Me & Maxx

Jim 1980s

Aired: 1980 NBC

DAD: Norman Davis (Joe Santos) / Divorced

DAD’S JOB: Ticket Broker

KIDS: Maxx (11) (Melissa Michaelsen)

WHERE’S MOM?: Divorced, around.

STAND-IN "MOM": Barbara (Jenny Sullivan) / Business Partner

Never saw this show, and based on what I’ve heard about it, I’m kinda glad I didn’t!

Joe Santos (better known to us TV junkies as Lt. Dennis Becker on The Rockford Files) played Norman Davis, a creep who abandoned his wife and daughter so he could be a groovy bachelor. So, a few years go by and the ex-wife decides she needs a break from being a parent. So, the ex drops 11-year-old Maxx off at Dad’s house. Dad is none too pleased about this, because her presence was messing up his swinging lifestyle. Oh, but of course he found out he really loved his little girl, even when she’d scare off the new girlfriends. Ick! Doubly sad because it was created by James Komack, who produced The Courtship of Eddie’s Father

Childhood precociousness was very much in evidence with Maxx. Apparently she watched a lot of TV and picked up quite an erudite vocabulary.

This show was a mid-season replacement for B.J. & the Bear, and had about the same level of intelligent writing. It took a ratings bullet in the head at the beginning of the 1980 fall season (actually, due to the 1980 writers’ strike, the fall season started in January of 1981!) and was replaced, thankfully, by Hill Street Blues.