Grand (found NBC sitcom; 1990): Difference between revisions
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'''''Grand''''' was an American television sitcom created by Michael Leeson and starring Pamela Reed, John Randolph and Bonnie Hunt that was broadcast on NBC for two seasons from January 18th to December 27th | '''''Grand''''' was an American television sitcom created by Michael Leeson and starring Pamela Reed, John Randolph and Bonnie Hunt that was broadcast on NBC for two seasons from January 18th to December 27th, 1990. The series was designed to be a satire of soap operas, featuring ongoing story arcs that took place over the course of multiple episodes, and numerous other elements that parodied conventions of the genre. | ||
==Plot== | ==Plot== | ||
The series took place in the eponymous fictional town of Grand, Pennsylvania, and focused on the lives of three families: the impoverished Pasettis, the middle class Smithsons, and the wealthy Weldons. Former homecoming queen Janet Pasetti (Pamela Reed) lives in a trailer park with her daughter Edda (Sara Rue) | The series took place in the eponymous fictional town of Grand, Pennsylvania, and focused on the lives of three families: the impoverished Pasettis, the middle-class Smithsons, and the wealthy Weldons. Former homecoming queen Janet Pasetti (Pamela Reed) lives in a trailer park with her daughter Edda (Sara Rue) and spends her days fighting off the advances of motorcycle cop Wayne Kazmurski (Andrew Lauer) while working for the various members of the Weldon family. | ||
Harris Weldon (John Randolph) is the patriarch of his family, having made his fortune through his ownership of Grand Piano Works, a piano factory which has since fallen on hard times due to the importing of foreign keyboards. Harris lives in his mansion with his dimwitted son Norris (Joel Murray) and his butler Desmond (John Neville), whom Harris largely keeps employed due to Desmond having previously saved his life. | Harris Weldon (John Randolph) is the patriarch of his family, having made his fortune through his ownership of Grand Piano Works, a piano factory which has since fallen on hard times due to the importing of foreign keyboards. Harris lives in his mansion with his dimwitted son Norris (Joel Murray) and his butler Desmond (John Neville), whom Harris largely keeps employed due to Desmond having previously saved his life. | ||
Living separately from the mansion is Harris' niece Carol Ann Smithson (Bonnie Hunt), who instead lives a middle class lifestyle with her husband Tom (Michael McKean), an ambitious worker who is always attempting to get an executive position at the piano factory. | Living separately from the mansion is Harris' niece Carol Ann Smithson (Bonnie Hunt), who instead lives a middle-class lifestyle with her husband Tom (Michael McKean), an ambitious worker who is always attempting to get an executive position at the piano factory. | ||
''Grand's'' first season would be broadcast from January to April of 1990 | ''Grand's'' first season would be broadcast from January to April of 1990 and featured storylines involving Harris' attempts to get a date to accompany him to Carnegie Hall, Tom attempting to hide his teenage son from a previous marriage from Carol Ann, and Harris allowing Desmond to believe that he is Norris' father despite this not being the case. Despite this season's strong ratings, it was unclear if NBC would be willing to commit to a second season. As a mocking response to this indecision, the season finale "Blow Off" was created, which ended with the town of Grand being destroyed by a tornado, with the majority of its residents subsequently disappearing. | ||
However, despite the rather decisive nature of this finale, NBC still chose to renew ''Grand'' for a second season, even giving it the prized Thursday 9: | However, despite the rather decisive nature of this finale, NBC still chose to renew ''Grand'' for a second season, even giving it the prized Thursday 9:30 PM timeslot. But by the time this decision had been made, Andrew Lauer, Michael McKean, and many members of the show's crew had already moved on to other projects. As a result of these walkouts, along with the events of "Blow Off", many drastic changes took place between ''Grand's'' first and second seasons. Tom would be written out of the show in the second season's second episode, being revealed to be an illegal alien who had stolen $50,000 from a Texas Savings and Loan, and who had used the tornado as a means by which to disappear before the FBI could close in on him. Wayne and many of the recurring story arcs present in ''Grand's'' first season would also be dropped without explanation, with the show now far more resembling a traditional sitcom as opposed to the pseudo-soap opera it was originally. | ||
