Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Empire:Dennis Dugan and Patrick Macnee

Empire ran from January until February 1984 on CBS.

Empire was a wild satire on the shenanigans and paranoia of corporate America. Board of directors meetings at giant Empire Industries resembled open house at a lunitic asylum. Calvin Cromwell ( Patrick Macnee), was the autocratic chairman of the board who delighted in making his underlings squirm; Meredith ( Caren Kaye), was the manipulative director of public relations; Jack Willow (Richard Masur), the incompetent sales v.p., whose ambitious wife Jackie ( Christine Belford), had to give him detailed instructions on what to say at board meetings ) which sometimes backfired when an unexpected question was asked). In addition Arthur Broderick ( Dick O"Neill), was the over-the-hill head of marketing, who plastered his hair with artificial coloring in a hopeless attempt to look young; Roger Martinson (Howard Platt), the thoroughly unpricipled chief counsel; and Howard Daniels ( Edward Winter), the neurotic security chief who kept an oxygen mask by his side during board meetings. Edward Roland ( Michael McGuire), was another board member rather obviously trying to unseat Cromwell and take over the entire business.

Into this nest of bumbling schemers came naiive young Ben Christian ( Dennis Dugan), whom Cromwell had just appointed to be vice president of research and development. Friendly toward the company's worker's, honest, and with the boss's confidence as well, Ben posed a major threat to the others. Played in serial fashion, and strictly for laughs, Empire featured back-stabbing, double-dealing, and even an off-handed murder committed by Martinson as board members jockeyed for power.

A Look at the new 1984 midseason series on CBS from The New York Times

By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: January 4, 1984

-year-old son who is pondering a serious affair with an aggressive young woman his own age. Then, there is the corporation run by an icy chief executive who tells his trembling vice presidents ''anxiety breeds excellence.'' Finally, there is the Manhattan court where the new judge is a young man partial to blue jeans and jogging shoes. We are, in other words, in the special world of situation comedy.

Two new comedy series on CBS tonight get off to fairly promising starts, but the future depends on such basic necessities as scripts and direction.

''Domestic Life,'' at 8 P.M., lists Steve Martin as executive producer, and the comedian's special brand of straight-faced lunacy can be detected throughout the half hour. Martin Mull, whose past credits include playing the bizarre talk-show host on ''Fernwood 2-Night,'' portrays Martin Crane, a television-news personality on a Seattle station. At home, Martin and his wife, Candy (Judith-Marie Bergan), nervously watch the budding romance between their 10-year- old son Harold (Christian Brackett- Zika) and confident Sally (''Here's my number - use it!''). What did the two kids do on their first date? Explains Harold: ''We talked, we laughed, we shared.'' The episode manages to skewer the entire contemporary phenomenon of ludicrous child romances. The tone is right, the cast is about perfect and the result is often quite funny.

At 8:30 P.M., CBS is offering the first installment of ''Empire,'' a comic, outrageously exaggerated look at corporate life. At one extreme is the dictatorial head of Empire Industries, Calvin Cromwell (Patrick Macnee). At the other, is the new young vice president, Ben Christian (Dennis Dugan), who thinks of people as human beings. In between is an assortment of scheming, boozing, ulcer- ridden executives who spend their time trying to destroy anyone in their vicinity.

When the company loses a contract, the meeting called is a marvel of self-aggrandizement and survival tactics. Someone remembers a company disaster with microwave ovens: ''So a few people glowed in the dark,'' an executive explains. It's all terribly wacky in the established television style of insult humor.

On NBC at 9:30 P.M., ''Night Court'' stars Harry Anderson as the laid-back Judge Harry Stone. Confronted with a woman accused of trying to murder her husband, the judge gets the couple together and suggests they ''Sit down, relax, have a cup of coffee and talk things over.''

For a Biography of Dennis Dugan go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Dugan

For a Webpage dedicated to Patrick Macnee go to http://www.patrickmacnee.com/

To watch the opening credits of Empire and some other 1984 tv shows go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUV3y2T4c3o