WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.299 Imagine this scenario for a second. You're spending 00:00:03.299 --> 00:00:05.900 a Saturday afternoon just kind of digging through 00:00:05.900 --> 00:00:08.939 a dusty box of old VHS tapes at a neighborhood 00:00:08.939 --> 00:00:11.800 garage sale. Oh, I love doing that. Right. Or 00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:13.660 maybe you're just tumbling down one of those 00:00:13.660 --> 00:00:15.800 late night internet rabbit holes. Yeah, just 00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:17.980 clicking from one Wikipedia page to another at 00:00:17.980 --> 00:00:20.780 two in the morning. Exactly. And suddenly, you 00:00:20.780 --> 00:00:22.800 stumble across a piece of media that makes you 00:00:22.800 --> 00:00:26.699 stop dead in your tracks and ask, wait, this 00:00:26.699 --> 00:00:29.320 existed. It's the best feeling. It really is. 00:00:29.660 --> 00:00:32.439 You find a television show that boasted a massive, 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:35.939 multi -million person audience, a brilliant ensemble 00:00:35.939 --> 00:00:39.859 cast, and these truly wild storylines. And yet, 00:00:39.859 --> 00:00:42.880 somehow, it has completely slipped through the 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:45.000 cracks of our pop culture memory. Like it never 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:47.060 happened. Yeah. It's the equivalent of discovering 00:00:47.060 --> 00:00:49.020 a hidden room in a house you've lived in for 00:00:49.020 --> 00:00:52.200 your entire life. So, welcome to the deep dive. 00:00:52.420 --> 00:00:53.920 We are so thrilled you're here with us today 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:56.740 to explore one of those hidden rooms. It genuinely 00:00:56.740 --> 00:01:00.420 is the best feeling, finding that obscure, forgotten 00:01:00.420 --> 00:01:03.820 gem and bringing it back into the light. And 00:01:03.820 --> 00:01:06.420 the subject we're looking at today is, it's a 00:01:06.420 --> 00:01:08.540 perfect example of television archaeology. It 00:01:08.540 --> 00:01:11.060 really is. Because it tells us so much, not just 00:01:11.060 --> 00:01:13.099 about comedy, but about how the entertainment 00:01:13.099 --> 00:01:15.420 industry actually functioned before the streaming 00:01:15.420 --> 00:01:17.459 era. Right, before algorithms ran everything. 00:01:17.859 --> 00:01:20.599 Today we are printing our magnifying glass at 00:01:20.599 --> 00:01:25.000 a forgotten 1994 CBS sitcom called The Five Mrs. 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:27.540 Buchanan's. Such a great title. Our material 00:01:27.540 --> 00:01:30.439 for this deep dive comes from a highly detailed 00:01:30.439 --> 00:01:33.319 Wikipedia retrospective, and it breaks down the 00:01:33.319 --> 00:01:36.060 show's core premise, its incredibly volatile 00:01:36.060 --> 00:01:39.000 character dynamics, the specific episode plots, 00:01:39.340 --> 00:01:41.939 and a rather dramatic behind the scenes production 00:01:41.939 --> 00:01:44.480 history that ultimately doomed the series. It 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:47.319 serves as this fascinating snapshot of mid -90s 00:01:47.319 --> 00:01:49.459 television. I mean, we have this meticulous record 00:01:49.459 --> 00:01:51.840 of a show that flickered so brightly on the national 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:54.280 stage, proved it could draw a massive audience, 00:01:54.439 --> 00:01:57.579 and then just vanished into thin air. Just poof, 00:01:57.819 --> 00:02:00.859 gone. And our mission for this deep dive is three 00:02:00.859 --> 00:02:04.579 -fold. First, we're going to explore the incredibly 00:02:04.579 --> 00:02:07.840 quirky character dynamics of this hidden 90s 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:11.120 gem. Which are wild. So wild. Because the way 00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:13.539 these women interact is essentially the engine 00:02:13.539 --> 00:02:16.900 of the entire show. Second, we want to extract 00:02:16.900 --> 00:02:20.360 the absolute comedic gold from its brief 17 -episode 00:02:20.360 --> 00:02:22.259 run to see what kind of boundaries they were 00:02:22.259 --> 00:02:23.860 pushing. They definitely pushed some boundaries. 00:02:24.060 --> 00:02:26.099 They really did. And finally, we're going to 00:02:26.099 --> 00:02:28.620 look at the network scheduling decisions to understand 00:02:28.620 --> 00:02:31.719 what they reveal about the cutthroat, high -stakes 00:02:31.719 --> 00:02:35.009 world of television broadcasting. Okay. Let's 00:02:35.009 --> 00:02:37.210 unpack this. To really understand the mechanics 00:02:37.210 --> 00:02:39.949 of the five Mrs. Buchanan's, you first have to 00:02:39.949 --> 00:02:41.990 understand the battlefield where the comedy actually 00:02:41.990 --> 00:02:44.409 takes place. The battlefield, yeah. It is a battlefield. 00:02:44.729 --> 00:02:47.270 The show is set in the fictional small town of 00:02:47.270 --> 00:02:49.770 Mercy, Indiana, and the core premise revolves 00:02:49.770 --> 00:02:53.229 around four very diverse women who have absolutely 00:02:53.229 --> 00:02:56.409 nothing in common except that they are all sisters 00:02:56.409 --> 00:02:59.770 -in -law. Right. And what brings these four wildly 00:02:59.770 --> 00:03:02.550 different women together in Mercy, Indiana? Is 00:03:02.550 --> 00:03:05.389 it a profound, heartwarming love for the Buchanan 00:03:05.389 --> 00:03:08.810 family legacy? Definitely not. No. It is their 00:03:08.810 --> 00:03:12.310 mutual, passionate loathing for their absolute 00:03:12.310 --> 00:03:15.169 monster of a mother -in -law, Mother Emma Buchanan. 00:03:15.990 --> 00:03:19.009 They are bound together by a shared, formidable 00:03:19.009 --> 00:03:22.020 adversary. It's a remarkably efficient sitcom 00:03:22.020 --> 00:03:24.039 engine. I mean, the writers took four completely 00:03:24.039 --> 00:03:26.039 different personalities, married them into the 00:03:26.039 --> 00:03:28.180 exact same family, and gave them a singular, 00:03:28.620 --> 00:03:31.120 terrifying matriarch to deal with. It essentially 00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:33.400 guarantees conflict in every single scene. It's 00:03:33.400 --> 00:03:34.900 brilliant. Let's look at the actual Daughters 00:03:34.900 --> 00:03:36.620 -in -Law because the character archetypes they 00:03:36.620 --> 00:03:40.840 built are incredibly vivid. Very 90s. So 90s. 00:03:41.039 --> 00:03:43.280 First you have the unofficial leader of the group, 00:03:43.460 --> 00:03:45.919 Alexandria, who goes by Alex. She's a Jewish, 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:48.520 1970s feminist crusader, originally from New 00:03:48.520 --> 00:03:51.219 York City. She runs a local antique store, and 00:03:51.219 --> 00:03:53.259 she's usually the most level -headed, pragmatic 00:03:53.259 --> 00:03:55.560 member of the bunch. Right. She is married to 00:03:55.560 --> 00:03:58.300 the eldest Buchanan son, Roy, who works as a 00:03:58.300 --> 00:04:00.900 high school principal. And then, sitting on the... 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:03.500 complete opposite end of the ideological spectrum, 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:06.780 you have Vivian. Vivian is written as a highly 00:04:06.780 --> 00:04:10.099 neurotic, fiercely Republican housewife. She's 00:04:10.099 --> 00:04:13.680 married to Ed, a used car salesman, and she is 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:16.420 constantly terrorized by their absolute Hellion 00:04:16.420 --> 00:04:19.420 twin sons, Lyndon and PJ. Actually, quick time 00:04:19.420 --> 00:04:20.899 out for our listeners right here. Yeah, good 00:04:20.899 --> 00:04:23.980 idea. When we talk about Alex's liberal feminist 00:04:23.980 --> 00:04:27.860 crusades or Vivian's hardcore conservative Republican 00:04:27.860 --> 00:04:31.220 antics, we need to make it crystal clear. though 00:04:31.220 --> 00:04:33.569 we aren't taking any political sides here. We're 00:04:33.569 --> 00:04:35.930 completely impartial. Absolutely. We're simply 00:04:35.930 --> 00:04:39.430 looking at how the writers in 1994 used these 00:04:39.430 --> 00:04:43.029 extreme political and cultural contrasts as blueprints 00:04:43.029 --> 00:04:45.069 for the comedy. That is a great point to highlight. 