Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Something So Right: Mel Harris and Jere Burns

Something So Right aired from September 1996 until July 1998 on NBC and ABC.

" So we're not the Waltons," deadpanned mom in this very '90s sitcom about a newlywed couple with three divorces and three kids between them. Jack ( Jere Burns) was an amiable, divorced English teacher who had married twice-divorced Carly ( Mel Harris), a hyperactive corporate party planner. Passing through their busy Manhattan kitchen was a motley assortment of stepkids and ex's. Jack's daughter was scheming 16-year-old Nicole ("Dad-dy!") ( Marne Patterson), while Carly's offspring were awkward Will ( Billy L. Sullivan) who had a major crush on Nicole, and brainy Sarah ( Emily Ann Lloyd), who wanted to go live with her dad so she could have her own room again. Popping in from time to time were their friendly ex's, actress Stephanie ( Christine Dunford), burly Dante ( Michael Milhoan), and rich snotty Sheldon ( Barry Jenner). Grace ( Carol Ann Susi) was Carly's technicolor co-worker.

When Something So Right moved to ABC in 1998, Grace was gone , replaced by chubby, goofy delivery guy Paul ( Nick Gaza), who had the hots for oblivious Nicole.

A Review from Variety

Something So Right
By JEREMY GERARD

Cast: Mel Harris, Jere Burns, Marne Patterson, Billy L. Sullivan, Emily Ann Lloyd, Carol Ann Susi, Barry Jenner, Shashawnee Hall, Michael Milhoan, Jeremy Linson, Seth Green, Janelle Paradee, C.J. Grayson, Bill Macy.

Filmed at Universal City Studios by Big Phone Prods. in association with Universal Television. Created, written and executive produced by Judd Pillot & John Peaslee; producer, Marica Govons; director, James Widdoes; associate producer, Penny Segal; coordinating producer, Erin Wilkey; director of photography

Transplant "The Brady Bunch" to the Upper West Side of Manhattan and you have some idea of the basic groundplan of "Something So Right." Newlyweds Mel Harris ("thirtysomething") and Jere Burns ("Dear John") have three previous marriages and as many kids between them. Carly's a successful caterer who still believes in the possibility of romance. Jack's a mellow high school teacher except on the subject of his beautiful teenage daughter (Marne Patterson), who has set the hormones of her new stepbrother (Billy L. Sullivan) raging. A younger stepsister doesn't like suddenly having to share her room, and is considering her wealthy, feckless father's offer of her own space. When one of the children reels off the various hyphens slated to put in an appearance at an upcoming family gathering, it's enough to make your head spin.

"So we're not the Waltons," Carly deadpans.

Gooey Jack and Carly are constantly being caught in the clutch by one disgruntled child or another. But it's all such mushy treacle that it's hard to sympathize for long. Would Carly really mistake a distant Don't Walk sign for the last glimpse of a sunset? This is a show that reduces a wonderful character actor like Bill Macy to a walk-on about replacement body parts. Empathic homeless people and sweet schizophrenics doubtless wait in the wings.

The "Waltons" reference is a tipoff: Writers Judd Pillot and John Peaslee sprinkle the dialog with TV references designed to have Boomer appeal. In the first episode there were nods to "Lassie" and "Leave It to Beaver," as well.

James Widdoes' direction lacks any inspiration, and so do the performances. Despite its urbane milieu, "Something So Right" is meatloaf and mashed potatoes comfort food that feels a little leaden after a modest portion.

A Review from The New York Times

Mom, Dad, Ex-Spouses And All

By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: September 17, 1996

When it comes to funny, where would you put divorce on the national laugh meter? NBC's ''Something So Right'' offers what the executive producers, Judd Pillot and John Peaslee (both citing ''Coach'' as a credit), see as a look at a true blended family of the 90's.

Mom (Mel Harris), nurturing a career in corporate catering, had two failed marriages (''dumb and dumber'' is the way she remembers them). Dad (Jere Burns), a high school teacher, has only one marital flop to his credit. Between them, they have three children, one of whom, Will (Billy L. Sullivan), has a fierce crush on another, his 16-year-old stepsister (Marne Patterson).

On the fringes of this sitcom world float former spouses (Mom warns the new wife of one, ''Don't give him broccoli -- it gives him gas''). One former husband decides that his 11-year-old daughter (Emily Ann Lloyd) should really be living with him. A tug-of-war ensues. The laugh track never stops giggling. Somehow, though, the plight of youngsters torn between divorced parents is still unsettlingly painful. JOHN J. O'CONNOR

SOMETHING SO RIGHT
NBC, tonight at 8:30
(Channel 4 in New York)

Written by Judd Pillot and John Peaslee; directed by James Widdoes. A Universal Television production. Mr. Pillot and Mr. Peaslee, executive producers.

WITH: Mel Harris (Carly Davis), Jere Burns (Tom Farrell), Billy L. Sullivan (Will), Marne Patterson (Nicole) and Emily Ann Lloyd (Sarah).

An Article from USA TODAY
Published on October 22, 1996

A role 'So Right' for Jere Burns

By Jefferson Graham
USA TODAY

Jere Burns likes being the lead for a change.

After playing sidekicks on Dear John, Bob and The Mommies, Burns has his first sitcom starring role on NBC's Something So Right.

