SYNOPSIS

This episodic comedy revolved around the intertwined romantic lives of two couples. Ben and Laura were establishing a new relationship while Richard and Linda were trying to maintain one. When Duet premiered, Ben was an unpublished writer of mystery novels (his first published novel, "Death in the Fast Lane," did become a best-seller) and Laura was running a catering business with the "help" of her flighty younger sister Jane. As their relationship evolved from casual dating to serious dating to living together, Ben and Laura went through periods of uncertainty and misgivings - at one point, they even stopped dating - but their love kept bringing them back together. Interspersed through the story of their courtship were Ben's daydream sequences, in black & white, in which he imagined himself as one of his own Sam Spade-like detective creations winning his moll.

Ben's best friend Richard and his wife Linda were stereotypical yuppies, preoccupied with financial success and status. Linda was an executive at World Wide Studios, and had a difficult time dealing with Richard's abrupt decision to quit his lucrative job selling patio furniture for his father and become a professional pianist. She was also not nearly as enthusiastic about their impending parenthood as was Richard (in fact, the prospect terrified her), but after their daughter Amanda was born she became a doting mother. Geneva was the Phillipses' sexy, sharp-tongued maid who took great pleasure in putting down her employers, especially Linda; Cooper was Linda's boss at World Wide, who for some reason was infatuated with Jane; and Reuben was Ben's large dog and, prior to the arrival of Laura in his master's life, Ben's closest confidant.

When Duet started its 1988-1989 season, a number of changes had occurred. Amanda, who had been born in the last original episode that spring, was now a talking three-year-old, Ben and Laura were now married, and Linda had been fired by World Wide Studios. Stories that season concerned Richard and Linda's parenthood, the difficulties that arose when Linda prevailed upon Laura to take her in as a partner in the catering business, and Ben and Laura's adjustments to married life. As the season progressed, the focus shifted more and more to stories about Linda and, when Duet was canceled, she became the star of Open House, the spin-off series that replaced it in the Fox lineup.