Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - On Our Own:

On Our Own aired from October 1977 until August 1978 on CBS.

On Our Own , the story of two young women trying to make it in the New York advertising world, was the only prime-time series actually being produced in New York as of the start of the 1977-1978 season. Maria and Julia ( Lynnie Greene, Bess Armstrong) had both just been promoted from the secretarial positions they had previously held at the Bedford Advertising Agency, Maria to art director and Julia to copywriter. They were enthusiastic and energetic, if a bit naive and inexperienced , and wanted desperately to take full advantage of their first big step up the coporate ladder. Others in the agency were copywriter April Baxter ( Dixie Carter), beautiful, sexy, and worldly wise with all sorts of advice about men; Eddie Barnes ( John Christopher Jones), creative producer of television commercials; and salesman Craig Boatwright ( Dan Resin). Running the whole operation was sophisticated, slogan-making Toni McBain ( Gretchen Wyler), the head of the agency. The only person she had to please was board chairman J.M. Bedford( Bob Randall).

Here is Gretchen Wyler's Obituary from the New York Times

Gretchen Wyler, 75, Actress and Advocate for Animals, Dies

By MARGALIT FOX
Published: May 30, 2007

Gretchen Wyler, an actress in Broadway musicals in the 1950s and ’60s who became known in later years as an animal-rights advocate, died on Sunday at her home in Camarillo, Calif. She was 75.

The cause was complications of breast cancer, according to the Humane Society of the United States, which announced her death. Ms. Wyler was vice president of the society’s Hollywood office from 2002 until her retirement last year.

On Broadway, Ms. Wyler was best known for the role of Janice Dayton in the original cast of “Silk Stockings,” which played at the Imperial Theater from 1955 to 1956. The show, which starred Don Ameche and Hildegarde Neff, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter, was a loose, comedic reworking of the film “Ninotchka.”

Reviewing the musical in The New York Times, Brooks Atkinson called Ms. Wyler “hilarious” and “bursting with vitality” in her role as “the Hollywood trollop, brimming over with ignorance and self-confidence.”

Ms. Wyler also danced in the original production of “Guys and Dolls.” She replaced Gwen Verdon as the sultry Lola in “Damn Yankees” and Chita Rivera as Rose the secretary in “Bye Bye Birdie.” Her other Broadway credits include the comedy “Sly Fox” in the mid-1970s, starring George C. Scott.

Gretchen Patricia Wienecke was born on Feb. 16, 1932, in Oklahoma City and reared in Bartlesville, Okla. Trained as a ballet dancer, she began her career in 1950 in the corps de ballet of the St. Louis Municipal Opera.

A frequent guest star on television programs, Ms. Wyler was a regular cast member of “On Our Own,” broadcast on CBS from 1977 to 1978. She also spent a season as Dr. Dagmara Conrad on “Dallas.” In the movies, she played one of Goldie Hawn’s aunts in “Private Benjamin” (1980).

Ms. Wyler began her work with animals in the 1960s, and in the 1970s became the first woman to serve on the board of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In 1991, she founded the Ark Trust, an animal-rights organization, which merged with the Humane Society in 2002. She also established the Genesis Awards, which since 1986 have honored members of the news and entertainment media for work on animal-rights issues.

Ms. Wyler’s marriage, to Shepard Coleman, a cellist she met when he was in the orchestra of “Guys and Dolls,” ended in divorce. (Mr. Coleman received a Tony Award in 1964 for his musical direction of the original production of “Hello, Dolly!”) Ms. Wyler is survived by a sister, Peggy Hanson of Pacific Palisades, Calif.; and a brother, Lou Wienecke of Granbury, Tex.

For a trip down memory lane go to http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=126183

For the official Dixie Carter Website go to http://www.dixiecarter.com/

For another Dixie Carter Website go to http://www.dixiepac.net/