The show, an updated Brady Bunch about a blended family in the 1990s, is No. 25 for the TV season to date, the fifth highest-rated of the new series.

On Right, airing Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT, Burns co-stars with Mel Harris ( Thirtysomething) as newlyweds who juggle several kids and former spouses. Burns, 42, currently going through a divorce, says the show about post-divorce life is good for his real family.

" What we do on the show is examine ways it can work and show that their is hope and that it can be done right," he says. "People are human beings and they are fallible. We learn from our mistakes and go on. You can still take care of your children and not hate your ex and get on with life. Divorce doesn't have to be a toxic, tragic thing."

Burns, his estranged wife and their three children live in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., a ski town four hours north of Los Angeles by car. He decided to move there because he's an avid skier and mountain biker, putting in more than 100 days each year on the slopes.

Living outside Los Angeles hasn't hurt his career. He was called in by producers Judd Pillot and John Peaslee ( Coach) to read for Something So Right, and then they spent six months looking for the proper co-star.

" It's hard to find a woman who is beautiful and the right age to have kids," he says. " A lot of actresses don't want to play a character with kids because they feel it ages them."

But Harris was game, and once she signed on, a deal was struck with NBC.

Ironically, Burns got his big break on another show about divorce, Dear John. Born in Cambridge, Mass., Burns had done theater in New York and worked for several years in California before being cast as Dear John's studly buffon Kirk Morris, part of a group of divorce singles who met weekly to try to refocus their lives.

" That was a fun experience," he says. " Like going to preschool every morning."

After four seasons of Dear John, Burns joined the cast of CBS' Bob Newhart vehicle Bob in the second season. After that show died, he was added to The Mommies in it's second season as a stay-at-home dad.

He loved doing Bob but he can't say the same for The Mommies.

"That show was dreadful...horrible," he says, but finds no fault with the two stars-Caryl Kristensen and Marilyn Kentz, former housewives turned comedians asked to star in their own show about suburban life. " They set women back about 50 years with their personas, but I don't begrudge them. Somebody's going to pay you $500,000 to do 22 episodes. What are you going to do, say no?"

Burns' other upcoming projects include the feature film Sante Fe with Gary Cole and Lolita Davidovich and the NBC TV movie Cradle Song, in which he co-stars with Frasier's Peri Gilpin.

A Review from The New York Times

TELEVISION REVIEW; The Marrying Kind: Till Divorce Do Them Part

By CARYN JAMES
Published: March 3, 1998

It has been decades since sitcom families moved beyond the Nelsons and the Cleavers, those improbably cheerful 1950's ideals, and on to the Archie Bunker-Roseanne Conner types, families that fought together and stayed together. ''Something So Right'' (dropped from NBC last year and returning tonight on ABC) offers the next, long-overdue twist: the adults each trail a string of ex-spouses behind, along with children from their assorted marriages. Except for the opening title sequence, the revived series is exactly the same. It is an underachieving sitcom, far less daring than its up-to-the-minute premise.

This is the kind of middling series whose appealing characters inspire good will, though not enough to overcome boredom. Mel Harris plays Carly, whose two ex-husbands are so different that they suggest a comedy writer's desperation rather than a person's taste. The loutish Dante is the father of her adolescent son, and the rich, urbane Sheldon the father of her young daughter. Jere Burns is Jack, a teacher whose former wife, a none-too-bright actress named Stephanie, is the mother of the beautiful teen-age Nicole.

Two episodes will be shown tonight, and the first illustrates the series' major problem. In a money-making scheme, the family helps make batches of Jack's special barbecue sauce. That means the entire family: Dante contributes a defective canning machine and Sheldon offers a loan. This extended group is as congenial as the Brady Bunch (the former spouses are not dead, just added to the cast) and the plot as predictable as the way the jars of sauce eventually explode all over the kitchen.

The second episode is only marginally better, as Sheldon and Stephanie hit it off too well. At least there is one pointed line. Tired of seeing their ex-spouses so much, Jack tells Carly, ''I say give me the hateful, bitter divorces our parents used to get, where you throw a couple of plates, slash a couple of tires and that's the end of it.''

Of course, bitterness is not unheard of today, a fact this show usually ignores. Its happy-talk divorce makes ''Something So Right'' as unreal and cloying as dinner at the Cleavers'.

SOMETHING SO RIGHT
ABC, tonight at 8:30
(Channel 7 in New York)

Created by Judd Pillot and John Peaslee; premiere written by Chip Keyes and directed by James Widdoes; Mr. Pillot and Mr. Peaslee, executive producers; Tony Sheehan, co-executive producer; Kevin Berg, producer; Shari Tavey, co-producer; Erin Wilkey-Cordray, coordinating producer; Dahl Delu, production designer; Jerry Workman, director of photography. A Universal Television production in association with Big Phone Productions.

WITH: Mel Harris (Carly Davis), Jere Burns (Jack Farrell), Marne Patterson (Nicole Farrell), Billy L. Sullivan (Will Pacino), Emily Ann Lloyd (Sarah Kramer), Christine Dunford (Stephanie Farrell), Michael Milhoan (Dante) and Barry Jenner (Sheldon).

For a Website dedicated to Marnette Patterson go to http://www.geocities.com/marnettepatterson/

For more on Something So Right go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_So_Right