However, this sharp change in format only served to alienate many of the show's original viewers, with ratings beginning to decline as a result. In response to this, the ongoing story arc idea would be revived in season two's final four episodes, though with considerably more outrageous storylines involving themes of witchcraft, gangsters, a corporate takeover of the piano factory and Carol Ann adopting a teenage son who had been raised by wolves. Despite these changes, ratings for ''Grand'' would only further decline from here, with the show being cancelled as a result. | However, this sharp change in format only served to alienate many of the show's original viewers, with ratings beginning to decline as a result. In response to this, the ongoing story arc idea would be revived in season two's final four episodes, though with considerably more outrageous storylines involving themes of witchcraft, gangsters, a corporate takeover of the piano factory and Carol Ann adopting a teenage son who had been raised by wolves. Despite these changes, ratings for ''Grand'' would only further decline from here, with the show being cancelled as a result. | ||
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26 episodes of ''Grand'' were produced over the course of two seasons throughout 1990, but only 25 of these episodes would ultimately be broadcast, with series finale "The End of the World as We Know It" going unaired for unknown reasons. In the decades following its cancellation, the series would never be uploaded to any streaming service or digital marketplace, and no home media releases are known to have been available. The front cover of an apparent DVD release of ''Grand'' is featured on the series' Wikipedia page, but there is no evidence of this DVD having made it to market (if it ever existed at all). | 26 episodes of ''Grand'' were produced over the course of two seasons throughout 1990, but only 25 of these episodes would ultimately be broadcast, with series finale "The End of the World as We Know It" going unaired for unknown reasons. In the decades following its cancellation, the series would never be uploaded to any streaming service or digital marketplace, and no home media releases are known to have been available. The front cover of an apparent DVD release of ''Grand'' is featured on the series' Wikipedia page, but there is no evidence of this DVD having made it to market (if it ever existed at all). | ||
The entirety of ''Grand's'' first season was considered lost media until December 18th, 2022, when, in the comments to a Reddit post discussing the series, Reddit user GettyStallone provided a link to an Internet Archive upload of all thirteen episodes of ''Grand's'' first season. In another comment on the same post, GettyStallone would explain that they had acquired these recordings from TV Vault, a private, invite only torrent tracker website which is known to possess full recordings of both of ''Grand' | The entirety of ''Grand's'' first season was considered lost media until December 18th, 2022, when, in the comments to a Reddit post discussing the series, Reddit user GettyStallone provided a link to an Internet Archive upload of all thirteen episodes of ''Grand's'' first season. In another comment on the same post, GettyStallone would explain that they had acquired these recordings from TV Vault, a private, invite-only torrent tracker website which is known to possess full recordings of both of ''Grand'''s seasons but has not yet made them publicly available.<ref>[https://reddit.com/r/lostmedia/comments/zookm2/talk_grand_nbc_1990/ Reddit post containing both of GettyStallone's comments.] Retrieved 17 Jan '23</ref> | ||
By contrast, ''Grand's'' second season is considerably harder to come by, with its theme song and a brief selection of clips from "The Well" being all that has currently surfaced from it. YouTube user dominik500 is known to possess a full copy of "The End of the World as We Know It" (having uploaded the episode's "previously on" segment (which contained the aforementioned clips from "The Well") to their account), and while they did express interest in having said copy digitized, they have seemingly yet to act upon this idea, leaving the episode (like the rest of the season) lost. | By contrast, ''Grand's'' second season is considerably harder to come by, with its theme song and a brief selection of clips from "The Well" being all that has currently surfaced from it. YouTube user dominik500 is known to possess a full copy of "The End of the World as We Know It" (having uploaded the episode's "previously on" segment (which contained the aforementioned clips from "The Well") to their account), and while they did express interest in having said copy digitized, they have seemingly yet to act upon this idea, leaving the episode (like the rest of the season) lost. | ||
