Charles in Charge
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Michael Jacobs Barbara Weisberg
Starring	Scott Baio Willie Aames Julie Cobb James Widdoes April Lerman Jonathan Ward Michael Pearlman Jennifer Runyon Sandra Kerns Nicole Eggert Josie Davis Alexander Polinsky Ellen Travolta James T. Callahan Justin Whalin
Theme music composer	Michael Jacobs Al Burton David Kurtz
Opening theme	"Charles in Charge" performed by Shandi Sinnamon
Composers	David Kurtz (1987–88) Timothy Thompson (1988–89) Todd Hayen (1989–90)
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	126 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Al Burton Co-executive producers: Jane Startz Michael Jacobs (seasons 2–4)
Producers	Michael Jacobs (season 1) Roseanne Leto (pilot) Mitchell Bank Todd E. Kessler (seasons 2–4)
Running time	22 minutes
Production companies	Al Burton Productions Scholastic Productions Universal Television
Original release
Network	CBS (1984–1985) Syndication (1987–1990)
Release	October 3, 1984 (1984-10-03) – November 10, 1990 (1990-11-10)

Charles in Charge is an American sitcom television series that premiered on October 3, 1984, on CBS. The series was a production of Al Burton Productions and Scholastic Productions in association with Universal Television and starred Scott Baio, who had previously starred in Happy Days, in the title role. Willie Aames, who had previously been a cast member on Eight Is Enough, also starred as Charles’ best friend Buddy Lembeck.

Charles in Charge joined the CBS Wednesday night lineup at 8:00 pm, placing it against ABC’s hit action series The Fall Guy and the new Michael Landon-led Highway to Heaven on NBC. At the time, with the exception of their Monday-night comedies (Kate & Allie and Newhart), CBS's sitcom lineup was not performing well in the ratings and Charles in Charge did not do much to change that. Still, the network allowed the show to remain in production to complete the 22 episodes it had ordered for the season.

After the February 27, 1985, episode, CBS placed Charles in Charge on hiatus. Two episodes had yet to air, and CBS aired them on March 13 and April 3, 1985. The network then dropped Charles in Charge from its Wednesday lineup in favor of the mystery drama series Double Dare; the show was moved to Saturday, where it aired in reruns for several weeks until it was replaced by the drama Cover Up. None of these series were renewed for a second season, nor were either of the two comedies that shared the hour with Charles in Charge (Dreams and E/R).

One year later, after seeing the success of some cancelled network series after they were revived for first-run syndication (which was a significant trend at the time), Universal decided to rework and relaunch Charles in Charge in syndication. The show premiered on local stations at the midway point of the 1986-87 season, with the first episode of the new series premiering on January 3, 1987. Four seasons were produced for syndication, with the last episode airing on November 10, 1990. In total, 126 episodes were produced, 22 in the abbreviated first season and 26 in each of the syndicated seasons.

Premise

The series takes place in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Charles, who has no given surname, is a student at Copeland College (fictional, perhaps meant to represent Rutgers University, whose main campus is in New Brunswick) and is 19 years old when the series begins.

Cast

Besides Baio and Aames, Michael Pearlman and Jennifer Runyon are the only other actors to reprise their roles on the show after the first season. Pearlman appeared in the second-season premiere, "Amityville". (Lisa Donovan played Jill Pembroke in that episode.) Runyon appeared in "Twice Upon a Time (Part 1)" and "Twice Upon a Time (Part 2)".

In the final two seasons, Sandra Kerns only made three more appearances (once in season 4 and twice in season 5). Baio and Aames are the only two cast members who appear in every single episode.

Theme song

The theme song was composed by David Kurtz, Michael Jacobs, and Al Burton, and performed by Shandi Sinnamon. The theme music was mellower in the first season, and was remixed for the syndication run.

The song was performed by the a cappella group The Blanks in the medical sitcom, Scrubs, and was featured on their 2004 album, Riding the Wave.

Episodes

Home release

Syndication reruns

When Charles in Charge returned to television, an arrangement had been made with stations owned by Tribune Broadcasting to carry the program in first run. Through this arrangement, the show was also able to gain nationwide carriage as its Chicago affiliate, WGN-TV, was a national cable superstation.

In 1988, with the series nearing the 100-episode mark, distributor MCA Television began advertising in trade publications that it would begin selling reruns of Charles in Charge to local stations for a fall 1989 launch. The show reached the mark when the 1988-89 season ended, and the show began airing daily in syndication shortly thereafter. After the final episode aired in 1990, the syndication package added them, as well; the package included the first 22 episodes that had aired on CBS and the 78 that had aired over the first three seasons in syndication.^[6]

References

External links

• Charles in Charge at IMDb
• Charles in Charge at AllMovie
• Charles in Charge Online