Grand | |
---|---|
Genre | Comedy |
Created by | Michael Leeson |
Starring |
Sara Rue Bonnie Hunt Joel Murray John Neville John Randolph |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 2 |
No. of episodes | 26 (1 unaired) (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Running time | 30 minutes |
Production company(s) | Carsey-Werner Company |
Release | |
Original network | NBC |
Original release | January 18 | – December 27, 1990
Grand is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from January 18 to December 27, 1990. The series featured an ensemble cast including Pamela Reed, Bonnie Hunt, Michael McKean, John Randolph, Andrew Lauer, John Neville, Joel Murray and Sara Rue. It was created by Michael Leeson, executive produced by Leeson, Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner.
Grand was the story of three interconnected families. It was more of a satire of soap operas than it was a traditional situation comedy; the program often mocked the conventions of soap opera. The series followed three interrelated families, from different social classes, in rural Pennsylvania – the wealthy Weldons, the impoverished Pasetis, and the middle class Smithsons.
The Weldons were the wealthiest family in the small town of Grand, Pennsylvania; they owned the largest industry, a piano factory which was starting to fall on hard times due to the declining sales of its pianos, a situation that patriarch Harris Weldon (John Randolph) blamed on Asian imports. In Weldon's household were his dimwitted son, Norris (Joel Murray) and the acerbic butler, Desmond (John Neville), whom Weldon kept despite his acid tongue as he had once been responsible for saving Weldon's life. Weldon's housekeeper Janice Paseti (Pamela Reed) barely scraped by on what Weldon paid her; she lived in a mobile home with her obese daughter, Edda (Sara Rue). In between these two extremes were Weldon's niece Carole Ann Smithson (Bonnie Hunt) and her husband Tom (Michael McKean), who was constantly hoping to improve his finances by returning to a position (he was fired by Weldon on his first day), preferably an executive one, at his wife's uncle's factory.