Webster is an American sitcom television series that aired on ABC from September 16, 1983 to May 8, 1987 and in first-run syndication from September 21, 1987 to March 10, 1989. The series was created by Stu Silver. Bill and Cassie Parker (Eugene Roche and Cathryn Damon) were the gregarious middle-aged couple who leased the house to the Papadopolises while they moved into a basement apartment below. Bill, a craftsman/shop teacher, and Cassie, an editor of high-profile romantic and crime novels, were taking in rent in order to complete the numerous additions they were making to the property. George and Bill, despite the competitiveness that occurred between them, became good buddies; Cassie and Katherine became each other's confidants; and Webster easily became the apple of the Parkers' eye, often retreating to the basement for special quality time with them.
Later in the second season, a thread of drama was added when the Parkers' estranged daughter Maggie Parker (guest star Jennifer Holmes) appeared for a tearful-reunion episode, complete with a son. Bill and Cassie also had a son named Regis, who was referred to but never seen.
Many more of Webster's friends and classmates passed through, including Rob Whitaker (Chad Allen). A recent "divorce kid" living with his mother, Rob was kidnapped by his father in one episode, and the Papadopolises and the community rallied to help Rob's mother find him. When he returned, it was Katherine who successfully intervened with his father. Later in the third season, Rob's last name inexplicably became Joiner.
Bill and Cassie disappeared after the third season; Cathryn Damon had left the series upon being diagnosed with ovarian cancer (which ultimately took her life in May 1987), and instead of recasting her role, Eugene Roche was dropped as well so that their characters would not have to be used. Damon and Roche were no longer credited on the show beginning with the season four premiere, nor were their characters evident in that episode; in the second episode of the season ("The Landlords", aired September 26, 1986), it was finally explained that the Parkers had moved to Florida, resulting in George and Katherine buying their house outright.
Jerry, who was a more prominent member of the show in the first season (receiving the "co-starring" heading in the opening credits after the show's three leads), had since become an occasional character, but would continue for the entire series. George's jovial aging father, George Sr. (Jack Kruschen), known to all as "Papa" Papadopolis, first showed up in a couple of guest appearances in the second season, before joining as a recurring cast member in the fall of 1985. The following season, three more of Webster's friends/classmates had recurring roles—Roger (Carl Steven), Timmy (Danny McMurphy) and Tommy (Gabe Witcher). Benny (Nick DeMauro) was the proprietor of Benny's, a malt shop in downtown Chicago where many of the series regulars started frequenting midway through the fourth season. This setting was in many respects a revival of The Trocadero, an earlier malt shop featured in a few second-season episodes, whose owner, Maurice, was played in guest appearances by Richard Karron.
Production history
When Alex Karras and Susan Clark married in real life, they started their own production company, Georgian Bay Ltd. ABC approached the couple about a sitcom development deal which resulted in a proposed romantic-comedy series, Another Ballgame, to star Karras as an ex-NFL player who quickly found true love with a socialite consumer advocate (Clark) on a cruise. ABC picked it up for the fall 1983 schedule, with Paramount Television as packager, but major changes would occur before the premiere.
After seeing Emmanuel Lewis in a Burger King commercial, ABC's programming chief, Lew Erlicht, wanted to give the actor his own series. At this time, Another Ballgame creator Stu Silver desired to develop an original show based on the lead characters portrayed by Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in the film Woman of the Year
Webster also aired on Chicago's local station MeTV and WMEU-CA (now known as MeTV's sister station MeToo since March 2008) from 2006 to 2009. It aired on Antenna TV on weekend afternoons from June 4, 2016, as the leadoff program of its "Saturday Summerthons" marathon programming stunt when it first began, to December 27, 2020.
Streaming
Hulu acquired rights to stream all seasons of Webster, from June 2014, to March 2018.
On September 10, 2021, Pluto TV announced that they would stream classic CBS shows (which involves Webster), including The Brady Bunch, The Odd Couple, etc. In October 2021, the show was added to Pluto TV.
Home media
Shout! Factory (under license from CBS Home Entertainment) has released the first four seasons on DVD in Region 1.
On October 9, 2012, Shout! Factory released a 20 episode best-of set entitled Webster- 20 Timeless Episodes.
{| class=wikitable
!DVD name
!Ep #
!Release date
|-
|Season One
|align=center|22
|January 25, 2011
|-
|Season Two
|align=center|26
|May 10, 2011
|-
|Season Three
|align=center|29
|August 9, 2011
|-
|Season Four♦
|align="center"|23
|January 17, 2012
|}
♦ - Shout! Factory Exclusives title, sold exclusively through Shout's online store.