The Ellen Burstyn Show

The Ellen Burstyn Show is an American sitcom starring Ellen Burstyn. The series was produced by Touchstone Television and debuted on ABC on September 20, 1986. The series was canceled after 13 episodes.

The Ellen Burstyn Show
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Norman Steinberg David Frankel
Written by	Robert Bruce Howard Gewirtz Bob Rosenfarb Norman Steinberg Martin Weiss
Directed by	Norman Steinberg Dolores Ferraro Sam Weisman
Starring	Ellen Burstyn Elaine Stritch Megan Mullally Barry Sobel Jesse Tendler
Opening theme	"Nothing in the World Like Love" performed by Rita Coolidge
Composer	Artie Butler
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13 (1 unaired)
Production
Executive producer	Norman Steinberg
Producers	David Frankel Ronald E. Frazier
Cinematography	George Spiro Dibie
Editors	Andy Ackerman Jimmy B. Frazier
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	30 minutes
Production companies	Ellen Burstyn Productions P.S. 235 Productions Touchstone Television
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	September 20, 1986 (1986-09-20) – September 5, 1987 (1987-09-05)

Synopsis

Burstyn played Baltimore college professor Ellen Brewer, who sometimes had to deal not only with the students she has to tutor, but also with her meddling mother, Sydney (played by fellow veteran Broadway/film actress Elaine Stritch, who was only 7 years older than Burstyn), her divorced daughter, Molly (Megan Mullally) and her 51⁄2 year old grandson, Nick (played by Jesse Tendler).

Cast

Actor	Role
Ellen Burstyn	Ellen Brewer
Megan Mullally	Molly Brewer Ross
Elaine Stritch	Sydney Brewer
Barry Sobel	Tom Hines
Jesse Tendler	Nick Ross
Timothy Biggins	Mike Brewer

Cancellation

The series debuted on September 20, 1986, and ran until November 15, 1986. It was cancelled after eight episodes but returned in August of 1987 to burn off the remaining five episodes. The final episode aired on September 5, 1987, ranking as the third-lowest-rated series on network television (81st out of 83 shows, with a 7.6/13 rating/share).^[1]

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
1	"Pilot"	Norman Steinberg	Story by : Norman Steinberg & David Frankel Teleplay by : David Frankel	September 20, 1986 (1986-09-20)
2	"Monkey Business"	Unknown	Unknown	September 27, 1986 (1986-09-27)
3	"Where There's a Will"	Unknown	Unknown	October 4, 1986 (1986-10-04)
4	"The Guest Lecturer"	Unknown	Unknown	October 18, 1986 (1986-10-18)
5	"Crime and Punishment"	Unknown	Unknown	October 25, 1986 (1986-10-25)
6	"Sydney's Night Out"	Unknown	Unknown	November 1, 1986 (1986-11-01)
7	"Reading Between the Lines"	Unknown	Unknown	November 8, 1986 (1986-11-08)
8	"Family Affair"	Norman Steinberg	Bob Rosenfarb	November 15, 1986 (1986-11-15)
9	"Molly Sings the Blues"	Unknown	Unknown	August 8, 1987 (1987-08-08)
10	"Writer, Wronger"	Unknown	Unknown	August 15, 1987 (1987-08-15)
11	"The Box"	Unknown	Unknown	August 22, 1987 (1987-08-22)
12	"Writes of Passage"	Unknown	Unknown	September 5, 1987 (1987-09-05)
13	"I'm Dancing Faster Than I Can"	TBD	TBD	UNAIRED

References

1. Chronology of the Walt Disney Company, Ken Polsson

External links

• The Ellen Burstyn Show at IMDb