Tattingers

Tattingers (later Tattinger's) is an American comedy-drama television series that aired by the NBC television network from October 26, 1988, to April 26, 1989, as part of its 1988 fall lineup. After failing in the Nielsen ratings as an hour-long program, the plot and characters were briefly revived in the spring of 1989 as the half-hour sitcom Nick & Hillary.

Tattingers
Also known as	Tattinger's Nick & Hillary
Genre	Comedy drama
Created by	Bruce Paltrow Tom Fontana John Masius
Starring	Stephen Collins Blythe Danner Patrice Colihan Chay Lentin Jessica Prunell Jerry Stiller Mary Beth Hurt Roderick Cook Zach Grenier Rob Morrow Sue Francis Pai Yusef Bulos Robert Clohessy Simon Jones Chris Elliott Anna Levine
Theme music composer	Jonathan Tunick
Opening theme	"Anybody's Guess" by Brock Walsh (Nick & Hillary run)
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	Tattingers - 11 (2 unaired) Nick & Hillary - 4 (2 unaired)
Production
Producers	Bruce Paltrow Tom Fontana John Masius
Running time	60 minutes/30 minutes
Production companies	Paltrow Group MTM Enterprises
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	October 26, 1988 (1988-10-26) – April 26, 1989 (1989-04-26)

An unaired episode, "Screwball," aired on TV Land on April 4, 1999.^[1]

Synopsis

Tattingers is the story of a divorced couple, Nick and Hillary Tattinger (Stephen Collins and Blythe Danner), along with their 2 daughters: Nina and Winnifred. They had remained co-owner partners in a posh Manhattan restaurant until Nick was shot by a drug dealer, which prompted them to sell the restaurant and move to Paris. Their successors, however, proved incapable of properly running the restaurant, so Nick reclaimed the restaurant from them to give it another go. Real-life Manhattan celebrities often appeared in cameo roles as themselves as Nick's exclusive clientele.

Cast

• Stephen Collins as Nick Tattinger
• Blythe Danner as Hillary Tattinger
• Jerry Stiller as Sid Wilbur
• Roderick Cook as Louis Chatham
• Zach Grenier as Sonny Franks (Tattingers)
• Patrice Colihan as Nina Tattinger
• Chay Lentin as Winnifred Tattinger
• Thomas Quinn as O'Malley (Tattingers)
• Mary Beth Hurt as Sheila Bradley
• Chris Elliott as Spin (Nick & Hillary)

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	U.S. viewers (millions)
Tattingers
1	"Pilot"	Unknown	Unknown	October 26, 1988 (1988-10-26)	20.5[2]
2	"The Sonny Also Rises"	Unknown	Unknown	November 2, 1988 (1988-11-02)	12.5[3]
3	"Nouvelle York"	Unknown	Unknown	November 9, 1988 (1988-11-09)	12.2[4]
4	"Virgin Spring"	Unknown	Unknown	November 16, 1988 (1988-11-16)	11.0[5]
5	"Rest in Peas"	Unknown	Unknown	November 30, 1988 (1988-11-30)	11.3[6]
6	"Death and Taxis"	Unknown	Unknown	December 7, 1988 (1988-12-07)	9.7[7]
7	"Two Men and a Baby"	Unknown	Unknown	December 14, 1988 (1988-12-14)	11.4[8]
8	"Broken Windows"	Unknown	Tom Fontana	January 4, 1989 (1989-01-04)	9.9[9]
9	"Wall Street Blues"	Gwen Arner	Peter McCabe	January 11, 1989 (1989-01-11)	10.6[10]
10	"Screwball"	TBD	TBD	Unaired (Unaired)	N/A
11	"Ex-Appeal"	TBD	TBD	Unaired (Unaired)	N/A
Nick & Hillary
12	"Half a Loaf..."	Art Wolff	Tom Fontana & Channing Gibson & John Tinker	April 20, 1989 (1989-04-20)	21.0[11]
13	"El Sid"	Don Scardino	Story by : Tom Fontana & John Tinker Teleplay by : Channing Gibson	April 26, 1989 (1989-04-26)	13.3[12]
14	"Tour of Doody"	TBD	TBD	Unaired (Unaired)	N/A
15	"Money Matters"	TBD	TBD	Unaired (Unaired)	N/A

Reception

This program was a ratings failure and was cancelled in January 1989. However, NBC was apparently unwilling to give up totally on the characters or the concept, and the program was revamped into a half-hour sitcom, Nick & Hillary. This new series premiered on April 20, 1989,^[13] but proved even less successful than its predecessor and was cancelled after only two episodes.

References

1. Starr, Michael (March 26, 1999). "TV Land at 'Junction,' Heeds Fontana's Call". New York Post. Retrieved 2017-06-11.
2. "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. November 2, 1988. p. 3D. ProQuest 306129406.
3. "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. November 9, 1988. p. 3D. ProQuest 306136856.
4. "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. November 16, 1988. p. 3D. ProQuest 306140699.
5. "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. November 23, 1988. p. 3D. ProQuest 306124674.
6. "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. December 7, 1988. p. 3D. ProQuest 306146398.
7. "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. December 14, 1988. p. 3D. ProQuest 306143538.
8. "A very 'Brady' ratings hit". Life. USA Today. December 21, 1988. p. 3D. ProQuest 306159082.
9. "NBC, laughing all the way". Life. USA Today. January 11, 1989. p. 3D. ProQuest 306165080.
10. "NBC clinches season's ratings title". Life. USA Today. January 18, 1989. p. 3D. ProQuest 306171627.
11. "Sitcom rewards ABC's faith". Life. USA Today. April 26, 1989. p. 3D. ProQuest 306174966.
12. "We loved CBS' 'Lucy' tribute". Life. USA Today. May 3, 1989. p. 3D. ProQuest 306197470.
13. O'Connor, John (April 20, 1989). "Review/Television; NBC Series Is Changed From Soap Into Sitcom". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-04-24.

General

• Brooks, Tim, and Marsh, Earle, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946–Present