I'm watching thirtysomething

Where are you watching it?

On DVD.

(the death episode though is on youtube if you want that one. )

I hated this show as a kid. I wonder if I would like it more now that I am thirty-something myself. Probably not since there were no gay characters and they were boomers I have nothing in common with.

[quote]Probably not since there were no gay characters and they were boomers I have nothing in common with.

Ahm, no gay characters

R3, there were a couple of gay characters in the last couple of seasons, but they were defined by their AIDS angst unfortunately. It was a great show, by the way. Definitely worth checking out.

Yes, David Marshall Grant played Russell Weller while Peter Frechette played Peter Montefiore, both pictured above in bed together.

Nancy was supposed to die, but the cancer organizations freaked out so much (along with viewers who wrote in) that the producers changed the storyline.

I wonder if Peter Horton (Gary) knew that this was going to be the show's last season and that's why he was OK with being killed off.

No, it was a lottery. The producers decided one of the characters was going to die.

This is a great show. Incredibly influential and way ahead of its time. It doesn’t really feel dated, in terms of the characters’ concerns and generational anxieties.

Plus, young Ken Olin.

Young Ken Olin.

Yum, yum.

I loved that show. I was the perfect age - 15 - when it was on, and it made a huge impression. Those remain some of my favorite characters and actors of all time!

Ken Olin should be jailed for letting himself go so badly.

I loved the episodes when Michael and Eliot went to work for Miles Drentell. One of their first accounts was an Italian sportscar maker, Spingieri, or something like that. I was fascinated by the way the writers handled the brain-storming sessions. They were much like those that occurred later on "Mad Men."

[quote]Young Ken Olin.

I love his twitter at any age.

We all know it was hope who should have died.

Miles Dentrell was such a great character.

I so wanted young Ken Olin on my face and inside me quite deeply.

Hope’s mother, the great Shirley Knight, was such a great character. That episode, Arizona, is a writing master class. When you go back and watch it, so many of the episodes are still brilliant, just as you remember them being the 1st time.

Ellyn Warren. I love Ellyn Warren.

R8 - Peter Horton wanted to be killed off because he had become more interested in directing.

R14, The Spiingieri was a a sportscar whose target market was gay men! They didn't talk about things like that much on TV in the late 80s. The show was relatively progressive for its time. Cancer, AIDS, gay relationships were all fairly unspoken up until then on network TV.

I'm a cancer survivor and was very into the Nancy storyline, and liked Patricia Wettig a lot. Hope was a different story altogether.

So glad to see all the love on this thread! At the risk of becoming known as the "thirtysomething" troll, I've stated before that I think the show is criminally underrated. The first half of the first season was a little wobbly, and the early hype blew up in their faces as a lot of viewers thought the characters came off as whiny yuppies. But starting with Nancy and Elliot's separation the show really hit its stride, with creative direction and some of the most realistic writing and acting ever on television.

There is a sequel in the works. The new show will revisit the Steadmans and the Westons who are now in their sixties as well as their grown children who are the current thirtysomethings. Sounds interesting. This is one reboot that actually makes sense and I'm looking forward to revisiting these characters.

On a side note, the creators of Thirtysomething are the same people behind My So-Called Life. I would love to revisit that show too. Like Angela, Jordan and company could reunite for their 25th high school reunion and we could see what became of their lives. I know a reboot of MSCL is very unlikely to happen but I would definitely tune in if it did.

They tried this last year too but the pilot didn't get picked up. (or the year before)

Ken Olin directs This is Us. I've seen many elements of Thirtysomething in This is Us - the storytelling, the musical score, the character development.

I loved Thirtysomething and like This is Us. And i was only just about 20something when it came on.

I remember how defiant the Olins were when the show was cancelled. ABC offered them a 2 hour movie to rap it up but Ken insisted on directing and wanted a huge paycheck. ABC declined.

Then Wettig went on TV and talked all about how liberating the cancellation was. (She was being called the next Meryl Streep at that point.) Didn't happen. It liberated her to be a housewife.

Really good acting. Love Patricia Wettig

Melanie Mayron's physical transformation is amazing. Just saw her on Rhoda.

Wow. It is like a whole different person. What all did she have done. I guess lost weight, nose job, different hair.

Hope has been married like 7 times in real life. She must be nuts.

r28 isn't exaggerating she's had 6 husbands!

This show sucked and nobody became a star from it.

Maybe, Chrissy, but ... well, no need to continue there. Good luck with the singing.

As someone who was a fan from the first episode, I was really disappointed with the lack of a finale. If Ken and Patricia were the ones who fucked that up, that really sucks. You were never -- any of you -- bigger than your cast mates. You were an ensemble, and that was the point. At least from the point of your loyal viewers, which I was truly one of. By the way a few things that may have brought you into a fifth season: Hope: There was no need for Hope to have a tangent (and that's what it was) when she wanted to help homeless people. That was bullshit and the viewers knew it. In fact, if Michael followed her whims and went to Washington DC, that would have been a huge mistake. Hope was always a dilettante, with no real convictions, except her when she selfishly destroyed her own New Years party. Where, once again, she was feeling sorry for herself because the guy she first fucked had died. I mean, really. Get it together girl. That happened a lot. Especially in the 80s and 90s. Knock it off, pull up your bra straps and get on with it, you wimp. You fucked up that party to no end and permanently damaged your relationship with (then extremely hunky) Michael. You idiot.

BTW, those notes in the above post were really for the writers and producers. I'm aware that the actors really had no sway in what happened in the end. BUT, the actors certainly had input and should have used it. (I'm not talking about Ken and Wettig trying to take things over, though.) Ellyn and Melissa were viewer favorites, especially for gay and female viewers. They should have been given more to do. The Nancy has Cancer thing was probably gutsy at the time, but not really. No one wants to watch a cancer show every week. Elliot's devotion to her was extremely winning, though, and brought it all together.

I'm playing all week. Thank you!

sorry. I was not the op, just the author of the last few posts....

Where can I watch this show? Is it streaming any where? Thx

R31 loved how that New Year’s Eve episode was based on the Joyce story “The Dead.”

The show was one of the great workplace dramas, too—from the Michael and Elliott Company to DAA. Always thought of Don Draper as a less evolved Michael Steadman.