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|A Tale of One City | |A Tale of One City | ||
|Jan 18th, 1990 | |Jan 18th, 1990 | ||
|[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/ <span style="color:green;">'''Found''' | |[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | ||
|- | |- | ||
|2 | |2 | ||
|The Pretty Good Mother | |The Pretty Good Mother | ||
|Jan 25th, 1990 | |Jan 25th, 1990 | ||
|[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/ <span style="color:green;">'''Found''' | |[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | ||
|- | |- | ||
|3 | |3 | ||
|Sex, Lies & Cable TV | |Sex, Lies & Cable TV | ||
|Feb 1st, 1990 | |Feb 1st, 1990 | ||
|[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/ <span style="color:green;">'''Found''' | |[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | ||
|- | |- | ||
|4 | |4 | ||
|A Boy and His Dad | |A Boy and His Dad | ||
|Feb 8th, 1990 | |Feb 8th, 1990 | ||
|[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/ <span style="color:green;">'''Found''' | |[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | ||
|- | |- | ||
|5 | |5 | ||
|Faded Genes | |Faded Genes | ||
|Feb 15th, 1990 | |Feb 15th, 1990 | ||
|[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/ <span style="color:green;">'''Found''' | |[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | ||
|- | |- | ||
|6 | |6 | ||
|Legends of Sport | |Legends of Sport | ||
|Feb 22nd, 1990 | |Feb 22nd, 1990 | ||
|[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/ <span style="color:green;">'''Found''' | |[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | ||
|- | |- | ||
|7 | |7 | ||
|Deer Hunter | |Deer Hunter | ||
|Mar 1st, 1990 | |Mar 1st, 1990 | ||
|[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/ <span style="color:green;">'''Found''' | |[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | ||
|- | |- | ||
|8 | |8 | ||
|The Bald, the Blonde, and the Dead | |The Bald, the Blonde, and the Dead | ||
|Mar 8th, 1990 | |Mar 8th, 1990 | ||
|[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/ <span style="color:green;">'''Found''' | |[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | ||
|- | |- | ||
|9 | |9 | ||
|Carnegie Hall | |Carnegie Hall | ||
|Mar 15th, 1990 | |Mar 15th, 1990 | ||
|[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/ <span style="color:green;">'''Found''' | |[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | ||
|- | |- | ||
|10 | |10 | ||
|An Obtuse Triangle | |An Obtuse Triangle | ||
|Mar 22nd, 1990 | |Mar 22nd, 1990 | ||
|[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/ <span style="color:green;">'''Found''' | |[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | ||
|- | |- | ||
|11 | |11 | ||
|Trigonometry Made Easy | |Trigonometry Made Easy | ||
|Mar 29th, 1990 | |Mar 29th, 1990 | ||
|[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/ <span style="color:green;">'''Found''' | |[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | ||
|- | |- | ||
|12 | |12 | ||
|Czech, Please! | |Czech, Please! | ||
|Apr 5th, 1990 | |Apr 5th, 1990 | ||
|[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/ <span style="color:green;">'''Found''' | |[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | ||
|- | |- | ||
|13 | |13 | ||
|Blow Off | |Blow Off | ||
|Apr 12th, 1990 | |Apr 12th, 1990 | ||
|[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/ <span style="color:green;">'''Found''' | |[https://archive.org/details/grand1990/Grand+S1/<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | ||
|- | |- | ||
|} | |} | ||
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|Janice Steals Home | |Janice Steals Home | ||
|Oct 4th, 1990 | |Oct 4th, 1990 | ||
|<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | ||
|- | |- | ||
|2 | |2 | ||
|The Chickens Come Home to Roost | |The Chickens Come Home to Roost | ||
|Oct 11th, 1990 | |Oct 11th, 1990 | ||
|<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | ||
|- | |- | ||
|3 | |3 | ||
|The Healing | |The Healing | ||
|Oct 18th, 1990 | |Oct 18th, 1990 | ||
|<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | ||
|- | |- | ||
|4 | |4 | ||
|The Return of Yale Pinhaus | |The Return of Yale Pinhaus | ||
|Oct 25th, 1990 | |Oct 25th, 1990 | ||
|<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | ||
|- | |- | ||
|5 | |5 | ||
|Desmond's Mother | |Desmond's Mother | ||
|Nov 1st, 1990 | |Nov 1st, 1990 | ||
|<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | ||
|- | |- | ||
|6 | |6 | ||
|Norris' Romance | |Norris' Romance | ||
|Nov 15th, 1990 | |Nov 15th, 1990 | ||
|<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | ||
|- | |- | ||
|7 | |7 | ||
|Roamers and Rumors | |Roamers and Rumors | ||
