Series star
Tony Randall’s role of Sidney Shorr bore a certain resemblance to both Felix
Unger from The Odd Couple and Judge Walter Franklin from The Tony
Randall Show. They were all prim, proper, and meticulous to a fault.
However, in the made-for-television film on which this series was based, Sidney
did have one distinctive trait. In that film, Sidney Shorr, which aired a
few weeks before the series premiered, Sidney was a homosexual. In the series,
although homosexuality could have been inferred, it was never mentioned.
Sidney was a
middle-aged commercial artist who had been living alone for years when. Into his
bachelor life had come a perky young actress, Laurie Morgan, who was pregnant
and unmarried. Laurie had considered an abortion until Sidney talked her out of
it. Now, a few years later, a grateful Laurie and her cute young daughter Patti
had moved into Sidney's eight-room Manhattan apartment, and Sidney was in
seventh Heaven. Into his lonely life, scarred by memories of a domineering
mother, had come someone he could love. The relationship between Sidney and
Laurie was that of a close brother and sister, and he doted on the precocious
Patti like an indulgent uncle. To those who saw Laurie as the nymphomaniac
Gloria Trenell on the inane daytime soap opera As Thus We Are, her
real-life role of loving mother would have come as a surprise.
Jason Stoller
was the art director for the Graham and Ludwig Advertising Agency, Sidney's
biggest account. Nancy was Jason's secretary, Judge Harris was one of Sidney's
neighbors, and Mrs. Gaffney his superintendent's nosy wife, who was romantically
attracted to an uninterested and unresponsive Sidney.