00:04:45.290 --> 00:04:47.370 The writers were just taking the most polarizing 00:04:47.370 --> 00:04:49.410 archetypes of the early 90s and forcing them 00:04:49.410 --> 00:04:51.569 to sit at the same dinner table. The political 00:04:51.569 --> 00:04:53.509 traits were just tools to create friction and 00:04:53.509 --> 00:04:55.069 humor. And we're just reporting on how those 00:04:55.069 --> 00:04:57.470 tools were used in the script. Exactly. Yeah. 00:04:57.550 --> 00:04:59.610 And Vivian's character in particular was given 00:04:59.610 --> 00:05:03.779 some of the most outrageous, extreme sitcom antics 00:05:03.779 --> 00:05:06.560 to emphasize that friction to give you a taste 00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:08.959 of how intense her character gave. Oh the dress. 00:05:09.139 --> 00:05:11.819 The dress. The episode guide notes that Vivian 00:05:11.819 --> 00:05:15.500 actually sold pints of her own blood just so 00:05:15.500 --> 00:05:18.040 she could afford to buy a new dress to wear to 00:05:18.040 --> 00:05:20.759 a dinner honoring Dan Quayle. Selling blood for 00:05:20.759 --> 00:05:23.720 a Dan Quayle dinner. I know. It really paints 00:05:23.720 --> 00:05:26.259 a picture of the lengths the writers were willing 00:05:26.259 --> 00:05:30.000 to go to heighten these personalities. You have 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:33.040 Alex's grounded New York pragmatism constantly 00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:35.639 clashing with Vivian's intense neurotic dedication 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:38.589 to her social standing. And the family tree only 00:05:38.589 --> 00:05:40.970 gets more complicated from there. We also have 00:05:40.970 --> 00:05:43.149 Delilah. Delilah is originally from Corpus Christi, 00:05:43.170 --> 00:05:45.689 Texas. Right. She's written as a sweet, somewhat 00:05:45.689 --> 00:05:47.670 ditzy blonde who usually wears heavy makeup and 00:05:47.670 --> 00:05:50.430 revealing clothing. And the defining detail of 00:05:50.430 --> 00:05:52.550 her character is that she is a former stripper 00:05:52.550 --> 00:05:54.910 who ended up falling in love with and marrying 00:05:54.910 --> 00:05:57.269 the town preacher. Reverend Charles Buchanan. 00:05:57.430 --> 00:05:59.930 Yes. A former stripper married to the town preacher. 00:06:00.209 --> 00:06:02.470 It's the classic fish -out -of -water setup but 00:06:02.470 --> 00:06:05.290 with a scandalous twist for a small Indiana town. 00:06:05.629 --> 00:06:08.129 She even becomes the head of the ladies' auxiliary. 00:06:09.069 --> 00:06:11.689 Her past as a stripper causes constant friction 00:06:11.689 --> 00:06:14.810 with the conservative townspeople, but her genuinely 00:06:14.810 --> 00:06:17.490 caring nature is usually what resolves the conflict 00:06:17.490 --> 00:06:19.550 by the end of the half hour. It's interesting 00:06:19.550 --> 00:06:22.050 you mention her past, because the production 00:06:22.050 --> 00:06:25.149 notes reveal an early clash between the show's 00:06:25.149 --> 00:06:28.009 creative vision and the network's comfort level 00:06:28.009 --> 00:06:30.829 regarding Delilah. Oh, the pilot reshoots. Yeah. 00:06:31.050 --> 00:06:33.649 The original, unaired pilot featured specific 00:06:33.649 --> 00:06:36.149 jokes about Delilah wearing a very skimpy dress. 00:06:36.189 --> 00:06:38.829 Oh. But by the time the pilot was actually broadcast 00:06:38.829 --> 00:06:41.709 on CBS, those jokes had been completely scrubbed 00:06:41.709 --> 00:06:44.170 and reshot. They were swapped out for alternate, 00:06:44.329 --> 00:06:46.529 safer one -liners about her wearing heavy makeup 00:06:46.529 --> 00:06:49.699 instead. That is a perfect early indicator of 00:06:49.699 --> 00:06:51.920 the business side of television interfering with 00:06:51.920 --> 00:06:54.560 the art. The network was clearly calibrating 00:06:54.560 --> 00:06:57.379 the tone for Middle America. They wanted to sanitize 00:06:57.379 --> 00:06:59.959 the visual impact of her past while still keeping 00:06:59.959 --> 00:07:02.540 the broad comedic premise of her character. Right. 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:04.939 It shows how networks constantly try to smooth 00:07:04.939 --> 00:07:07.500 out the edges of a show to make it palpable for 00:07:07.500 --> 00:07:09.540 advertisers. And we will definitely see that 00:07:09.540 --> 00:07:11.279 network interference come back to haunt them 00:07:11.279 --> 00:07:13.879 later. But to round out the four daughters in 00:07:13.879 --> 00:07:17.290 law, we have Brie. Bree is the newcomer to the 00:07:17.290 --> 00:07:20.589 family. She's a Californian and a former Disneyland 00:07:20.589 --> 00:07:23.790 employee who had a massive whirlwind romance 00:07:23.790 --> 00:07:26.750 with the youngest brother, Jesse. Bree serves 00:07:26.750 --> 00:07:29.290 a very specific mechanical purpose in the pilot. 