Aired: 1997 (NBC)
DAD: Tony DiMeo (Tony Danza) / Separated
DAD’S JOB: Newspaper writer
KIDS: Tina (Majandra Delfino) (16), Mickey (Ashley Malinger) (11)
WHERE’S MOM?: Living wherever the separated live.
STAND-IN “MOM”: Either Carmen Cruz, the secretary (Maria Canals), or Stuey, the doorman (Shaun Weiss)
I saw the first episode, and I’d say it’s like “Who’s The Boss” without Judith Light and with two Alyssa Milanos.
“Tony Danza (“Taxi,” “Who’s the Boss?”) stars in the half-hour comedy “The Tony Danza Show” as freelance New York sportswriter Tony DiMeo, a recently separated dad who’s bent on raising his two daughters with a few old-fashioned values. DiMeo longs for the days when reporters banged out their columns on noisy typewriters, athletes didn’t yell “Show me the money!” and kids listened to their parents. Danza, who also serves as executive producer, believes the show will especially hit home with baby boomers. “A lot of people my age will relate. We all swore we’d be better parents than our parents, and we are really good with little kids, but what happens when they hit 16?” The series is about a nontraditional family, in which a single father is the primary parent. But “what actually makes it special is Tony himself,” says executive producer/writer Ian Gurvitz (“Wings”). “With this character we’ve recaptured the charm he radiated — and audiences loved — in “Who’s the Boss?” In addition, I think we have some real break-outs in our cast.”
At 16, DiMeo’s strong-willed daughter Tina (Majandra Delfino, “Zeus and Roxanne”) goes head-to-head with her father, and 11-year-old Mickey (Ashley Malinger, “Tom Clancy’s Op Center”) drives her loving dad to distraction with her neuroses and hypochondria. Meanwhile, a daytime fixture in the family’s West Side apartment is DiMeo’s assistant, computer whiz Carmen Cruz (Maria Canals, “My Family/Mi Familia”). She relishes bantering with her boss and being a surrogate mother of sorts for the girls. The attractive, quick-witted Carmen is one of the reasons young doorman Stuey Mandelker (Shaun Weiss, “The Mighty Ducks,” NBC’s “Mr. Rhodes”), whose father owns the high-rise building, likes to hang out with the DiMeos. “The Tony Danza Show” is an NBC Studios production in association with Columbia TriStar Television and Katie Face Productions and Kokoro Productions.
Update – March 19, 1998: This show is officially DEAD. If warrants were issued, Tony Danza would be arrested for beating a dead horse with this series. Maybe a show about a guy who drives a taxi would be more to the public’s liking.