Movies Similar to Hearts Afire: Season 02 (1993)

Having given in to network pressure by having the two hot-to-trot leading characters of the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire consummate their romance with marriage rather than merely a roll in the hay during the series' first season, producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason also gritted her teeth and went along with the network's insistence that the series drop its political overtones and morph into something closer to Thomason's earlier hit show Evening Shade. Thus at the beginning of season two, John Hartman (John Ritter) forsakes his job as aide to Washington-based conservative senator Strobe Smithers, and moves his new bride Georgie Anne (Markie Post) and his sons Ben (Justin Burdette) and Elliott (Clark Duke) back to his home town, somewhere in the Deep South. Also going along for the ride is John's recently divorced best friend Billy Bob Davis (Billy Bob Thornton) and Davis' daughter Carson Lee (Doren Fein). Upon their arrival, the right-leaning John and the left-leaning Georgie Anne (a former journalist) purchase a moribund newspaper, "The Daily Beacon," to air their oil-and-water political views. Seeing as the only employee on the Beacon who hasn't quit his job is timid typesetter Lonnie Garr (Leslie Jordan), it looks as though John, Georgie Ann, and Billy Bob will have to handle all production details of the newspaper themselves. It so happens that the "Daily Beacon" shares the same building as the offices of psychologist Madeline Stoessinger (Conchata Ferrell), a sharp-witted sophisticate who shares many of Georgie Anne's liberal views. Though John isn't crazy about the idea, Madeline is hired as the newspaper's advice columnist, thereby providing a worthy verbal sparring-partner for the Southern-fried Billy Bob. Another newcomer to the cast isn't new at all. Beth Broderick had spent the first season in the role of Dee Dee Starr, the bimbo mistress and sort-of secretary to John's boss, Senator Smithers. Beginning with season two, Broderick was cast in a different role, as Lee Ann Folsom -- Dee Dee's somewhat more reserved sister, and the wife of local blowhard Reed Folsom (Mark Harelik). Among the guest stars appearing as "themselves" this season are musical artist Little Richard, TV commentator Maureen O'Boyle, and, in a rare "acting" appearance, talk radio maven Rush Limbaugh. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi