Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Sydney: Cast Photo

Sydney aired from March until August 1990 on CBS.

Sydney Kells ( Valerie Bertinelli) was a bright, self confidant , single woman trying to make a living as a private detective in her native Los Angeles. Her first problem was getting anyone to take her seriously. Most of Sydney's assignments came from Matt Keating ( Craig Bierko), an uptight young attorney who marveled at her professional skills but was embarrassed to admit to his superiors that he was using a good-looking young woman as an investigator. They thought Sydney was a man. Although Matt was engaged and very square, Sydney did find him attractive. Others in her life were Billy ( Matthew Perry), her naive kid brother who had followed in their father's footsteps and become a cop; and Jill ( Rebecca Bush) her attractive neighbor who was forever fending off Billy's clumsy romantic overtures. Sydney spent much of her spare time at The Blue Collar, a neighborhood tavern whose owner/bartender Ray ( Barney Martin) was a longtime family friend and surrogate father. Other regulars at the tavern were Perry ( Perry Anzilotti), Sydney's most reliable snitch, and Cheezy ( Daniel Baldwin), the crude , grubby guy who was constantly propositioning her.

The theme song for this mild-mannered comedy was written and performed by Ms. Bertinelli's husband, Eddie Van Halen.

An Article from USA TODAY

Valerie Bertinelli turns sitcom sleuth

By Pat Hilton
Special for USA TODAY

WEST HOLLYWOOD,Calif.-Valerie Bertinelli is thrilled to be returning to comedy in Sydney, which makes its debut on CBS Wednesday.

"All I've done for five years are these dramatic movies, and during that whole time, I really wanted to find the perfect sitcom," says Bertinelli, 29, who got her start 15 years ago in CBS' hit sitcom, One Day at a Time.

With Sydney-Bertinelli plays a private detective-she gets that opportunity.

"She's just-there are no words I can use that won't be banned from the paper-a ball-buster. She's got a great sense of humor and is always trying to prove she's a good detective.

Not only does Bertinelli bubble with enthusiasm, she's an executive producer-"hands on for the first time"-and anxious about every detail.

She gives credit to co-producers Michael Wilson and Jack Grossbart, but also feels the burden of making it work.

" I know I shouldn't feel like that and I don't want to , but if people don't tune it? Yea, I'm going to take it personally."

She admits she's scared. " It's kind of like that old thing.' Please like my show because it's so much fun doing it and I want to do it for a long time.'"

Bertinelli doesn't expect the series to wreak any havoc in her home life. She is quick to point out that she and Eddie Van Halen have been together for nine years.

"There's never been a strain in our marriage about schedule," says Bertinelli, who nonetheless has weathered the storms of her rocker husband's alcohol problem.

" Ed's just started writing for his album, and he's in the studio while I'm in the studio only 12 minutes away. We have dinner together every night."

Van Halen recently got out of a rehabilitation program and Bartinelli is determined not to be her husband's keeper. " The only way I survive is to pull myself back," she says.

Plans to start a family have been moved temporarily to a back burner. Bertinelli suffered a miscarriage four years ago.

" I'm so consumed with Sydney right now that I don't even think about anything else."

But even if the series flies, Bertinelli says she intends to work in motherhood during a hiatus sometime in the next five years.

She's high on her co-stars-including Craig Bierko, Rebecca Bush and Matthew Perry. " They're going to be big," she declares.

Sydney is a family affair for Bertinelli; her brother David is a photographer for the show and brother Patrick is a graphic designer. " It's not nepotism. These guys are really good."

No signs of temperament at the top; Bertinelli hangs out with the cast during off hours, something she says didn't happen on One Day, not in the least because of the age differences of the cast.

CBS has ordered 13 episodes, but Bertinelli has her fingers crossed for more.

"It's nice to get back to making people laugh, instead of making them cry."

A Review from USA TODAY

TV PREVIEW/BY MATT ROUSH

'Sydney' cranks up the cute quotient

Val, you scamp. You're too cute for words. And your show? Too cute to bear.

