Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - It's Your Move: Jason Bateman

It's Your Move aired from September 1984 until August 1985 on NBC.

Comedy about a smooth -talking , 14-year-old con artist who met his match when an equally slick writer moved in next door. Matt ( Jason Bateman) always had a scam going-selling term papers, arranging dates, bugging his sister Julie's ( Tricia Cast) slumber party so he could sell the girls' secrets at school. He had his single mother Eileen ( Caren Kaye) in the palm of his hand. Then in moved Norman ( David Garrison), a would-be writer , always broke, who began to date Matt's mother. Norman neatly countered every one of Matt's plans to break up the incipient romance. A steady stream of pranks , schemes and counter-schemes followed as Matt and Norman tried to outmaneuver each other. Lou Donatelli ( Ernie Sabella) was the building's super , Eli ( Adam Sadowski), Matt's chubby, dimwitted companion, and Dwight Ellis ( Garrett Morris) was the principal at Matt's school.

An Article from USA TODAY
Published on January 2, 1985

Reshaping a series: It's NBC's 'Move'

By Monica Collins
USA TODAY

NBC's It's Your Move is looking to move-up and out.

Held captive by an unfriendly time slot-9:30 p.m. EST/PST Wednesdays, smack oppisite the weekly cliffhanger on ABC's Dynasty-the producers of Move expect the network to provide a safer time zone when the series returns following a hiatus that begins after the Jan. 9 episode.

NBC's Warren Littlefield . vice president of comedy development says, " We believe in the show, and what we're looking to do is give it a better, earlier time period."

And when the series does return in March, Move's creators say they'll infuse the characters with added wisdom: The mother will be smarter, the son less smart-alecky.

Michael G. Moye, Move's co-executive producer, admits that all along Move may have been stymied by an identity crisis. The series stars a teenager , yet the writers wanted to present adult comedy. " It was a bold move for NBC to put a kids' show in an adult time slot," Moye says, " but essentially we never saw ourselves as a kids' show. We were more an adult show about kids."

" We didn't do kidlike things. We don't do episodes in which Matthew needs a new pair of glasses but is afraid that the girls in school might make fun of him and in the end they all hug."

Certainly no one could say 14-year-old Matthew Burton ( Jason Bateman) is myopic. A worldly kid looking to make an easy buck, Matt hopes his single mom ( Caren Kaye) will marry a rich man. That's why he's constantly trying to thwart neighbor Norman's ( David Garrison)attempts to woo her.

The series spins on Matt and Norman's prickly relationship. They are, the producers say, " worthy competitors." But the domestic jousting was losing its edge. That's why they'll move their arena to the high school-where Norman is now Matt's English teacher.

" With Norman and Matt there's such an age difference," Moye says. " They normally wouldn't hang out together...We basically had to give them another place to bump heads."

Yet despite the new arena for sparring, the show's edges will be softened. After all this is the year of the family on TV. " I think probably there wasn't enough adult appeal," says Andrew Susskind, vice president for comedy development at Embassy Television, which created Move. " We are going to emphasize the home a bit more and the family aspect. When Matt schemes , he'll do it more for his family and less for the pure sport of it."

Moye says, " Matt will be Zorro. We don't want to paint this kid as unlikable."

To appeal more to adults , the producers also have decided to make the mother wiser to her son's ways. " In the first episode after the show returns , the veil of ignorance will be removed from mom."

" It's going to be a bit harder for the kid to get away with things," Moye says. " We had to build a blind spot in the mother toward her son . But the more we did it, the more the mother looked stupid...Adults want to see more control.

Moye speculates that NBC eventually will slot It's Your Move at 8:30 p.m. EST/PST on Saturdays after Diff'rent Strokes. Littlefield confirms that slot is being considered.

Even if Move airs at an earlier time, Moye promises it will not pander to kids. " We are just trying to do the type of stories that appeal to the broadest base of people, no matter where NBC puts us."

But it's unlikely Matt's mom and Norman will wed. " If Norman married the mother , especially at this stage, he would always have the last word," Moye says, " and that last word would be , " Matthew go to your room." That doesn't allow for a lot of creativity.

For a Website dedicated to Jason Bateman go to http://www.ranaroyale.com/jasonbateman/JBtv.html

For another Jason Bateman Website go to http://www.jasonbatemanfansite.com/

For The Official David Garrison Website go to http://www.davidgarrison.com/

For The Gallery of Caren Kaye go to http://mielofon.com/actress/caren_kaye/