Grapevine (TV series)

Last updated
Grapevine
Created by David Frankel
Starring Jonathan Penner
Lynn Clark
Steven Eckholdt
ComposerMichael Lang
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes6
Production
Executive producerDavid Frankel
Running time30 minutes
Production companiesCorkscrew Productions
MGM/UA Television
CBS Entertainment Productions
Original release
Network CBS
ReleaseJune 15 (1992-06-15) 
July 27, 1992 (1992-07-27)

Grapevine is an American sitcom created by David Frankel, premiered as a six-episode summer series on CBS from June 15 to July 27, 1992. It was not renewed.

Contents

A revival of the series, with a different cast, premiered on CBS in February 2000, lasting five episodes.

1992 version

Summary

David owned a restaurant in Miami Beach on Ocean Drive. His girlfriend Susan worked for a cruise line. His brother Thumper was a sportscaster. The series was a 1990s take on Love, American Style in its couple-of-the-week format. Each episode presented the story of a couple, as told through short scenes interwoven with the regular characters, the couple, friends, associates talking to the camera about the couple as if speaking to an unseen interviewer. Editing allowed for jokes to be set up by one "interview" with the punch line delivered by another character, sometimes completely unrelated. Example: A husband who had sex with his estranged wife's sister says to the camera, "What we did wasn't a crime?" Quick cut to "People have been shot for less," in a medium Hispanic accent from a middle-aged City of Miami police officer first heard from earlier in the episode discussing a bizarre jewelry heist that ended with the female thief shot dead. The background music ranged from quiet jazz piano to, for outdoor scenes of relaxation and imbibing, a wailing saxophone.

Stories were contained within a half-hour. Sometimes the couples stayed together, and other times they broke up.

Realism was heightened by the show making full use of actually being shot in Miami, instead of the common practice of shooting establishing shots in a locale then shooting the rest in Los Angeles. All of David's interviews and the scenes in his restaurant used Ocean Drive's Cafe Milano as it was at the time, without set dressing (at the start of The Billy and Lisa Story episode, the green awning with the Cafe Milano name is visible and legible for several seconds). Thumper, allegedly based on creator David Frankel's brother John Frankel, then working in Miami television for the ABC affiliate, worked for the CBS affiliate and some of his interviews used the affiliate's studios. The Katie and Adam Story involved two of Thumper's employees having an affair, so the station's actual trucks, offices and news sets were used (when the philandering pair leaves one set, the camera follows them until it lingers on the background for a popular consumer news segment called "Shame on You.") Susan's interviews usually put her in her office with a view of Biscayne Bay or the MacArthur Causeway behind her. Other characters were shot in front of notable Miami buildings or South Florida-style establishments.

The series aired for six episodes as a summer replacement series and enjoyed popularity among critics [1] and many viewers in their 20s, especially in Miami. The show logged several notable guest stars, such as a young Mariska Hargitay (appearing as Katie in the episode, "The Katie and Adam Story"). CBS, with what was famously and infamously the oldest audience on television, opted not to pick up the show. Fox Network was rumored to be interested. Years later, when CBS revived the show, creator David Frankel told the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel that Fox asked him to create the same show but with a different title. [2]

Cast

Main

Guest stars

Episodes

No. Title Directed by Written by Original air date
1"The Janice and Brian Story"UnknownUnknownJune 15, 1992 (1992-06-15)
2"The Katie and Adam Story"UnknownUnknownJune 22, 1992 (1992-06-22)
3"The Fran and Joey Story"UnknownUnknownJune 29, 1992 (1992-06-29)
4"The Lisa and Billy Story"UnknownUnknownJuly 6, 1992 (1992-07-06)
5"The Allison and Ken Story"UnknownUnknownJuly 20, 1992 (1992-07-20)
6"The Jessica and Tony Story"UnknownUnknownJuly 27, 1992 (1992-07-27)

2000 version

Grapevine
Created by David Frankel
Starring Steven Eckholdt
Kristy Swanson
George Eads
David Sutcliffe
ComposerJohn McCullough
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes6
Production
Camera setup Single-camera
Running time30 minutes
Production companies Paramount Network Television
CBS Productions
Original release
Network CBS
ReleaseFebruary 28 (2000-02-28) 
April 10, 2000 (2000-04-10)

Summary

The original Grapevine's interview style was cited as an influence on HBO hit Sex and the City . Barry Jossen produced both Grapevine and the first season of Sex in the City. CBS brought back Grapevine from February 28 to March 27, 2000. This time, David was played by Steven Eckholdt, Susan by Kristy Swanson, Thumper by George Eads, and a hotel manager, Matt, was played by David Sutcliffe.