00:07:29.870 --> 00:07:32.889 She is what the industry calls an audience surrogate. 00:07:33.069 --> 00:07:35.329 Right, we should explain that. For anyone listening 00:07:35.329 --> 00:07:37.449 who might not be familiar with that term, an 00:07:37.449 --> 00:07:39.709 audience surrogate is basically the normal person 00:07:39.709 --> 00:07:42.430 dropped into a crazy situation. The audience 00:07:42.430 --> 00:07:44.670 learns about the family's bizarre dynamics at 00:07:44.670 --> 00:07:47.709 the exact same time Brie does, through her eyes. 00:07:48.029 --> 00:07:50.550 And her character description is such a specifically 00:07:50.550 --> 00:07:53.670 90s combination of traits. She's characterized 00:07:53.670 --> 00:07:57.629 as naive, childish, overtly vain, and strangely 00:07:57.629 --> 00:08:00.209 enough, she has a morbid fascination with dead 00:08:00.209 --> 00:08:02.949 bodies. That's such a weird detail. Disneyland 00:08:02.949 --> 00:08:07.009 worker, extremely vain, loves dead bodies. But 00:08:07.009 --> 00:08:09.269 she eventually earns her place in the group by 00:08:09.269 --> 00:08:11.470 standing up to the ultimate boss of the show, 00:08:11.870 --> 00:08:13.730 Mother Emma Buchanan. What's fascinating here 00:08:13.730 --> 00:08:16.389 is Mother Emma herself, because in a lesser sitcom, 00:08:16.569 --> 00:08:18.750 it would be so incredibly easy to just write 00:08:18.750 --> 00:08:22.449 her as a one -dimensional cartoon villain. She 00:08:22.449 --> 00:08:25.410 is described on paper as a stoic, gravelly -voiced, 00:08:25.730 --> 00:08:28.449 passive -aggressive gargoyle of a woman who demands 00:08:28.449 --> 00:08:31.050 ceaseless, unquestioning devotion from her four 00:08:31.050 --> 00:08:33.750 sons. Calling someone a passive -aggressive gargoyle 00:08:33.750 --> 00:08:36.889 is such an incredible insult. It really is. But 00:08:36.889 --> 00:08:38.570 the background Laura provided in the article 00:08:38.570 --> 00:08:40.730 completely changes how you view her behavior. 00:08:41.149 --> 00:08:43.789 Emma was actually a brilliant aspiring doctor, 00:08:44.230 --> 00:08:46.129 but her husband abruptly left her for a much 00:08:46.129 --> 00:08:48.389 younger woman and she was forced to abandon her 00:08:48.389 --> 00:08:50.809 dreams and raise her four boys entirely alone 00:08:50.809 --> 00:08:53.950 in poverty. She uses this hardship to fuel her 00:08:53.950 --> 00:08:56.289 intense critical oversight of her daughters -in 00:08:56.289 --> 00:08:58.830 -law. Having that grounded emotional anchor in 00:08:58.830 --> 00:09:01.210 Emma was crucial because without it the audience 00:09:01.210 --> 00:09:03.629 would never buy into the absolute absurdity of 00:09:03.629 --> 00:09:05.610 the episode plots the writers were cooking up. 00:09:06.029 --> 00:09:08.470 It adds a layer of genuine compassion beneath 00:09:08.470 --> 00:09:12.669 her tough exterior. Exactly. She is merciless, 00:09:12.830 --> 00:09:15.669 yes, but she sacrificed her life for her children. 00:09:15.950 --> 00:09:18.090 That is universal truth the other women respect. 00:09:18.850 --> 00:09:20.669 Here's where it gets really interesting, because 00:09:20.669 --> 00:09:23.490 I want to know how they balance that deep emotional 00:09:23.490 --> 00:09:26.429 resonance with the comedy. Yeah. So what did 00:09:26.429 --> 00:09:28.490 these storylines actually look like? Are we talking 00:09:28.490 --> 00:09:32.409 standard 90s sitcom misunderstandings, like double 00:09:32.409 --> 00:09:35.039 booking a dinner date? You would think so, but 00:09:35.039 --> 00:09:37.720 they took some wildly dark and ambitious swings. 00:09:38.440 --> 00:09:40.899 The episode summaries read like a master class 00:09:40.899 --> 00:09:43.779 and balancing genuine family pathos with sheer 00:09:43.779 --> 00:09:47.279 absurdity. Take episode four, titled A Ring of 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:50.159 Truth. The plot kicks off when the diamond falls 00:09:50.159 --> 00:09:52.879 out of Bree's engagement ring. Vivian takes her 00:09:52.879 --> 00:09:54.980 to the local jeweler to get it fixed, and they 00:09:54.980 --> 00:09:57.240 are devastated to discover the stone is totally 00:09:57.240 --> 00:09:59.600 fake. Which naturally leads them to investigate 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:02.000 the rest of the family jewelry, I assume. Precisely. 