Anything But Love (ABC 1989-1992, Jamie Lee Curtis, Richard Lewis)

It went from sitting next to each other on a plane, to working together, to loving each other, to living together. Be nice to the person you sit next to, in other words—never let a barf bag or an elbow in your side ruin conversation—because at the end of the day, you just never know.

Starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis, Anything But Love told just such a story of happenstance romance. Hannah Miller was an earthy and aspiring writer who met reporter Marty Gold when she soothed his patented anxiety on a plane ride. She lived in the woods at first, but since the woods aren’t a very strategic place for a print career (unless you’re Henry D. Thoreau), she packed up for the big, windy city after Marty got her a job at the Chicago magazine where he worked.

As a researcher, Hannah sat right across from Marty at the magazine’s offices, and though they were “just friends” for a long while (surrounded by some of that patented Moonlighting-type sexual tension), they finally consummated their affections in the third season. The show went off the air in the spring of 1989, and when it came back later that year (the on-and-off-again phenomenon was status quo during the show’s three year run), the magazine had a new editor, Catherine, and Hannah had been promoted to a writer position.

Since everyone needs a confidant when love rears its head, Hanna confided in pal Robin (the second “Mrs. Schmenkman,” an old and running joke between the two friends), and Marty in writer Mike Urbanek. Between career ups and downs, the nutty staff at the magazine, the drama of a new relationship, and all those ‘hands to forehead’ moments that Marty’s anxiety sparked, there was plenty comedic drama for the two erstwhile travel companions to deal with.

production details
USA / ABC / x25 minute episodes / Broadcast 7 March 1989 – 10 June 1992

Theme Music: Anything but Love by J.D. Souther

cast
Jamie Lee Curtis as Hannah Miller
Richard Lewis as Marty Gold
Holly Fulger as Robin Duliteski
Ann Magnuson as Catherine Hughes
Louis Giambalvo as Norman Kiel
Richard Frank as Jules Bennett
Bruce Weitz as Mike Urbanek
Joseph Maher as Brian Allquist