Where the show once seemed cutting edge with the interviews, music and subject matter so racy even some critics blushed, it now struck most critics as dated. [3]

Cast

Episodes

No. Title Directed by Written by Original air date
1"Pilot"UnknownUnknownFebruary 28, 2000 (2000-02-28)
2"Thumper"UnknownUnknownMarch 6, 2000 (2000-03-06)
3"David"UnknownUnknownMarch 13, 2000 (2000-03-13)
4"Jamie"UnknownUnknownMarch 20, 2000 (2000-03-20)
5"Jack"UnknownUnknownMarch 27, 2000 (2000-03-27)
6"Matt"UnknownUnknownApril 10, 2000 (2000-04-10)

Related Research Articles

<i>Dallas</i> (1978 TV series) American television series

Dallas is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1978, to May 3, 1991. The series revolved around an affluent and feuding Texas family, the Ewings, who owned the independent oil company Ewing Oil and the cattle-ranching land of Southfork. The series originally focused on the marriage of Bobby Ewing and Pamela Barnes, whose families were sworn enemies. As the series progressed, Bobby's elder brother, oil tycoon J.R. Ewing, became the show's breakout character, whose schemes and dirty business became the show's trademark. When the show ended on May 3, 1991, J.R. was the only character to have appeared in every episode.

<i>Coupling</i> (British TV series) British TV series (2000-2004)

Coupling is a British television sitcom written by Steven Moffat that aired on BBC Two and BBC Three from 12 May 2000 to 14 June 2004. Produced by Hartswood Films for the BBC, the show centres on the dating, sexual adventures, and mishaps of six friends in their early 30s, often depicting the three women and the three men each talking among themselves about the same events, but in entirely different terms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laugh track</span> Recorded laughter in broadcast comedy show

A laugh track is an audio recording consisting of laughter usually used as a separate soundtrack for comedy productions. The laugh track may contain live audience reactions or artificial laughter made to be inserted into the show, or a combination of the two. The use of canned laughter to "sweeten" the laugh track was pioneered by American sound engineer Charles "Charley" Douglass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katie Couric</span> American journalist (born 1957)

Katherine Anne Couric is an American journalist and presenter. She is founder of Katie Couric Media, a multimedia news and production company. She also publishes a daily newsletter, Wake Up Call. From 2013 to 2017, she was Yahoo's Global News Anchor. Couric has been a television host at all of the Big Three television networks in the United States, and in her early career she was an assignment editor for CNN. She worked for NBC News from 1989 to 2006, CBS News from 2006 to 2011, and ABC News from 2011 to 2014. In 2021, she appeared as a guest host for the game show Jeopardy!, the first woman to host the flagship American version of the show in its history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Caruso</span> American retired actor and producer (born 1956)

David Stephen Caruso is an American retired actor and producer, best known for his roles as Detective John Kelly on the ABC crime drama NYPD Blue (1993–1994) and Lieutenant Horatio Caine on the CBS series CSI: Miami (2002–2012). He appears in the feature films An Officer and a Gentleman, First Blood, Twins (1988), King of New York (1990), Kiss of Death (1995) and Proof of Life (2000).

<i>Early Edition</i> American TV drama series (1996–2000)

Early Edition is an American fantasy comedy-drama television series that aired on CBS from September 28, 1996 to May 27, 2000. Set in Chicago, Illinois, it follows the adventures of a man who mysteriously receives each Chicago Sun-Times newspaper the day before it is actually published, and who uses this knowledge to prevent terrible events every day. Created by Ian Abrams, Patrick Q. Page, and Vik Rubenfeld, the series starred actor Kyle Chandler as Gary Hobson, and it featured many real Chicago locations over the course of the series' run.

Dateline NBC is a weekly American television news magazine reality legal show that is broadcast on NBC. It was previously the network's flagship general interest news magazine, but now focuses mainly on true crime stories with only occasional editions that focus on other topics. The program airs Fridays at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Special weekend encore editions also air at 9 or 10:00 p.m.. One or two-hour feature-length editions sometimes air on any given scheduled evening, often to fill vacancies in the primetime schedule on the program's respective nights due to program cancellations. In February 2021, the program aired its first ever docuseries, "The Widower", a five-hour true crime saga about a man who married six women, four of whom died.

<i>Family</i> (1976 TV series) American television series

Family is an American television drama series that aired on ABC from March 9, 1976 to June 25, 1980. It was conceived as a six-episode limited series, but initial high ratings led to the production of 86 weekly episodes. Creative control of the show was split among executive producers Leonard Goldberg, Aaron Spelling and Mike Nichols.