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:04.399 The jeweler checks the other daughter -in -law's 00:10:04.399 --> 00:10:06.679 rings, and it turns out all four of them have 00:10:06.679 --> 00:10:09.500 fake engagement rings. Naturally, the women storm 00:10:09.500 --> 00:10:11.799 off to confront Mother Emma, assuming this is 00:10:11.799 --> 00:10:14.019 just another one of her cruel, manipulative... 00:10:13.929 --> 00:10:17.269 penny -pinching tricks. But when cornered, Emma 00:10:17.269 --> 00:10:20.129 confesses the truth. She didn't buy fake rings 00:10:20.129 --> 00:10:22.769 out of malice. She bought them as love tokens 00:10:22.769 --> 00:10:24.889 years ago because she was living in absolute 00:10:24.889 --> 00:10:27.850 poverty and simply didn't have the money to afford 00:10:27.850 --> 00:10:30.389 real diamonds for her sons to give to their future 00:10:30.389 --> 00:10:33.429 fiancés. That completely changes the framing 00:10:33.429 --> 00:10:36.269 of the joke. You go in expecting a laugh track 00:10:36.269 --> 00:10:38.029 about how cheap and mean the mother -in -law 00:10:38.029 --> 00:10:40.830 is, and it pivots into this heartbreaking reveal 00:10:40.830 --> 00:10:44.490 about a single mother struggling to survive and 00:10:44.490 --> 00:10:46.730 wanting her boys to have something nice to offer. 00:10:47.090 --> 00:10:49.289 It illustrates that rare blend of comedy and 00:10:49.289 --> 00:10:51.870 drama that the best shows achieve. But the writers 00:10:51.870 --> 00:10:54.389 were also completely fearless when it came to 00:10:54.389 --> 00:10:57.289 bizarre borderline macabre slapstick. The tonal 00:10:57.289 --> 00:10:59.929 whiplash is amazing. Just a few weeks after that 00:10:59.929 --> 00:11:02.190 touching engagement ring episode we get episode 00:11:02.190 --> 00:11:05.169 8. Vivian, the highly neurotic Republican housewife, 00:11:05.529 --> 00:11:07.429 has finally reached her breaking point with her 00:11:07.429 --> 00:11:10.529 monstrous twin sons. She spanks them, and the 00:11:10.529 --> 00:11:12.269 narrative consequence is that she actually goes 00:11:12.269 --> 00:11:15.190 to jail for child abuse. Putting a main character 00:11:15.190 --> 00:11:18.129 behind bars for child abuse in a 30 -minute comedy 00:11:18.129 --> 00:11:21.690 slot is an incredibly bold swing. Very bold. 00:11:21.889 --> 00:11:23.990 And if you thought that was dark, we have to 00:11:23.990 --> 00:11:26.509 talk about episode 12, The Incredible Journey. 00:11:27.180 --> 00:11:30.299 Alex, the grounded antique store owner, had a 00:11:30.299 --> 00:11:32.279 beloved dog that disappeared while they were 00:11:32.279 --> 00:11:35.000 visiting the Grand Canyon years ago. Right. In 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:38.100 this episode, the dog miraculously returns home 00:11:38.100 --> 00:11:41.360 to Indiana, only to immediately die upon arrival. 00:11:41.539 --> 00:11:43.820 Just unbelievable. And apparently she then learns 00:11:43.820 --> 00:11:45.820 the shocking truth about how he escaped the canyon 00:11:45.820 --> 00:11:48.580 in the first place. Yeah. I assumed this would 00:11:48.580 --> 00:11:51.399 be lighthearted family fare, but a dead dog plot 00:11:51.399 --> 00:11:54.519 is wildly dark for a multi -camera comedy. And 00:11:54.519 --> 00:11:56.340 just to clarify for anyone wondering about the 00:11:56.340 --> 00:11:58.500 format, a multi -camera comedy means the show 00:11:58.500 --> 00:12:00.639 was filmed live on a soundstage with three or 00:12:00.639 --> 00:12:03.500 four cameras running simultaneously, all in front 00:12:03.500 --> 00:12:05.820 of a live studio audience whose real laughter 00:12:05.820 --> 00:12:08.600 you hear on the track. Yeah. So imagine sitting 00:12:08.600 --> 00:12:10.820 in that studio audience expecting light banter, 00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:13.539 and suddenly the plot revolves around a miraculously 00:12:13.539 --> 00:12:16.600 returning dog dropping dead. It tests how far 00:12:16.600 --> 00:12:18.399 they could stretch the audience's suspension 00:12:18.399 --> 00:12:21.519 of disbelief. Which brings us to episode 16, 00:12:21.940 --> 00:12:24.230 Never On The Road Again. This sounds like an 00:12:24.230 --> 00:12:26.490 absolute riot to film in front of a live crowd. 