Compared to CBS' other midseason fare so far-Grand Slam, Loose Cannon, The Bradys, His & Hers-Sydney has growth potential. It's so darn perky you hate to pooh-pooh it.

But it's hard to keep anything but a straight face when your character's deepest moment leads you to admit,"Deep down inside, I'm just a hunk of moosh like everyone else."

As if we didn't know.

As Sydney, a single private eye who sets up shop in Los Angeles and has to convince everyone she's man enough for the job, Valerie Bertinelli chatters away like a ditsy That Girl, but has the gumption ( if not the stature) of a Murphy Brown-and there's even a Phil-like bartender buddy.

Sydney is cookie-cutter comedy, down to the prototypical supporting cast.

There are the pretty ones: the Southern belle friend, the dimpled younger-brother cop, the charmingly callow lawyer boss. And non-threatening scum: a smarmy snitch and a "Yo!"-yo tavern troll named Cheezy played by Daniel Baldwin ( Alec's brother) as another loutish roll of the (Andrew) Dice Clay.

Bertinelli keeps the show aloft with her self-assured made-for-TV lovability. She means to be such a giggle everytime she plants hands on hips and insists that yes, she is a dick, darn it.

The concept, however, is quashed by the sitcom's studio-audience limits. Instead of a filmed and textured piece like the uneven Hooperman was, Sydney is shiny and phony.

First night out, the only time she's seen at work, she's flashing her gams to a lech. That's hardly the sort of legwork they pretend to have in mind.

A Review from Entertainment Weekly

TV Review
SYDNEY

--By Ken Tucker

Sydney offers a perfect example of a television rule you should always remember, gang: Never Dismiss a Show Because of Its Premise. This rule is absolutely time-tested. All in the Family? A show about a bigot just has to be bad, right? Remember Bosom Buddies? Two guys dress up as girls to live in a girls dorm? Every snooty TV viewer and critic sneered at it in advance, just because of the silly premise. With Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari in the leads, the show proved to be terrific. But it never recovered from that initial wave of uninformed contempt. The premise of Sydney-Valerie Bertinelli as a detective-is unlikely to inspire confidence at first. After all, what has Bertinelli done? Spent her youth being cute on One Day at a Time, her late adolescence hanging out with hubby Eddie Van Halen (please note: second Eddie reference in this week's column-heavy, huh?), and her adulthood starring in weepy TV movies. Now we're supposed to buy her as a funny private investigator? Credit Sydney creators Michael Wilson and Douglas Wyman for tackling this image problem head-on. Last week's debut was titled ''You? You're a P.I.?? and set up the series' structure: Sydney Kells (Bertinelli with freshly chopped, hennaed hair) arrives in Los Angeles for some private-eyeing; everyone takes one look at her and says, ''You? You're a private eye?'' We meet her bland, blond, best friend from college (Rebbecah Bush), her policeman brother, Billy (Matthew Perry, the comic find of the season), and the gang that hangs out in the show's primary set, a neighborhood bar. The barflies include a sleaze named Cheezy who talks like Rodney Dangerfield rossed with Fonzie. Cheezy is played by Daniel Baldwin, movie star Alec's little brother; Alec has nothing to worry about in the way of competition. This week's Sydney continues the show's amusing self-consciousness. Someone in the bar makes a Cheers joke, and Billy the cop tells Sydney to calm down and ''be like Bonnie Franklin.'' Matthew Perry's Billy, fast-talking yet inarticulate, is a very funny charmer; so is Bertinelli. Sydney deserves some support from CBS, which in turn deserves a hit with this show. B+

For more on Sydney go to http://www.thrillingdetective.com/eyes/sydney.html

For the Official Weight Loss Blog of Valerie Bertinelli go to http://www.jennycraig.com/successstories/blog/valerie

For a Website dedicated to Matthew Perry go to http://www.imaginingmatthew.com/

For a Website dedicated to Matthew Perry go to http://matthewperry.one-breath.org/

For a Website dedicated to Matthew Perry go to http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/3142/perry.htm