Who's Watching the Kids? was a Syndication network sitcom produced by Garry Marshall which first premiered on September 22, 1978.
The series originated as the pilot special "Legs" which premiered on May 19, 1978. It ended on December 15, 1978 after 1 season and 15 episodes (leaving 6 episodes unaired).
Plot[]
The show centered around centered around two sexy Las Vegas showgirls sharing their lives together, each with a younger sibling in tow.
Raving blonde beauty Stacy Turner (Caren Kaye) and voluptuous brunette Angie Vitola (Lynda Goodfriend) were close friends living their dream as Vegas performers at a local venue, Club Sand Pile. The club may have been third rate, but it was the perfect launching pad for the girls' career aspirations. While Stacy and Angie shared an apartment together, added responsibilities were present from the get-go, since both had custody of their much younger siblings.
Living with Stacy & Angie were Angie's 15-year-old brother Frankie (Scott Baio) and Stacy's 9-year-old sister Melissa (Tammy Lauren). Frankie and Melissa were rambunctious and worldly, and were forever getting into trouble; they loved to cook up schemes that would get them access to everything Sin City had to offer, including, for Frankie (who styled himself as "the Fox") closer opportunities to make time with the other beautiful women who performed at Club Sand Pile.
Stacy and Angie had to divide their time between their careers and keeping the kids on the straight and narrow, but it was always a challenge.
In order to ease their situation, they acquired the help of their next door neighbor, aspiring journalist Larry Parnell (Larry Breeding) to watch the kids while they were off performing. Larry found himself alternating between the roles of family friend and foe, as he often had to chase Frankie and Melissa around in the midst of their scrapes every week.
The two liked having Larry around, but they stopped at nothing to undermine anyone's supervision. Larry hoped someday to become a successful writer/reporter, but in the meantime had only made it to covering garden and weather reports at local TV station KVGS.
Larry's friend and main cameraman at KVGS, the klutzy Bert Gunkel (James Belushi), also lived in the building and often helped Larry keep an eye on Frankie and Melissa.
Also in the cast were Mitzi Logan (Marcia Lewis), the heavyset host & owner of Club Sand Pile, who in addition to helping Angie and Stacy land their big break, was also their landlady.
Memphis O'Hara (Lorrie Mahaffey) was a singer at the club and was the most prominent object of Frankie's affection although Frankie also made attempts to become friendly with Venus (Shirley Kirkes) and Bridget (Elaine Bolton), two other dancers at the club and close cohorts to Stacy and Angie.
Cast[]
- Caren Kaye as Stacy Turner
- Lynda Goodfriend as Angie Vitola
- Scott Baio as Frankie Vitola
- Tammy Lauren as Melissa Turner
- Marcia Lewis as Mitzi Logan
- Larry Breeding as Larry Parnell
- Lorrie Mahaffey as Memphis O'Hara
- James Belushi as Bert Gunkel
- Shirley Kirkes as Venus
- Elaine Bolton as Bridget