00:12:27.330 --> 00:12:29.470 Emma forces all four of her daughters -in -law 00:12:29.470 --> 00:12:31.950 to go on a miserable road trip to attend the 00:12:31.950 --> 00:12:34.970 funeral of great -aunt Velma Buchanan. And great 00:12:34.970 --> 00:12:37.350 -aunt Velma, according to the character notes, 00:12:37.690 --> 00:12:40.789 weighed 650 pounds and was completely housebound. 00:12:40.889 --> 00:12:42.830 You can already see where the physical comedy 00:12:42.830 --> 00:12:45.210 is heading. When they finally arrive at the funeral 00:12:45.210 --> 00:12:48.110 service. The casket isn't a casket at all. It 00:12:48.110 --> 00:12:50.490 is just a massive wooden shipping crate. Oh my 00:12:50.490 --> 00:12:53.169 goodness. The visual of this giant crate, combined 00:12:53.169 --> 00:12:54.649 with whatever the funeral director was saying 00:12:54.649 --> 00:12:57.389 at the podium, causes all five Buchanan women, 00:12:57.730 --> 00:13:00.129 including the stoic gargoyle Mother Emma, to 00:13:00.129 --> 00:13:02.070 completely lose their composure and break down 00:13:02.070 --> 00:13:04.509 laughing hysterically during the solemn service. 00:13:04.990 --> 00:13:07.090 What stands out to you about these plots? Because 00:13:07.090 --> 00:13:08.750 if you're listening to this and wondering how 00:13:08.750 --> 00:13:11.309 a giant shipping casket fits into a family sitcom, 00:13:11.769 --> 00:13:14.850 that's exactly the magic of 90s television. Think 00:13:14.850 --> 00:13:17.389 about the mechanics of staging that scene. You 00:13:17.389 --> 00:13:20.590 have five incredibly talented comedic actresses 00:13:20.590 --> 00:13:23.090 dressed in black, standing around a giant wooden 00:13:23.090 --> 00:13:25.710 shipping crate at a funeral, trying to act out 00:13:25.710 --> 00:13:27.870 uncontrollable laughter while feeding off the 00:13:27.870 --> 00:13:30.710 energy of a live studio audience. It highlights 00:13:30.710 --> 00:13:33.909 the sheer ensemble strength of the cast. It really 00:13:33.909 --> 00:13:35.909 is like a time capsule of how television used 00:13:35.909 --> 00:13:37.649 to be written. It was essentially weekly theater. 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:40.559 Which brings us to the behind -the -scenes reality 00:13:40.559 --> 00:13:43.700 of making a show like this. Because as fun and 00:13:43.700 --> 00:13:46.659 creative as the on -screen product was, the off 00:13:46.659 --> 00:13:49.340 -screen reality was a brutal game of network 00:13:49.340 --> 00:13:52.399 chess. It's the part of television history that 00:13:52.399 --> 00:13:55.100 often gets glossed over, but the boardroom dictates 00:13:55.100 --> 00:13:57.159 everything about what we end up watching in our 00:13:57.159 --> 00:13:59.600 living rooms. We already touched on the network 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:02.279 sanitizing Delilah's dress, but there were bigger 00:14:02.279 --> 00:14:04.720 structural issues at play from the very beginning. 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:06.580 The production history notes that the original 00:14:06.580 --> 00:14:09.059 unaired pilot wasn't even called the Five Mrs. 00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:12.750 Buchanan's. It was titled The Four Mrs. Buchanons, 00:14:13.090 --> 00:14:15.049 referring only to the daughters -in -law. Which 00:14:15.049 --> 00:14:17.190 is a fundamental misunderstanding of their own 00:14:17.190 --> 00:14:19.649 show's premise. Right. Mother Emma is the son 00:14:19.649 --> 00:14:22.110 that all these other planets orbit around. The 00:14:22.110 --> 00:14:24.389 network executives clearly watched the pilot 00:14:24.389 --> 00:14:26.429 and realized they needed to include the matriarch 00:14:26.429 --> 00:14:29.210 in the title, hence the shift to the five. But 00:14:29.210 --> 00:14:31.330 even after fixing the title, tweaking the pilot 00:14:31.330 --> 00:14:33.490 and finding that creative sweet spot with a cast, 00:14:34.129 --> 00:14:36.370 the show still had to survive the ratings roller 00:14:36.370 --> 00:14:40.740 coaster. And in 1994, before streaming or DVRs 00:14:40.740 --> 00:14:43.519 existed, your time slot was a matter of life 00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:46.960 or death. The show received an initial 13 -episode 00:14:46.960 --> 00:14:50.019 order from CBS. Shortly after its premiere, the 00:14:50.019 --> 00:14:51.720 network announced it was giving the series a 00:14:51.720 --> 00:14:54.279 five -episode pickup, bringing the total to 18. 