It's a Living

For the 1998 Canadian reality television series, see It's a Living (Canadian TV series).

It's a Living
Also known as	Making a Living
Created by	Stu Silver Dick Clair Jenna McMahon
Starring	Barrie Youngfellow Ann Jillian Sheryl Lee Ralph Gail Edwards Crystal Bernard Paul Kreppel Louise Lasser Earl Boen Marian Mercer Wendy Schaal Susan Sullivan Richard Stahl Bert Remsen
Theme music composer	George Tipton Leslie Bricusse
Opening theme	"It's a Living"
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	120 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Paul Junger Witt Tony Thomas
Producers	Joel Zwick R.J. Colleary Marc Sotkin Tom Whedon Gloria Banta Greg Antonacci Paul Kreppel
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	Witt/Thomas Productions
Original release
Network	ABC (1980–1982) Syndication (1985–1989)
Release	October 30, 1980 (1980-10-30) – April 8, 1989 (1989-04-08)

It's a Living (renamed Making a Living for Season 2)^[1] is an American ensemble sitcom television series set in a restaurant at the top of the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles.^[1] The show aired on ABC from October 30, 1980 until June 11, 1982. After the series was canceled by ABC, new episodes aired in first-run syndication from September 28, 1985 to April 8, 1989. The series was created by Stu Silver,^[2] Dick Clair and Jenna McMahon and produced by Witt/Thomas Productions, later in association with Golden West Television (1985–86) and Lorimar-Telepictures (1986–89). The series is now distributed by Paul Brownstein Productions and Warner Bros. Television Distribution.

Season 1 cast

Plot

The show follows the lives of the waitresses at the posh, fictional restaurant called Above the Top, located atop the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, California. At the helm is supervisor Nancy Beebe, the restaurant's maître d’, who sometimes fraternizes with the girls but usually gives orders and demands excellence. The plot often involves annoying Nancy in some minor way. Adding to the elegant but chaotic working environment is wisecracking pianist Sonny Mann, who makes rude comments to the women and receives insults in return. The kitchen is first the domain of Chef Mario, then Dennis Hubner and finally Howard Miller. Howard and Nancy eventually fall in love and marry.

Cast

Actor	Character	Seasons
		1 (1980–81)	2 (1981–82)	3 (1985–86)	4 (1986–87)	5 (1987–88)	6 (1988–89)
Barrie Youngfellow	Jan Hoffmeyer Gray
Gail Edwards	Dorothy "Dot" Higgins
Marian Mercer	Nancy Beebe Miller
Paul Kreppel	Sonny Mann
Ann Jillian	Cassie Cranston
Susan Sullivan	Lois Adams
Wendy Schaal	Vicki Allen
Bert Remsen	Mario
Louise Lasser	Maggie McBurney
Earl Boen	Dennis Hubner
Crystal Bernard	Amy Tompkins
Richard Stahl	Howard Miller
Sheryl Lee Ralph	Ginger St. James

Richard Kline also appears as recurring character Richie Gray, Jan's new husband, in seasons 3 through 6.

Episodes

Main article: List of It's a Living episodes

The show's two broadcast seasons produced 27 episodes. An additional 93 episodes were produced for the syndication run, making a total of 120 episodes.

Season	Title	Episodes		Originally aired
				First aired	Last aired	Network
1	It's a Living	13		October 30, 1980 (1980-10-30)	August 4, 1981 (1981-08-04)	ABC
2	Making a Living	14		October 24, 1981 (1981-10-24)	June 11, 1982 (1982-06-11)
3	It's a Living	22		September 28, 1985 (1985-09-28)	May 24, 1986 (1986-05-24)	Syndication
4		25		September 27, 1986 (1986-09-27)	May 23, 1987 (1987-05-23)
5		26		September 26, 1987 (1987-09-26)	May 28, 1988 (1988-05-28)
6		20		October 15, 1988 (1988-10-15)	April 8, 1989 (1989-04-08)

Title changes

As with many other sitcoms from the 1980–81 television season, It's a Living felt the effects of the 1980 Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists strike, which limited the show to just 13 episodes in its first season.

The series was not a ratings success. For Season 2, the cast was largely retooled and the series was renamed Making a Living.^[1] Two of the five waitresses from the first season—Lois Adams and Vicki Allen, played by actresses Susan Sullivan and Wendy Schaal, respectively—were removed, and waitress Maggie McBurney, portrayed by Louise Lasser, was added. However, this iteration also failed to find success, and the show was canceled at the end of the season. In syndication, the second season airs under the original title of It's a Living.

