| Madman of the People | |
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| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by |
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| Directed by | |
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| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 16 |
| Production | |
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| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
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| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | September 22, 1994 (1994-09-22) – June 17, 1995 (1995-06-17) |
Madman of the People is an Americansitcom television series created by Chris Cluess and Stu Kreisman, that aired onNBC from September 22,1994, to June 17,1995. It was scheduled in the Thursday 9:30 timeslot, part ofMust See TV.
Madman of the People was produced bySpelling Television.[1]
The series stars character actorDabney Coleman as Jack "Madman" Buckner, an outspoken newspaper columnist who had written a popular column,Madman of the People, inYour Times magazine for 30 years. The premise of the show involves Buckner's daughter, Meg (Cynthia Gibb), being brought in by the publisher to bring Buckner's column into the 1990s.
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| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | Viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Pilot" | James Burrows | Chris Cluess & Stu Kreisman | September 22, 1994 (1994-9-22) | 22.7[2] |
| 2 | "Murder Most Fowl" | John Ratzenberger | Sally Lapiduss &Pamela Eells | September 29, 1994 (1994-9-29) | 23.2[3] |
| 3 | "All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Mad Boy" | James Burrows | Steve Paymer | October 6, 1994 (1994-10-6) | 21.7[4] |
| 4 | "Guys Just Wanna Have Fun" | John Ratzenberger | Bill Fuller & Jim Pond | October 13, 1994 (1994-10-13) | 20.9[5] |
| 5 | "'Til Death Do Us Part" | Jim Drake | Sally Lapiduss & Pamela Eells | October 20, 1994 (1994-10-20) | 18.8[6] |
| 6 | "The Jack Buckner Society" | Philip Charles MacKenzie | Alison Rosenfeld Desmarais | October 27, 1994 (1994-10-27) | 18.9[7] |
| 7 | "Birthday in the Big House" | Philip Charles MacKenzie | Bill Fuller & Jim Pond | November 3, 1994 (1994-11-3) | 21.5[8] |
| 8 | "Jack Has Left the Building" | Philip Charles MacKenzie | Tom Seeley & Norm Gunzenhauser | December 1, 1994 (1994-12-1) | 18.1[9] |
| 9 | "Life Without Father" | Jim Drake | Steve Paymer | December 8, 1994 (1994-12-8) | 21.4[10] |
| 10 | "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Christmas" | Jim Drake | Deidre Fay & Stuart Wolpert | December 15, 1994 (1994-12-15) | 21.9[11] |
| 11 | "What a Big Mouth You Have, Grammy" | John Ratzenberger | Tom Seeley & Norm Gunzenhauser | December 29, 1994 (1994-12-29) | 17.9[12] |
| 12 | "Notes from the Underground" | Philip Charles MacKenzie | Dinah Kirgo | January 5, 1995 (1995-1-5) | 26.9[13] |
| 13 | "Truths My Father Told" | Philip Charles MacKenzie | Bill Fuller & Jim Pond | January 12, 1995 (1995-1-12) | 24.3[14] |
| 14 | "The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword" | Jim Drake | Tom Seeley & Norm Gunzenhauser | January 26, 1995 (1995-1-26) | 24.2[15] |
| 15 | "Anytime, Anywhere" | Philip Charles MacKenzie | Stephen Neigher | June 10, 1995 (1995-6-10) | 6.7[16] |
| 16 | "The Madman and the Showgirl" | Philip Charles MacKenzie | Dava Savel | June 17, 1995 (1995-6-17) | 6.5[17] |
Though the series earned good ratings, ranking 12th[18] 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 fromSeinfeld and was also hindering the then-freshman hit dramaER. NBC noticed the early success ofFriends 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.[19] 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.[20]
Episode 7, "Birthday in the Big House", was promoted to directly tie in with the same night's episodes of bothFriends andMad About You. All three series were set in New York City and all aired on NBC on Thursday evenings. Accordingly, a continuing plot thread ran through all three shows broadcast on November 3, 1994: a city-wide blackout caused by the character of Jamie in theMad About You episode "Pandora's Box" continued through to theMadman of the People episode "Birthday in the Big House", and concluded in theFriends episode "The One With The Blackout". None of the characters crossed over from one series to another in these episodes; only the details of the blackout situation were used to create a crossover effect. (The seriesSeinfeld, which also aired on Thursday evenings on NBC and was also set in New York, chose not to participate in this crossover event.)