00:14:54.720 --> 00:14:57.399 But the records show that only 17 episodes ever 00:14:57.399 --> 00:14:59.700 aired and are known to have been produced. If 00:14:59.700 --> 00:15:02.240 we connect this to the bigger picture, this exposes 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:04.500 the cruel reality of television scheduling in 00:15:04.500 --> 00:15:07.480 the 1990s. A show can have a brilliant cast, 00:15:07.980 --> 00:15:10.419 sharp writing, and critical support, but if a 00:15:10.419 --> 00:15:12.559 network executive places it in the wrong time 00:15:12.559 --> 00:15:15.360 slot, it is essentially set up to fail. Completely. 00:15:15.759 --> 00:15:17.840 The five missing Buchanan's regularly aired on 00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:20.559 Saturday nights. And in 1994, Saturday night 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:23.120 was rapidly becoming a graveyard for television 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:25.840 viewership. People were going out. Cultural habits 00:15:25.840 --> 00:15:28.080 were shifting away from weekend appointment viewing. 00:15:28.440 --> 00:15:30.539 And the overall audience pool was shrinking. 00:15:31.100 --> 00:15:33.179 The show was faltering simply because no one 00:15:33.179 --> 00:15:36.000 was home to watch it. But here is the massive 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:38.740 what if scenario that makes this story so compelling. 00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:41.320 According to an interview with Eileen Heckhart. 00:15:41.440 --> 00:15:44.279 the veteran actress who played Mother Emma, CBS, 00:15:44.740 --> 00:15:47.580 actually had a rescue plan in motion. They ordered 00:15:47.580 --> 00:15:50.059 those additional episodes with the explicit intention 00:15:50.059 --> 00:15:51.740 of rescuing the show from the Saturday Night 00:15:51.740 --> 00:15:54.200 Graveyard and moving it to a prime Monday night 00:15:54.200 --> 00:15:56.399 slot. And not just any Monday night slot. They 00:15:56.399 --> 00:15:58.100 were planning to schedule it immediately following 00:15:58.100 --> 00:16:01.210 Murphy Brown. For context, Murphy Brown was an 00:16:01.210 --> 00:16:03.649 absolute cultural juggernaut at the time. It 00:16:03.649 --> 00:16:06.149 was pulling in massive numbers and sparking national 00:16:06.149 --> 00:16:09.009 conversations. It was the perfect, highly visible 00:16:09.009 --> 00:16:12.110 lead -in for another show about strong, complex, 00:16:12.629 --> 00:16:14.970 opinionated women. And we know this rescue plan 00:16:14.970 --> 00:16:17.490 would have worked because CBS actually tested 00:16:17.490 --> 00:16:21.590 it out. Episode 7, titled Alex, Then and Now 00:16:21.590 --> 00:16:24.590 W, aired as a special preview on a Monday night 00:16:24.590 --> 00:16:28.460 on October 31, 1994. And according to the Nielsen 00:16:28.460 --> 00:16:30.519 ratings, which was the system used to estimate 00:16:30.519 --> 00:16:33.120 total audience size, that single episode pulled 00:16:33.120 --> 00:16:36.899 in 17 .8 million viewers. That is huge. 17 .8 00:16:36.899 --> 00:16:39.200 million. To put that in perspective, by today's 00:16:39.200 --> 00:16:42.039 metrics, or even 1994 metrics, that is a wildly 00:16:42.039 --> 00:16:44.039 successful number. The audience was undeniably 00:16:44.039 --> 00:16:46.440 there. The test proved the show could be a massive 00:16:46.440 --> 00:16:48.279 breakout hit if people just knew what channel 00:16:48.279 --> 00:16:50.840 to turn to. So what does this all mean? It means 00:16:50.840 --> 00:16:53.220 that the show's ultimate failure had absolutely 00:16:53.220 --> 00:16:55.159 nothing to do with the quality of the art or 00:16:55.159 --> 00:16:57.559 the appeal of the characters. Because despite 00:16:57.559 --> 00:17:00.519 that massive Monday night success, the network 00:17:00.519 --> 00:17:03.399 executives abruptly changed their minds. Instead 00:17:03.399 --> 00:17:06.299 of giving the five Mrs. Buchans that coveted 00:17:06.299 --> 00:17:09.299 Monday slot after Murphy Brown, CBS decided to 00:17:09.299 --> 00:17:12.240 award that premium real estate to a brand new 00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:15.259 mid -season replacement show called Sybil. A 00:17:15.259 --> 00:17:17.000 mid -season replacement being a show brought 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:19.519 in halfway through the TV calendar year to replace 00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:22.430 something that was failing. Exactly. They ordered 00:17:22.430 --> 00:17:24.589 Sybil, handed it the golden ticket time slot, 00:17:24.769 --> 00:17:27.630 and left the five Mrs. Buchanan stranded on Saturday 00:17:27.630 --> 00:17:30.849 night to quietly bleed out viewers. That single 00:17:30.849 --> 00:17:33.470 bureaucratic scheduling choice effectively killed 00:17:33.470 --> 00:17:36.569 the show, terminating its run at just 17 episodes. 00:17:36.650 --> 00:17:38.750 It is genuinely heartbreaking when you lay it 00:17:38.750 --> 00:17:40.930 all out like that. You have this incredibly talented 00:17:40.930 --> 00:17:43.710 ensemble of women, a show that masterfully balances 00:17:43.710 --> 00:17:46.869 genuine family heart with completely unhinged 00:17:46.869 --> 00:17:49.650 dead dog comedy, a proven tested audience of 00:17:49.650 --> 00:17:51.819 nearly million people and it just gets wiped 00:17:51.819 --> 00:17:53.779 off the board entirely because of a corporate 00:17:53.779 --> 00:17:56.059 scheduling pivot in a boardroom. This raises 00:17:56.059 --> 00:17:58.599 an important question and it really is the ultimate 00:17:58.599 --> 00:18:01.369 takeaway from our deep dive today. We've spent 00:18:01.369 --> 00:18:03.789 this time exploring a television show featuring 00:18:03.789 --> 00:18:07.690 a strong female -led ensemble tackling complex 00:18:07.690 --> 00:18:10.269 family dynamics which successfully captured millions 00:18:10.269 --> 00:18:13.089 of viewers. Yet it was completely erased from 00:18:13.089 --> 00:18:15.430 pop culture memory. And it wasn't erased because 00:18:15.430 --> 00:18:18.130 the writing was poor or the acting fell flat 00:18:18.130 --> 00:18:20.670 or the audience rejected it. It was erased because 00:18:20.670 --> 00:18:23.430 a few executives decided another show made more 00:18:23.430 --> 00:18:25.490 strategic sense for their Monday night block. 00:18:25.910 --> 00:18:28.349 It makes you wonder how much of the media we 00:18:28.349 --> 00:18:31.859 consider classic only achieved that status because 00:18:31.859 --> 00:18:34.339 they got lucky with their time slot and how many 00:18:34.339 --> 00:18:36.680 masterpieces we lost simply because they aired 00:18:36.680 --> 00:18:39.200 at 8 p .m. on a Saturday. That is the exact thought 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:41.039 I want to leave our listeners with today as you 00:18:41.039 --> 00:18:43.019 go about your week. Think about the information 00:18:43.019 --> 00:18:45.559 the art and the culture that we all consume in 00:18:45.559 --> 00:18:48.970 our own modern lives. In 1994, it was a television 00:18:48.970 --> 00:18:51.089 network executive making a scheduling choice 00:18:51.089 --> 00:18:53.950 behind a closed door. Today, it's a digital algorithm 00:18:53.950 --> 00:18:55.849 deciding what shows up on your feed and what 00:18:55.849 --> 00:18:58.910 gets buried. That is such a profound parallel. 00:18:59.410 --> 00:19:01.910 The algorithm is just the modern equivalent of 00:19:01.910 --> 00:19:04.809 a TE network executive deciding what we are. 00:19:04.970 --> 00:19:08.069 allowed to see exactly how many brilliant ideas 00:19:08.069 --> 00:19:11.589 lost classics or incredible aha moments are we 00:19:11.589 --> 00:19:13.869 completely missing out on not because they aren't 00:19:13.869 --> 00:19:16.150 valuable or entertaining but simply because the 00:19:16.150 --> 00:19:17.930 algorithm didn't put them in the right place 00:19:17.930 --> 00:19:21.109 at the right time what hidden gems are out there 00:19:21.109 --> 00:19:23.269 waiting for you to discover if you just take 00:19:23.269 --> 00:19:25.269 a moment to look past the front page of your 00:19:25.269 --> 00:19:27.859 feed There are so many stories out there just 00:19:27.859 --> 00:19:30.059 waiting to be dusted off. Thank you so much for 00:19:30.059 --> 00:19:31.960 joining us on this journey to Mercy, Indiana, 00:19:32.380 --> 00:19:34.220 and for exploring the lost world of the five 00:19:34.220 --> 00:19:37.480 Mrs. Buchanan's with us. We absolutely love unpacking 00:19:37.480 --> 00:19:39.619 these stories with you. Until next time, keep 00:19:39.619 --> 00:19:40.700 digging for those hidden gems.