Home-based catering business sitcom is...

October 1, 2004 5:54 PM

I'm trying to remember a sitcom in which midway through its life, or perhaps towards the end, one of the main characters (a housewife) starts a home-based catering business. What sitcom was it?
posted by swift to media & arts (20 comments total)

Kate and Allie?
posted by amberglow at 6:02 PM on October 1, 2004

Nope. I think this was a family.
posted by swift at 6:03 PM on October 1, 2004

Facts of Life? They were in a boarding school though, weren't they?
posted by phatboy at 6:23 PM on October 1, 2004

I don't think it was Facts of Life. The main thing I remember was how weird it was that the wife/mother would choose a business that was, well, more cooking.
posted by swift at 6:28 PM on October 1, 2004

Can you recall when it was made? 70s/80s/90s?

For some reason I want to say Family Ties, but I can't see Mrs Keaton leaving her fulfilling career in architecture.
posted by contessa at 6:30 PM on October 1, 2004

Duet?
posted by trharlan at 6:35 PM on October 1, 2004

At first I thought it was Family Ties, too.

Not sure when it was made, though 80s seems likely for some reason.

On preview: It definitely wasn't Duet. And I have done my googling.
posted by swift at 6:43 PM on October 1, 2004

Oh wow, I thought I totally had it on the tip of my tongue, and then I realized I was thinking of the Blondie comic strip. Didn't Dagwood's wife up and start a catering business at some point? Something about battling the sexist image of the comic.
posted by scarabic at 6:44 PM on October 1, 2004

Friends? Monica? damn my ex-gf for forcing me to watch that show and therefore known this
posted by keswick at 7:00 PM on October 1, 2004

Didn't Kate/Allie get married right around the time that Kate/Allie started a catering business? They no longer lived together and one of them lived in a family unit with her child/children and the stepfather? I want to say it was the Jane Curtin character (Allie, right?) who got married and started the catering business. So near the end of the series, her situation would be exactly as you described.
posted by stuart_s at 7:14 PM on October 1, 2004

could it be something dumb like The Ropers, or Small Wonder?
posted by amberglow at 7:21 PM on October 1, 2004

Yo, amberglow, donchoo be dissin' on my Stanley and Helen, may they both rest in peace.

Heh...remember the ep when Jeffrey Tambor, as their neighbor, tried to defend himself against charges of snobbery?
posted by davidmsc at 7:34 PM on October 1, 2004

Maybe the mom from Webster?
Or Muriel from Too Close for Comfort?
posted by PrinceValium at 7:37 PM on October 1, 2004

david, the only reason i remember that incredibly craptacular spinoff was because the kid was named Evan, and i think it was the first time someone on tv had my name. : >

Oh, speaking of Too Close for Comfort: Monroe is in Hairspray now on Broadway--how funny is that? (and Muriel was a singer, no?)
posted by amberglow at 8:08 PM on October 1, 2004

Kate & Allie. They go into business together.
posted by jjg at 8:24 PM on October 1, 2004

if it's definitely not Kate and Allie, this might be a good question for Stump the Shark, from Jump the Shark.
posted by amberglow at 8:35 PM on October 1, 2004

Actually, now that you mention it, Muriel was a photographer.
I think I made the food service connection from the episode where the daughters made Cosmic Cow shaped cookies and ended up almost getting Henry fired. Jm J. Bullock, of course, went on to become the original Prince Valium, and co-hosted a talk show with Tammy Faye Bakker for a few months.

Man, I used to watch way too much TV.
posted by PrinceValium at 9:42 PM on October 1, 2004

TV caterers.
posted by jjg at 10:31 PM on October 1, 2004

It could have been 2.4 Children or an american equivalant.
posted by seanyboy at 2:40 AM on October 2, 2004

Ah, crap. It was Blondie the comic strip. Not a sitcom at all.

1st prize to scarabic.
posted by swift at 5:11 AM on October 2, 2004