Madman of the People
Madman of the People is an American sitcom television series created by Chris Cluess and Stu Kreisman, that aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to June 17, 1995. It was scheduled in the Thursday 9:30 timeslot, part of Must See TV.
Madman of the People was produced by Spelling Television.
Synopsis
The series stars character actor Dabney Coleman as Jack "Madman" Buckner, an outspoken newspaper columnist who had written a popular column, Madman of the People, in Your Times magazine for 30 years. The premise of the show involves Buckner's daughter, Meg, being brought in by the publisher to bring Buckner's column into the 1990s.Cast
- Dabney Coleman as Jack "Madman" Buckner
- Concetta Tomei as Delia Buckner
- Cynthia Gibb as Meg Buckner
- John Ales as Dylan Buckner
- Amy Aquino as Sasha Danziger
- Craig Bierko as B.J. Cooper
Reception
Though the series earned good ratings, ranking 12th for the season with a 14.9 average household share, it was pulled from NBC's schedule in January 1995 and cancelled before the 1994-95 season was officially over. It is one of the highest-rated 1st-year shows to ever get cancelled during its initial season. NBC soured on the show because it lost a considerable portion of its lead-in audience from Seinfeld and was also hindering the then-freshman hit drama ER. NBC noticed the early success of Friends and decided to re-shuffle its lineup to put that show in the 9:30 PM EST spot, leading to one of the most dominant programming blocs in TV history. The last two episodes aired in June 1995, during the period that was formerly called "Burn-off Theatre", when in the pre-reality TV era networks would make more money airing new episodes of already-doomed shows than it would for repeats from most shows that would return the following fall.When it first aired, Madman of the People was considered by critics as one of "the fall season's least likable new comedies" and not deserving of its comedy label.