Charles in Charge: Season 02 (1985)

Two and half years after it was cancelled at the end of its first season on CBS, the youth-oriented sitcom Charles in Charge staged a spectacular revival in off-network syndication, returning to the air in most markets in January of 1987. Of the original CBS cast, only Scott Baio as 20-year-old college student Charles and Willie Aames as his best friend Buddy were carried over into the syndicated version. When last we saw Charles, he was working as "male governess" in the New Brunswick home of the Pembroke family, riding herd on the three Pembroke children, whose ages ranged from 10 to 14. In the first episode of the "new" Charles in Charge, Charles and Buddy return from a two-week camping trip only to discover that the Pembrokes (played by different actors than in the network series) have decided to move to Seattle, and to sell their home to the Powell family. Quickly ingratiating himself with Ellen Powell (Sondra Kerns) and her curmudgeonly father Walter (James Callahan), Charles manages to secure a new male-governess position, agreeing to watch over Ellen's three children while her husband, a Navy officer, is commanding a station in the South Seas. Fortunately for Charles, two of three kids are virtual carbon copies of the Pembroke children: oldest daughter Jamie (Nicole Eggert) is crazy about boys just as Lila Pembroke had been; and 12-year-old Adam (Alexander Polinsky) is very much the same carefree sprite as his "clone" Jason Pembroke. Only middle child Sarah (Josie Davis), a shy, mild-mannered girl, represents a contrast to her Pembroke counterpart, the wisecracking Douglas. Halfway through the season, Ellen Travolta makes her first appearance as Charles' free-spirited mother Lillian, whose personality clashes harshly with that of the staunch traditionalist Walter Powell. Though Lillian is supposed to make only a brief visit, she ends up moving to New Brunswick, and by the next season she'll be a full-fledged regular. Although the budget of the syndicated Charles in Charge was lower than that of the CBS version, the producers did not cut corners in their choice of talented and instantly recognizable guest performers. Among the actors showing up in the series' first 24 off-network offerings are Ben Stein, Betsy Palmer, Robert Costanzo, Michael Dorn, Kay Lenz, and Michelle Johnson. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi