Citizen Baines

Citizen Baines is an American drama television series created by Emmy Award-winning producer Lydia Woodward, that stars James Cromwell. The series premiered on CBS September 29, 2001, and ended on November 3, 2001.

Citizen Baines
Genre	Drama
Created by	Lydia Woodward
Written by	Patty Lin Will Scheffer P.K. Simonds Karyn Usher John Wells Lydia Woodward
Directed by	Christopher Chulack Lesli Linka Glatter Charles Haid Dwight Little
Starring	James Cromwell Embeth Davidtz Jane Adams Jacinda Barrett Arye Gross Scotty Leavenworth Matt McCoy
Composer	Marty Davich
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	9 (3 unaired)
Production
Executive producers	Christopher Chulack John Wells Lydia Woodward
Producers	Lesli Linka Glatter David J. Latt James Cromwell
Cinematography	Ernest Holzman
Editors	Kevin Casey Susanne Stinson Malles Suzanne Michaels Frederick Peterson
Running time	60 minutes
Production companies	John Wells Productions Lydia Woodward Productions ThinkFilm Warner Bros. Television
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	September 29 (2001-09-29) – November 3, 2001 (2001-11-03)

Synopsis

Cromwell starred as Elliot Baines, a former three-term U.S. Senator who loses a re-election for the Senate and goes back home to Seattle to re-establish his relationships with his three grown daughters Ellen (Embeth Davidtz), Reeva (Jane Adams), and Dori (Jacinda Barrett).

Cast

Main

• James Cromwell as Elliot Baines
• Embeth Davidtz as Ellen Baines Croland
• Jane Adams as Reeva Baines Eidenberg
• Jacinda Barrett as Dori Baines
• Arye Gross as Shel Eidenberg
• Scotty Leavenworth as Otis Croland
• Matt McCoy as Arthur Croland

Recurring

• Tom Verica as Andy Carlson
• McCaleb Burnett as Claude Waverley
• Easton Gage as Sam Eidenberg
• David Kriegel as David Goldman
• Bryn Lauren Lemon as Ruthie Eidenberg
• Emmett Shoemaker as Otis Croland
• Paul McCrane as Sherman Bloom

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	"A Day Like No Other"	Christopher Chulack	Lydia Woodward	September 29, 2001 (2001-09-29)
2	"The Whole Thump-Thump-Thump"	Unknown	Unknown	October 6, 2001 (2001-10-06)
3	"Days of Confusion"	Unknown	Unknown	October 13, 2001 (2001-10-13)
4	"Three Days In November"	Unknown	Unknown	October 20, 2001 (2001-10-20)
5	"The Appraisal"	Lesli Linka Glatter	Patty Lin	October 27, 2001 (2001-10-27)
6	"Lost and Found"	Dwight Little	Will Scheffer	November 3, 2001 (2001-11-03)
7	"Out in the Rain"	TBD	TBD	Unaired
8	"A Song That Never Ends"	TBD	TBD	Unaired
9	"Safe at Home"	TBD	TBD	Unaired

Reception

Critical

PopMatters wrote that, "Citizen Baines showed genuine signs of bucking the CBS feel-good Saturday night orthodoxy, by assuming the complex task of creating family-friendly entertainment without soaking in sentiment the raw textures of domestic life... But Citizen Baines symbolizes the lack of imagination driving so much of prime-time, whether drama or sitcom, cable or network..."^{[citation needed]} USA Today's Robert Bianco gave the series a negative, one-and-a-half star review, and stated, "After all, the only interesting thing about Elliott Baines is his job as a U.S. senator — and he loses that at the end of Saturday's premiere. Don't worry: I'm not revealing anything that the "citizen" in the title didn't already tell you."^[1]

Ratings

Scheduled on Saturdays following Touched by an Angel,^[2] the series ranked #90 (the lowest rank for a regularly scheduled series on one of the Big Four networks), and averaged 8.2 million viewers.^[3][4] Due to the low ratings, CBS canceled the series in October 2001 after six of the nine episodes produced were aired.^[5]

Award nomination

Year	Award	Category	Recipient	Result	Ref
2002	American Society of Cinematographers	Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Movies of the Week/Miniseries/Pilot for Network or Basic Broadcast TV	Ernest Holzman (for pilot episode)	Nominated	[citation needed]