| Genre: | Sitcom |
| Developer: | Michael Leeson |
| Theme Music Composer: | Albert Brooks |
| Opentheme: | "Wall Street Blues" performed by B.B. King written by Albert Brooks[1] |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 13 (4 unaired) |
| Producer: | Michael Leeson |
| Location: | Paramount Studios |
| Cinematography: | Leonard J. South |
| Runtime: | 22 minutes |
| Network: | ABC |
| First Aired: | [2] |
The Associates is an American sitcom television series that aired on ABC from September 23, 1979 to April 17, 1980. Despite being cancelled after nine of its thirteen episodes aired, it was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards.
The show is centered on a group of three young novice lawyers who worked at a Wall Street law firm. Based on the novel of the same name[3] by John Jay Osborn Jr., the series stars Martin Short, Alley Mills, Shelley Smith, as associates, Joe Regalbuto, as partner, Wilfrid Hyde-White, as senior partner, and Tim Thomerson, as mailboy/gofer.
The series was based on the book, The Associates, by John Jay Osborn, Jr., author of The Paper Chase, but he was "not intimately connected with it".[4] Episode seven featured guest star John Houseman reprising his role as Professor Kingsfield.
The Associates, from the producers of Taxi, was critically acclaimed in the fall of 1979. But, ABC-TV fell from its ratings perch that fall when they moved their schedule around. Mork & Mindy was moved to Sunday night to challenge CBS's most established night of the week. The Associates was scheduled to follow Mork & Mindy as a promising new comedy series.[5] Mork & Mindy, however, was crushed by CBS's Archie Bunker's Place.[6] ABC moved Mork & Mindy back to Thursday, but it would never recover its ratings glory. One Day at a Time was the direct competition to The Associates. After five episodes of The Associates, a later four weekly episodes were shown in 1980 on Thursdays at 9:30.[7] The press heavily criticized ABC for not giving the show a chance.
| Nº | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|
The series had a complete run on BBC Two in the UK in 1982.[8] The series was rerun on USA Network in 1985,[9] A&E in 1988, followed by reruns on Comedy Central and TV Land in the 1990s.[10]
In Italy, the series aired on Rete 4 as I novellini (Newbies) in 1982.
| Year | Award | Result | Category | Recipient |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Nominated | Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series | Stan Daniels and Ed. Weinberger (for episode "The Censors") | |
| Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series | Michael Leeson and Charlie Hauck (for episode "The First Day") | |||
| Golden Globe Award | Best TV-Series - Musical/Comedy | |||
| Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy | Wilfrid Hyde-White |