"The Barrie Youngfellow Show" (1982)

According to TV Guide's Fall Previews For 1982:

Barrie Montgomery (Barrie "It's a Living" Youngfellow) seems to have it all: the perfect marriage (to Randolph "Emergency!" Mantooth), the perfect beach house in Malibu, and the perfect career as an advertising executive at an unnamed but "prestigious" firm. Then the firm switches over to using computers, and Barrie, who can't make the switch, finds herself out of a job on the same day her hubby tells her he's been having an affair for the last two years and he's leaving her. And the beach house? It's going into foreclosure. Oops. Luckily, all this misfortune is only in the pilot, as it sets up the premise for the rest of the series: Barrie moves back in with her parents in San Diego. Mom (Barbara "Tucker's Witch" Barrie) is scattered but sweet, while Dad (Barnard "Mr. Merlin" Hughes) is a gruff but lovable conservative, which rubs outspokenly liberal Barrie the wrong way. While Barrie insists she's just living with her parents temporarily, we suspect that if the ratings warrant it, she'll be there for years to come. ABC.

Added to the cast Debralee Scott (“Angie”) as her sister Vickie who is also divorced and works as a vice cop. As Vickies kids introducing newcomers Danny gokey as Scottie and Emily Schulman as Mickie!!! Stay tuned!

The Barrie Youngfellow Show initially did fairly well in its time slot between Three's Company and Hart to Hart. But then the producers started tinkering with the formula (firing the parents and having Barrie become a house mother at a boarding school, in an obvious attempt to rip off The Facts of Life). They thought adding a bunch of kids to the show (including Meeno Peluce and Quinn Cummings) would broaden its appeal, but instead the ratings dropped off a cliff. The show was yanked from the schedule and NBC took it off ABC's hands, only to place it in the Saturday night death slot opposite The Love Boat in order to burn off the last three episodes.

A battered and bruised Youngfellow limped back to the retitled Making a Living soon thereafter.

It actually DID run for a second season, but they did a massive retooling.

They changed the name to "Here's Barrie!" And speaking of Barrie, Barbara Barrie bolted for the doors as she had with Barney Miller, so Barrie's mom was out and in was her cantankerous Aunt Gloria, played by the legendary Doris Roberts.

The writers tried to be bold, but the network wouldn't approve a story where Barrie's gruff coworker Sadie (Selma Diamond) comes out to her, and they walked off in a huff. That's when ABC tried to cross over several members of the "Too Close for Comfort" cast, but Jm J Bullock's face scared away any remaining viewers.....

Before the show petered out, the producers tried stunt casting to appeal to an older audience with veteran guest stars. One episode had Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard (of The Mothers-In-Law) play Barrie's battling grandmothers, Nana and Noni. Unfortunately, few remembered who they were and ratings tanked.

I LOVED the movie follow-up, "Who Gives a Flying Fuck About The Barrie Youngfellow Show?" Airs once-a-year on TCM.

It was NOT a Witt-Thomas-Harris production.

Not even a Witt-Thomas production.

Actually, ABC dropped the series after the first season and NBC tried to rescue it by combining it with the failed pilot for "Irene," starring Irene Cara.

Barrie left the girls' school and headed to NYC to make it big in advertising. After being mugged right off the bus at Penn Station, Barrie meets sassy busker Irene and they become roommates. But can two women from different sides of the tracks survive the big city—and each other?

"Barrie & Irene" never made it to the first taping, because Barrie and Irene got into a fistfight at table read over first billing and whether Irene would have to wear a bra under her T-shirts.

[quote]Barrie Youngfellow was offered her own self-titled show by network executives who were convinced she had what it took to become the Lucille Ball of the '80s.

Boy were they wrong.

Lena Dunham is working on a dark-comic follow-up called "Barren."

It follows a 35-year-old woman who, after having a hysterectomy because of severe endometriosis, moves in with her mother (Barrie Youngfellow), who's had a double mastectomy, and grandmother (Barbara Barrie), who has an ostomy.

The three generations try to heal their relationship while proving there's so much more to them than their missing body parts.

Barbara Barrie has signed on, but Barrie Youngfellow is hesitating because of all the nudity required.