Of all the cast members, only Gail Edwards (Dot Higgins), Marian Mercer (Nancy Beebe Miller), Barrie Youngfellow (Jan Hoffmeyer Gray) and Paul Kreppel (Sonny Mann) lasted through the show's network and syndicated runs. Ann Jillian (Cassie Cranston) appeared during the network run and the first year of syndication. Crystal Bernard and Richard Stahl appeared during the entire syndicated run.

Syndication

While the show was never a hit on network television, its fortunes would later turn in 1983 when all 27 episodes entered syndication. The series began to attract a following along with surprising ratings for the reruns, which prompted the producers and Golden West Television to revive it. Another factor in its sudden rediscovery was Ann Jillian's 1984 public disclosure that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

In 1985, the show was revived under its old name for the syndicated market. Most of the cast remained intact from the former version. A new waitress, Amy Tompkins (Crystal Bernard), arrived at the restaurant and was immediately accepted by the group. Jillian, who had committed to just one season in syndication, left the show in 1986 to continue her cancer treatments. Her character was explained to have married and started a family. She was replaced by Ginger St. James (Sheryl Lee Ralph). With these core cast members in place, the show continued to produce episodes for syndication until it ended in 1989.

From 2000 to 2001, TV Land aired the series occasionally for special programming blocks. In April 2018, Logo TV began to carry the series in marathon form several times a month. Antenna TV ran the series from January 2, 2020 to August 30, 2021, and it later ran on Rewind TV.

It is also available for streaming online on FilmRise and its partner streaming services the Roku Channel, Tubi and Amazon Prime Video (via Amazon Freevee), under license from the show's current distributor, Paul Brownstein Productions.^[3][4]

Paul Kreppel and Gail Edwards at The Hollywood Show - 2019

Broadcast

A partial list of stations the show was syndicated to during its revival in syndication:

City	Station
Atlanta	WXIA 11
Baltimore	WBFF 45
Bloomington	WYZZ 43
Boston	WSBK 38
Buffalo	WUTV 29
Charlotte	WSOC 9
Chicago	WFLD 32
Cincinnati	WCPO 9
Cleveland	WUAB 43
Dallas/Ft. Worth	KTVT 11
Denver	KTVD 20
Detroit	WKBD 50
Green Bay	WGBA 26
Greensboro	WNRW 45
Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville	WLOS 13
Greenwood/Greenville	WABG 6
Hartford	WTXX 20
Houston	KHTV 39
Indianapolis	WTTV 4
Jackson	WJTV 12
Kansas City	KZKC 62
Los Angeles	KCOP 13
Manchester	WMUR 9
Memphis	WMC 5
Miami/Ft. Lauderdale	WBFS 33
Milwaukee	WCGV 24
Minneapolis/St. Paul	KMSP 9
Mobile	WPMI 15
Nashville	WZTV 17
New York City	WPIX 11
Norfolk/Suffolk	WVEC 13
Orlando	WOFL 35
Philadelphia	WPHL 17
Phoenix	KPHO 5
Pittsburgh	WPGH 53
Portland, Maine	WPXT 51
Raleigh//Durham/Fayetteville	WLFL 22
Roanoke/Lynchburg	WSET 13
Sacramento	KTXL 40
San Antonio	KSAT 12
San Francisco	KBHK-TV 44
Seattle/Tacoma	KCPQ 13
Shreveport	KTBS 3
Spokane	KSKN 22
St. Louis	KPLR 11
Tampa Bay	WFTS 28
Washington, D.C.	WDCA 20
Wilmington	WSFX 26

International Broadcast

In Italy, the show aired on Rai Uno (Rai 1) under the name Nancy, Sonny & Co. in 1988. It was also known as Roof Garden.

References

1. "Making a Living". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 21, 2013.
2. "Stu Silver". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2014. Archived from the original on January 16, 2014.
3. "FilmRise Acquires Rights to Five Classic TV Series From Paul Brownstein Productions". Media Play News. October 18, 2022.
4. "Watch It's a Living". Tubi. Retrieved August 27, 2023.

External links

• It's a Living at IMDb
• It's a Living at epguides.com
• "It's a Living". Gail Edwards. Archived from the original on Jan 18, 2013.