Network: ABC, Nick at Nite
Episodes: 13 (half-hour)
Seasons: Two
TV show dates: July 19, 1991 — July 12, 1992
Series status: Cancelled/ended
Performers include: Charlotte Booker, Stephen Bradbury, Susan Cella, Pete Benson, Eric Kushnick, Julie Benz, and Danny Gura.
TV show description:
Typical teenager Mike Duff (Peter Benson) dreams about the 1950’s, cookie-cutter life of the ideal sitcom family, the Nielsens.
To him, the Nielsens are the perfect family — doting father Lloyd (Stephen C. Bradbury); Honey, (Charlotte Booker) a mother as sweet as her name; beautiful daughter Babs (Julie Benz); and all-American son Chucky (Danny Gura). They all live their seemingly perfect lives in a seemingly immaculate house.
Mike’s life is quite different. He lives in a cluttered home in New Jersey with his sarcastic and single mom, Elaine (Susan Cella), and a trouble-making little brother, nicknamed “Skunk” (Eric Kushnick). Mike laments when the Nielsens show is cancelled, but soon discovers that the “Sitcom Relocation Program” has moved the TV family right next door.
While the Nielsens adjust to the 1990’s (especially homemaker Honey who is shocked by women’s new roles), they must also keep their identities under wraps. Mike’s the only person who knows who the family really is but must keep it secret. When their new era is simply too much for them, the Nielsens use a “Turnerizer” to change their modern Technicolor world back to the simpler times of black and white.