, ''Hyperion Bay,'' sends a computer whiz and businessman back to his hometown in the Northwest. NBC has shipped Nathan Lane back to the family vineyard in ''Encore! Encore!'' and plans a midseason replacement called ''Providence,'' named after the hometown that lures a cosmetic surgeon back from Beverly Hills. And tonight there is CBS's pleasantly watchable but uninspired ''Maggie Winters,'' in which Faith Ford trades in her ditsy but likable Corky Sherwood character from ''Murphy Brown'' for the role of a floundering woman in her 30's fresh out of a bad marriage. Apparently never having held a job (how quaint!), Maggie returns to her small Indiana hometown to live with her mother and start over.
Ms. Ford brings her sharp comic timing and engaging presence to Maggie. But it is Shirley Knight as her sweet, slightly addled mother who is the show's brightest asset. As Maggie heads to a job interview at a department store, her mother says, ''I just know that you can turn even the most menial, thankless, minimum-wage job into something not to be embarrassed about.'' Ms. Knight delivers her lines with genuine concern, even when her meaning is miles away from her words, even when wondering why Maggie didn't take her cheating husband for all he was worth. You can see Ms. Ford and Ms. Knight struggling to save the show from its stale concept.
In one of those only-in-sitcom coincidences, Maggie has returned just in time for her 15th high school reunion. And though she has flashes of resistance to being dragged back to the past, it takes minutes for her to pick up a romance with her old boyfriend, Bobby (Vincent Ventresca), now the town veterinarian.
It takes less time for her to shriek and squeal with her old girlfriends, tedious characters. In the opening credits, one is a contented mother labeled ''Most Likely to Breed,'' the other a high-strung career woman called ''Most Likely to Snap.''
Clea Lewis (the bubble-headed Audrey on ''Ellen'') is wonderfully funny, though, as Rachel, who still sees Maggie as her high-school rival. ''You stole Bobby Campanella from me,'' she says when interviewing Maggie for the department store job as her assistant.
''You were dating Bobby?'' asks Maggie.
''No, but I like liked him and everybody knew it,'' Rachel whines, running a giant purple comb through her hair.
Such outlandish moments enliven the first episode and, along with its stars, make ''Maggie Winters'' one of the season's more congenial new series. That doesn't say much about the long-term prospects for overcoming its hokey premise.
MAGGIE WINTERS
CBS, tonight at 8:30
(Channel 2 in New York)
Created and written by Kari Lizer; Robert Greenblatt, David Janollari and Kari Lizer, executive producers; Faith Ford, co-executive producer; Stephen Nathan, consulting producer; Suzy Friendly, producer; Brian Chambers, co-producer; W. G. Snuffy Walden, composer. A production of the Greenblatt Janollari Studio in association with CBS Productions.
WITH: Faith Ford (Maggie Winters), Shirley Knight (Estelle Winters), Jenny Robertson (Robin Foster), Alex Kapp Horner (Lisa Harte), Brian Haley (Tom Vanderhulst), Clea Lewis (Rachel Tomlinson), Robert Romanus (Jeff Foster), Vincent Ventresca (Bobby), Hayden Tank (Henry Foster), Annabel Romanus (Katie Foster) and Brendan and Kyle McRobert (Josh Foster).
A 1998 Interview With Shirley Knight
GLOBE Magazine interview, September, 1998
Shirley Knight: My heartache over hubby's pool drowning
Exclusive Interview
But Maggie Winters Helps me forget the sadness
Veteran actress Shirley Knight has thrown herself into her role as Faith Ford's mom in the new CBS series Maggie Winters to ease the pain over her husband's tragic death. Playwright John Hopkins, 67, fell at their new Woodland Hill, Calif. home, hit his head and was found face down in the swimming pool, Shirley tells GLOBE in an exclusive interview.
"Ever since John passed away, I felt like a part of me died," reveals the 61-old-year star who played Helen Hunt's mom in As Good As It Gets. I just didn't see a way out of the sadness and could barely go on, but luckily my three daughters and my acting career helped pull me through the rough tims. The week after John's death, I was on the Maggie Winters set rehearsing. The job helps me forget the sadness."
Shirley, who copped Oscar nominations for the 1960 flick The Dark at the Top of the Stairs and 1962's Sweet Bird of Youth, still has trouble talking about John's death in July.
"My daughter Sophie and I came home from shopping when I heard a terrible scream," says Shirley, her voice choked with emotion. "Sophie found John floating dead in the pool." Although both Shirley and Sophie frantically tried to revive him with mouth to mouth, it was too late. The mother and daughter were guilt-stricken, blaming themselves for not coming home sooner. Later they learned they probably couldn't have saved him anyway.
British-born John, who had suffered from Parkinson's a potentially deadly nearvous system disease, "hit his head on the side and died from severe head trauma", says Shirley. The death of the playwright, best known for writing the James Bond thriller Thunderball, is the second tragedy to plague the actress' otherwise happy marriage. Just months after the couple said "I do" in 1972, John's 9-year-old son from his first marriage was struck and killed by a car.
Now, Shirley will honor her beloved mate's last wish and bury him next to his son in Hadstock, a village outside Cambridge, England. Ironically, the last play John wrote for Shirley was called Losing Time, based on an abandoned wife's journey toward self-discovery. Now as she struggles to make it through each day without him, she carries on at work and finds comfort in her daughters Sophie, Justine Hopkins and Kaitlin Passer. She is also strenghtened by John's presence, which surrounds her in their new home.
"This house was our dream- the gardens, the study, even the swimming pool," says Shirley. "Even though I can't see John when I wake up in the morning, I can always feel him here with me." MARLISE KAST and PETE TRUJILLO
The article is accompanied by a black and white photo of Shirley and her late husband John, and Shirley hugging Faith Ford- Shirley was shattered by hubby John's death, but hugs costar Faith Ford are healing her heartache.
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