|Nov 22nd, 1990 | |Nov 22nd, 1990 | ||
|<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | ||
|- | |- | ||
|8 | |8 | ||
|Lady Luck | |Lady Luck | ||
|Nov 29th, 1990 | |Nov 29th, 1990 | ||
|<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | ||
|- | |- | ||
|9 | |9 | ||
|One Way Out | |One Way Out | ||
|Dec 6th, 1990 | |Dec 6th, 1990 | ||
|<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | ||
|- | |- | ||
|10 | |10 | ||
|The Mother Load | |The Mother Load | ||
|Dec 13th, 1990 | |Dec 13th, 1990 | ||
|<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | ||
|- | |- | ||
|11 | |11 | ||
|Wolf Boy | |Wolf Boy | ||
|Dec 20th, 1990 | |Dec 20th, 1990 | ||
|<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | ||
|- | |- | ||
|12 | |12 | ||
|The Well | |The Well | ||
|Dec 27th, 1990 | |Dec 27th, 1990 | ||
|[https://youtu.be/DlQfBMExJPs <span style="color:orange;">'''Partially Found''' | |[https://youtu.be/DlQfBMExJPs<span style="color:orange;">'''Partially Found'''] | ||
|- | |- | ||
|13 | |13 | ||
|The End of the World as We Know It | |The End of the World as We Know It | ||
|Unaired | |Unaired | ||
|<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | ||
|} | |} | ||
Line 186: | Line 186: | ||
==External Links== | ==External Links== | ||
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_(TV_series) Wikipedia page for ''Grand''.] | *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_(TV_series) Wikipedia page for ''Grand''.] | ||
*[https:// | *[https://imdb.com/title/tt0098809/ IMDB page for ''Grand''.] | ||
==References== | ==References== |
Revision as of 00:50, 26 January 2023
Grand was an American television sitcom created by Michael Leeson and starring Pamela Reed, John Randolph and Bonnie Hunt that was broadcast on NBC for two seasons from January 18th to December 27th, 1990. The series was designed to be a satire of soap operas, featuring ongoing story arcs that took place over the course of multiple episodes, and numerous other elements that parodied conventions of the genre.
Plot
The series took place in the eponymous fictional town of Grand, Pennsylvania, and focused on the lives of three families: the impoverished Pasettis, the middle-class Smithsons, and the wealthy Weldons. Former homecoming queen Janet Pasetti (Pamela Reed) lives in a trailer park with her daughter Edda (Sara Rue) and spends her days fighting off the advances of motorcycle cop Wayne Kazmurski (Andrew Lauer) while working for the various members of the Weldon family.
Harris Weldon (John Randolph) is the patriarch of his family, having made his fortune through his ownership of Grand Piano Works, a piano factory which has since fallen on hard times due to the importing of foreign keyboards. Harris lives in his mansion with his dimwitted son Norris (Joel Murray) and his butler Desmond (John Neville), whom Harris largely keeps employed due to Desmond having previously saved his life.
Living separately from the mansion is Harris' niece Carol Ann Smithson (Bonnie Hunt), who instead lives a middle-class lifestyle with her husband Tom (Michael McKean), an ambitious worker who is always attempting to get an executive position at the piano factory.
Grand's first season would be broadcast from January to April of 1990 and featured storylines involving Harris' attempts to get a date to accompany him to Carnegie Hall, Tom attempting to hide his teenage son from a previous marriage from Carol Ann, and Harris allowing Desmond to believe that he is Norris' father despite this not being the case. Despite this season's strong ratings, it was unclear if NBC would be willing to commit to a second season. As a mocking response to this indecision, the season finale "Blow Off" was created, which ended with the town of Grand being destroyed by a tornado, with the majority of its residents subsequently disappearing.
However, despite the rather decisive nature of this finale, NBC still chose to renew Grand for a second season, even giving it the prized Thursday 9:30 PM timeslot. But by the time this decision had been made, Andrew Lauer, Michael McKean, and many members of the show's crew had already moved on to other projects. As a result of these walkouts, along with the events of "Blow Off", many drastic changes took place between Grand's first and second seasons. Tom would be written out of the show in the second season's second episode, being revealed to be an illegal alien who had stolen $50,000 from a Texas Savings and Loan, and who had used the tornado as a means by which to disappear before the FBI could close in on him. Wayne and many of the recurring story arcs present in Grand's first season would also be dropped without explanation, with the show now far more resembling a traditional sitcom as opposed to the pseudo-soap opera it was originally.
