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FM aired from August 1989 until June 1990 on NBC.
Office comedy set at WGEO-FM, a small listener-supported radio station in Washington D.C., where program director Ted Costas (Robert Hays), had his hands full with conflicts, both personal and professional. The colorful crew included Lee-Ann(Patricia Richardson), Ted's spitfire ex-wife , whom he had recently hired to co-host a talk show; Harrison ( Fred Applegate), Lee-Ann's pompous conservative co-host; Gretchen ( DeLane Matthews), the sexy young office assistant whom Lee-Ann saw as a rival for Ted's affections ( or at least for his libido); Jay ( Leo Geter), the eager but bumbling gofer recently promoted to producer, with the hots for Gretchen; Quentin ( James Avery), who doubled as a classical music announcer and " dat wild regge mon, the nightly Doctor Q!"; Don ( John Kassir), the on air voice man whose mimicry never seemed to stop; and Naomi(Lynne Thigpen),the levelheaded station manager. Popping in from time to time were Daryl( Rainbow Harvest), an incredibly sexy computer repairperson, and Maude ( Nicole Huntington), Ted and Lee-Ann's teenage daughter who was constantly trying to get them back together.
Patricia Richardson, DeLane Matthews ,and Leo Geter had all co-starred in the short-lived 1988 sitcom Eisenhower & Lutz.
A Review From The New York Times
Review/Television; 'FM': The Scenes Behind What Is Heard
By WALTER GOODMAN
Published: August 23, 1989
The basic elements of a durable comedy series - likeable people in lively situations getting lightly involved with one another - make up the staff of ''FM,'' NBC's new entry in the sitcom stakes. After a mildly promising preview last week, it returns tonight at 9:30 in what, the network hopes, will be its regular spot for the new season.
We find ourselves in the messy studios of WGTO, Radio Free D.C., a Washington public station populated by underpaid, overexcited disk jockeys, talk show hosts, volunteers and, no kidding, a couple of good-looking women drawn to the program director, Ted, played in frenetically low-keyed fashion by Robert Hays.
In last week's opener, Ted found himself having to explain to his former wife, Lee-Ann (Patricia Richardson), how their teen-age daughter happened upon a young woman without pants in his apartment; having to defend himself against a steamy call-in voice, identified as Misty, whose embodiment showed up at the apartment with a pair of handcuffs for use in sex play; having to decide whether Lee-Ann should be hired back as co-host on a talk show with a politically conservative bore named Harrison (the audience liked their cobra-mongoose relationship), and having to explain to his daughter Maude why it is not a good idea to change her name to Tiffany: ''Tiffanys don't last that long. That name is the leading killer of young women today.''
Nothing revolutionary here for viewers who remember WKRP, Cincinnati, or Mary Tyler Moore's WJM-TV, yet the scripts by Allan Burns (''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' and ''Lou Grant'') and Dan Wilcox (''M*A*S*H'') come through without much static. The show has its share of sex jokes, but the spirit is more perplexed than prurient, and the principals do not suffer from the angst exuded by ''Thirtysomething.'' Without taking itself too seriously, ''FM,'' produced by Andy Cadiff and directed by David Trainer, maintains reasonable self-respect. Even the laugh track is used sparingly.
Helping out around the premises is the station's specialist in sound effects and funny voices, including those of Ronald and Nancy Reagan; a versatile disk jockey whose main problem is getting a parking space close enough to the studio so that he doesn't strain his back carrying records and a station manager who ducks out whenever the need for a decision threatens.
There has not been much in the way of politics yet, but why would the station be placed in the capital if the writers didn't have something of the sort in mind? Tonight, Ted has to decide whom to hire as his personal assistant - a nerd with an influential father, an eager young volunteer or shapely blonde Gretchen, who, he cannot fail to note, is 10 years younger than Lee-Ann? You may not be surprised at his choice, but it's painless watching on a slow night.
An Article from USA TODAY
Published on March 28, 1990
ON TV/BY MATT ROUSH
Two sitcoms show love's labors not lost
Since Diane left Sam at the Cheers alter, truly romantic sit-comedy-forget the forced footsie of a Who's the Boss?-has been a rare commodity.
Now, in one of those ironic midseason occurrences, NBC revives its romantic-triangle FM the same night ABC retires Anything but Love, a boy-girl buddy comedy in which the boy and girl only now are exploring their mutual affection.
Neither match Cheers in richness of character or the level of sustained hilarity, but each has subtile pleasures that pay off with laughs rooted in the pitching of woo. Both shows air tonight at 9:30 EST/PST.
FM took a while hitting its stride in its five-episode summer run, but now back with eight new episodes, its offbeat frequency is worth tuning in.
Robert Hays , whose Ted Costas runs a low-budget radio station is FM's Sam Malone, twice as smart but not half as assured with the babes.
Ted's caught between two women: winsome Gretchen ( DeLane Matthews), the naive but Norville-esque station cutie he used to baby-sit long ago, and his tart ex-wife Lee-Ann ( Patricia Richardson), a Southern spitfire who co-hosts the stations political-debate show.
Hays and his ladies are quite likable , carrying on their bumbling flirtations and rejections with fragile egos exposed. Meanwhile eccentric characters-including Fred Applegate as Lee-Ann's pompous foil and John Kassir as a cut-up whose on -air parodies include Duckie Howser, D.D.S.-make great background amusement.
On ABC , the ratings-poor Anything but Love wears its heart on its sleeve in tonights sweet cliffhanger, after which it goes on hiatus until reruns.
All year, Jamie Lee Curtis ' ingenius Hannah has been too polite to act on her feelings for Richard Lewis' office mate Marty, who in turn is too neurotic to make a play for her. Now, turning 30 and bogged in self-pity, she goes for it.
Or does she?
Hannah and Marty's sympatico bonding, depicted at the start of each episode in breakfast-dinner noshing and developed through a variety of closeproximity situations is the kind of ever-shifting situation more sitcoms should emulate.
And like FM, the relationship is played out under the gaze of outrageous supporting players, most notably Ann Magnuson's mercurial fashion risk of a magazine editor.
" Will they or won't they? Who cares?" mocks Marty dishing Moonlighting reruns at the start of tonight's episode.
David and Maddie are history. But it would be too bad to kiss off Marty and Hannah, or the FM trio, before we get the chance to find out where their hearts will take them next.
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