"Angie" was a program that was doomed to last no more than one season. First of all, it ran on ABC in the late 1970s, which pretty much sealed its fate as a ratings flop. Moreover, it had all of the right elements, in the wrong combination. In a way, the show was very ahead of its time. In another, it had very little new to offer.
Donna Pescow played Angie, a working class Italian-American woman working as a waitress in a Philadelphia Diner, who dreamed of a better life. She was often visited by her "rough around the edges" sister, who criticized her conservative nature, and her smothering mother who criticized her lack of a husband. In the third episode, she married Brad, a regular customer at the diner, only to discover AFTER the wedding that Brad was the heir to a huge family fortune. But her new found wealth didn't keep her from working at the diner, especially after Brad bought her the diner for her birthday. Angie turned her downtown restaurant into a success, while living in her uptown penthouse apartment.
"Angie" had a strong cast. It was well written and it's "working class humor" was right for the times. But the "rags to riches" storyline and slapstick humor did little to set it apart from the sea of sitcoms that filled the airwaves in 1979.
