Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Melba: Melba Moore

Melba aired from January until September 1986 on CBS.

Melba was the unqualified disaster of the 1985-1986 season. A second-season comedy starring musical-comedy star Melba Moore, it had the misfortune of premiering the same night as the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion and it was yanked from the CBS schedule after it's first telecast. It did not show up again until the last few episodes that had been produced were run off during the summer. As TV Guide noted , its return on Saturday, August 2, contributed to CBS's lowest-rated prime-time evening in the network's history.

The story line delt with the work and home life of Melba Patterson ( Moore), the director of New York's Manhattan Visitor's Center. Adapting to life after divorce, Melba was raising her 9 year old daughter, Tracy ( Jamilla Perry), with the help of her mother Rose ( Barbara Meek), who lived with them. Melba's best friend was her white " sister" Susan ( Gracie Harrison)-they had both been raised by Rose, who was the housekeeper in the Slater home when they were children. Jack and Gil ( Lou Jacobi, Evan Mirand) worked for Melba at the Visitor's Center.

A Review from The New York Times

MELBA MOORE IN NEW CBS SITCOM

By RICHARD F. SHEPARD
Published: January 28, 1986

MELBA MOORE, who deserves better, stars in ''Melba,'' a new situation comedy on CBS that starts tonight at 8 o'clock. Either it is not very good for her or she is not very good for it, and the chances are that the former is truer than the latter.

''Melba'' has Miss Moore as Melba Patterson, the divorced mother of a 9-year-old daughter - played winningly, by the way, by Jamila Perry. Miss Moore, a lively and pleasing personality, is cast as the director of the Manhattan Visitors Center. She shares her home with her daughter, her mother (Barbara Meek) and her ''sister,'' a pretty, blond and man-chasing young woman portrayed by her co-star, Gracie Harrison. This sisterhood arose from the death of the blonde's parents and her subsequent upbringing by Melba's mother, who had been the family's housekeeper.

Perhaps things will calm down, but the first half-hour episode relies heavily on gag lines virtually uninterrupted by time out for character development. Only the redoubtable Lou Jacobi, as Melba's assistant, has the comedy savvy to make the most of the dialogue, which is often funny but not really carried off by the others. Mr. Jacobi is funny, even with the lifting of an eyebrow.

One trouble with ''Melba'' is that it lacks the warmth, the identification with the characters that establishes the rapport necessary to make an audience laugh sympathetically with the performers. This Saul Ilson production is set, as are most of the good and not-so-good sitcoms, in a special city, this time New York, although it was made in Hollywood. The Big Apple deserves better, and funnier. Maybe, like the city itself, it will undergo changes for the better. Meanwhile, try Boston or Chicago.

A Review From USA TODAY

TV PREVIEW/BY MONICA COLLINS
Published: January 28, 1986

'Melba': No singular sensation

Isn't there anything else for a single woman to joke about than the dearth of available men? All this Miss Lonelyhearts stuff is getting a little boring.

Consider Melba. She's a divorced woman, very pretty. She has a lovely daughter, a doting mother and a flaky best friend ( hey, in a sitcom, everybody has at least one flaky best friend)

When Melba is asked to dinner with the mayor, she suddenly turns into Poor Pitiful Pearl. Woe is me. No date. No available men anywhere.

" Most of my female friends are looking for their own men, too," proclaims the flake.

But you've got to hand it to the flake-who's really Melba's adopted sister. Instead of sitting around, moaning and making one-liners, she actually goes out and does something about her predictament. She bakes a cake, puts out the Ritz and throws a party.

Meanwhile our heroine shows about as much spunk as soggy onion dip. She doesn't even want to go to this party, but does it as a favor. Natch, she meets a guy, a pretty classy guy. Suddenly, poof, insecurity goes down the drain. From milquetoast to Melba toasting her new zip.

OK, life isn't easy for singles. But that doesn't mean we need an abundancy of sitcom single women clawing and scratching for one good man. And if this premiere episode is any indication, Melba will not be very peachy at all.

Melba Moore's character is to weak to carry this. Their's no feistiness, no zest, no independence.On the other hand , Barbara Meek who play's Melba's mother , has enough spark to light up the room. Unfortunately, she's given too little time.

Susan Slater, who plays the flake, is zany enough but too predictable. When asked what she's making for dinner, she says ( guess): " Reservations." Old joke.

Melba is an old joke: Single woman, coping, moping and scoping available guys.

For a website dedicated to Melba Moore go to http://www.melbamoore.com/viewer/home/intro.asd/vts/design000