<i>Empty Nest</i> American television sitcom

Empty Nest is an American television sitcom that aired for seven seasons on NBC from October 8, 1988, to June 17, 1995. The series, which was created as a spin-off of The Golden Girls by creator and producer Susan Harris, starred Richard Mulligan as recently widowed pediatrician Dr. Harry Weston, whose two adult daughters return home to live with him. The series was produced by Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions in association with Touchstone Television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kristy Swanson</span> American actress (born 1969)

Kristen Noel Swanson is an American actress. She is best recognized for having played Buffy Summers in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer and appeared in the 1996 film The Phantom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridget Moynahan</span> American actress and former model (born 1971)

Kathryn Bridget Moynahan is an American actress and former model. She graduated from Longmeadow High School in Massachusetts in 1989 and began pursuing a career in modeling. Moynahan appeared in department-store catalogs and magazines, and after doing television commercials, began taking acting lessons. She made her television debut in a guest appearance in the comedy series Sex and the City in 1999, where she later had a recurring role as Natasha.

<i>The Jackie Gleason Show</i> American TV series or program

The Jackie Gleason Show is the name of a series of American network television shows that starred Jackie Gleason, which ran from 1952 to 1970, in various forms.

The Buffyverse canon consists of materials that are thought to be genuine and those events, characters, settings, etc., that are considered to have inarguable existence within the fictional universe established by the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Buffyverse is expanded through other additional materials such as comics, novels, pilots, promos and video games which do not necessarily take place in exactly the same fictional continuity as the Buffy episodes and Angel episodes. Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate and other prolific sci-fi and fantasy franchises have similarly gathered complex fictional continuities through hundreds of stories told in different formats.

<i>Family Dog</i> (TV series) American-Canadian adult animated series and sitcom

Family Dog is an adult animated sitcom created by Brad Bird for CBS. It is based on a 1987 episode of Amazing Stories. It originally aired for a single season with ten episodes, from June 23 to July 28, 1993. The series was about an average suburban family, the Binsfords, as told through the eyes of their dog named Jonah. The series was the first collaboration between executive producers Steven Spielberg and Tim Burton. It was also the first adult animated series produced by Nelvana, predating Bob and Margaret.

"Pilot" is the pilot episode and the first episode of the first season of the American crime drama television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Written by series creator Anthony E. Zuiker and directed by Danny Cannon, it first aired on October 6, 2000, on the CBS network in the United States. The premise of the show revolves around the crime scene investigators working for the Las Vegas Police Department, in what was known in this episode as the "criminalistics" division. The pilot introduces the main characters of Gil Grissom, Catherine Willows, Nick Stokes, Warrick Brown and Jim Brass ; and then-recurring character Greg Sanders. The pilot was written by series creator Anthony E. Zuiker and directed by Danny Cannon.

<i>Tell Me You Love Me</i> (TV series) American drama television series

Tell Me You Love Me is an American drama television series that premiered on HBO on September 9, 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Puppy Episode</span> 22nd and 23rd episodes of the 4th season of Ellen

"The Puppy Episode" is a two-part episode of the American situation comedy television series Ellen. The episode details lead character Ellen Morgan's realization that she is a lesbian and her coming out. It was the 22nd and 23rd episode of the series's 4th season. The episode was written by series star Ellen DeGeneres with Mark Driscoll, Tracy Newman, Dava Savel and Jonathan Stark and directed by Gil Junger. It originally aired on ABC on April 30, 1997. The title was used as a code name for Ellen's coming out so as to keep the episode under wraps.

Peter W. Klein is a journalist, documentary filmmaker, professor, and media leader. He was the founder of the Global Reporting Centre, a non-profit organization dedicated to innovating how global investigative journalism is funded, produced and finds audiences. A hallmark of the centre is collaboration, as well as experimentation with new forms of reporting, including empowerment journalism.

Nightingales is an American medical drama television series that aired on NBC from January 21 to April 26, 1989. It was produced by Aaron Spelling Productions.

"Kitty" is the twenty-first episode of the fourteenth season of the American crime drama television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The 316th episode of the series overall, it was written by Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn & series creator Anthony E. Zuiker and directed by Eagle Egilsson, and originally aired on April 30, 2014 on CBS. "Kitty" introduced FBI Agent Avery Ryan from the spin-off CSI: Cyber, which this episode served as the backdoor pilot of the series. Despite being credited Jorja Fox and Jon Wellner who portray Sara Sidle and Henry Andrews do not appear in this episode.

References

  1. "The Heady Wine of 'Grapevine' : Television: CBS' sexy sitcom, which premiered two weeks ago, has stirred up unusual interest". Los Angeles Times . June 29, 1992.
  2. "'92 Vintage Grapevine Back On South Beach". Sun-Sentinel . Broward County, Florida. February 6, 2000.
  3. "Latecomer". Chicago Tribune . February 27, 2000.