However, this sharp change in format only served to alienate many of the show's original viewers, with ratings beginning to decline as a result. In response to this, the ongoing story arc idea would be revived in season two's final four episodes, though with considerably more outrageous storylines involving themes of witchcraft, gangsters, a corporate takeover of the piano factory and Carol Ann adopting a teenage son who had been raised by wolves. Despite these changes, ratings for Grand would only further decline from here, with the show being cancelled as a result.
Availability
26 episodes of Grand were produced over the course of two seasons throughout 1990, but only 25 of these episodes would ultimately be broadcast, with series finale "The End of the World as We Know It" going unaired for unknown reasons. In the decades following its cancellation, the series would never be uploaded to any streaming service or digital marketplace, and no home media releases are known to have been available. The front cover of an apparent DVD release of Grand is featured on the series' Wikipedia page, but there is no evidence of this DVD having made it to market (if it ever existed at all).
The entirety of Grand's first season was considered lost media until December 18th, 2022, when, in the comments to a Reddit post discussing the series, Reddit user GettyStallone provided a link to an Internet Archive upload of all thirteen episodes of Grand's first season. In another comment on the same post, GettyStallone would explain that they had acquired these recordings from TV Vault, a private, invite-only torrent tracker website which is known to possess full recordings of both of Grand's seasons but has not yet made them publicly available.[1]
By contrast, Grand's second season is considerably harder to come by, with its theme song and a brief selection of clips from "The Well" being all that has currently surfaced from it. YouTube user dominik500 is known to possess a full copy of "The End of the World as We Know It" (having uploaded the episode's "previously on" segment (which contained the aforementioned clips from "The Well") to their account), and while they did express interest in having said copy digitized, they have seemingly yet to act upon this idea, leaving the episode (like the rest of the season) lost.
List of Episodes
Season One
# | Name | Air date | Status |
---|---|---|---|
1 | A Tale of One City | Jan 18th, 1990 | Found |
2 | The Pretty Good Mother | Jan 25th, 1990 | Found |
3 | Sex, Lies & Cable TV | Feb 1st, 1990 | Found |
4 | A Boy and His Dad | Feb 8th, 1990 | Found |
5 | Faded Genes | Feb 15th, 1990 | Found |
6 | Legends of Sport | Feb 22nd, 1990 | Found |
7 | Deer Hunter | Mar 1st, 1990 | Found |
8 | The Bald, the Blonde, and the Dead | Mar 8th, 1990 | Found |
9 | Carnegie Hall | Mar 15th, 1990 | Found |
10 | An Obtuse Triangle | Mar 22nd, 1990 | Found |
11 | Trigonometry Made Easy | Mar 29th, 1990 | Found |
12 | Czech, Please! | Apr 5th, 1990 | Found |
13 | Blow Off | Apr 12th, 1990 | Found |
Season Two
# | Name | Air date | Status |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Janice Steals Home | Oct 4th, 1990 | Lost |
2 | The Chickens Come Home to Roost | Oct 11th, 1990 | Lost |
3 | The Healing | Oct 18th, 1990 | Lost |
4 | The Return of Yale Pinhaus | Oct 25th, 1990 | Lost |
5 | Desmond's Mother | Nov 1st, 1990 | Lost |
6 | Norris' Romance | Nov 15th, 1990 | Lost |
7 | Roamers and Rumors | Nov 22nd, 1990 | Lost |
8 | Lady Luck | Nov 29th, 1990 | Lost |
9 | One Way Out | Dec 6th, 1990 | Lost |
10 | The Mother Load | Dec 13th, 1990 | Lost |
11 | Wolf Boy | Dec 20th, 1990 | Lost |
12 | The Well | Dec 27th, 1990 | Partially Found |
13 | The End of the World as We Know It | Unaired | Lost |
Gallery
External Links
References
- ↑ Reddit post containing both of GettyStallone's comments. Retrieved 17 Jan '23