Working (TV series)

Working is an American sitcom television series that aired on NBC for two seasons from October 8, 1997 to January 25, 1999. The series was created and executive produced by Michael Davidoff and Bill Rosenthal. The series stars Fred Savage and an ensemble cast including Maurice Godin, Arden Myrin, Yvette Freeman, and Steve Hytner.

Working
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Michael Davidoff Bill Rosenthal
Starring	Fred Savage Maurice Godin Yvette Freeman Sarah Knowlton Arden Myrin Todd Waring Dana Gould Steve Hytner Rebecca McFarland Debi Mazar Kate Hodge
Opening theme	"Working in the Coal Mine" performed by Devo
Composers	Craig Jerris Mark Mothersbaugh
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	39 (4 unaired)
Production
Executive producers	Michael Davidoff Bill Rosenthal
Producers	Sy Rosen Noah Taft Andrew Tsao Fred Savage Werner Walian Mark Wilding
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	30 minutes
Production companies	Davidoff/Rosenthal Productions NBC Studios
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	October 8, 1997 (1997-10-08) – January 25, 1999 (1999-01-25)

Synopsis

Working took a satirical (and sometimes over-the-top) look at office life within a big corporate company. The show starred Fred Savage as the naive Matt Peyser who had just graduated from college and was ready to climb the corporate ladder. His ideals are constantly challenged by his boss, Tim Deale, played by Maurice Godin. Other characters included dim-witted Jimmy (Dana Gould), under-appreciated secretary Hal (Sarah Knowlton), overly perky Abby Cosgrove (Arden Myrin), acerbic Delaney (Steve Hytner), and no-nonsense manager Evelyn (Yvette Freeman), that Matt makes friends and work with.

Due to faltering ratings, the network attempted to breathe new life into the show during the second season with some cast changes. This included writing out the characters of Jimmy and Hal. They were replaced by Debi Mazar as the ruthless Liz and Rebecca McFarland as Val (As an in-joke, when Matt first sees Liz and Val he mistakenly calls them Jimmy and Hal). During the series run, Danica McKellar, formerly Savage's costar in The Wonder Years, made two guest-appearances playing a woman Savage's character meets in a bar, and of whom he says "she reminds me of a girl I grew up with!"

Ratings for the series didn't improve, however, and NBC canceled Working in January 1999. 35 of the 39 episodes produced were aired.

Theme song

The show used a sound-alike version of Devo's cover of the song "Working in the Coal Mine", set over top of scenes of work, including marching workers from the film Metropolis, frantic work scenes from Terry Gilliam's Brazil and office scenes from Billy Wilder's The Apartment. The vocals of the theme song were removed for the USA Network broadcasts.

Cast and characters

• Fred Savage as Matt Peyser
• Maurice Godin as Tim Deale
• Yvette Freeman as Evelyn Smalley
• Sarah Knowlton as Hal Blum (season 1)^[a]
• Arden Myrin as Abby Cosgrove^[a]
• Todd Waring (pilot only) and Steve Hytner as John Delaney
• Joey Slotnick (pilot only) and Dana Gould as Jimmy Clarke (season 1)
• Kate Hodge as Chris Grant (10 episodes, season 1)
• Rebecca McFarland as Val Gibson (season 2)
• Debi Mazar as Liz Tricoli (season 2)

Episodes

Series overview

Season	Episodes		Originally released
			First released	Last released
1	22		October 8, 1997 (1997-10-08)	May 18, 1998 (1998-05-18)
2	17		September 22, 1998 (1998-09-22)	January 25, 1999 (1999-01-25)

Season 1 (1997–98)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	1	"Pilot"	Andrew Tsao	Michael Davidoff & Bill Rosenthal	October 8, 1997 (1997-10-08)	14.57[1]
2	2	"Close Quarters"	James Widdoes	Sy Rosen	October 15, 1997 (1997-10-15)	9.39[2]
3	3	"Rumoring"	James Widdoes	Will Gluck	October 29, 1997 (1997-10-29)	11.75[3]
4	4	"Quick Out of the Gate"	Fred Savage	Ben Wexler	November 5, 1997 (1997-11-05)	11.42[4]
5	5	"Sexual Harassment"	James Widdoes	Phill Lewis	November 12, 1997 (1997-11-12)	13.07[5]
6	6	"Lost Weekend"	James Widdoes	Mike Langworthy	November 19, 1997 (1997-11-19)	11.38[6]
7	7	"Creative Matt"	James Widdoes	Steve Tompkins	December 3, 1997 (1997-12-03)	10.86[7]
8	8	"Top o' the World, Ma"	Andrew Tsao	Vicki S. Horwitz & Sy Rosen	December 10, 1997 (1997-12-10)	10.61[8]
9	9	"Medieval Christmas"	Andrew Tsao	Rob Cornick & Cory Jachnuk	December 17, 1997 (1997-12-17)	11.73[9]
10	10	"The Breakfast"	Andrew Tsao	Michael Davidoff & Bill Rosenthal	January 7, 1998 (1998-01-07)	13.13[10]
11	11	"Enemies: A Love Story"	Andrew Tsao	Will Gluck	January 14, 1998 (1998-01-14)	11.80[11]
12	12	"Sam I Am"	James Widdoes	Marsha Myers	January 21, 1998 (1998-01-21)	12.93[12]
13	13	"Boys Club"	Andrew Tsao	Michael Davidoff & Bill Rosenthal	January 28, 1998 (1998-01-28)	13.48[13]
14	14	"Hatchet Man"	James Widdoes	Vicki S. Horwitz	February 4, 1998 (1998-02-04)	12.76[14]
15	15	"Mum's the Word"	David Owen Trainor	Michael Davidoff & Bill Rosenthal	February 25, 1998 (1998-02-25)	9.31[15]
16	16	"As Bad As It Gets"	Andrew Tsao	Matt Goldman & Will Gluck	March 18, 1998 (1998-03-18)	13.79[16]
17	17	"Labor Pains"	Andrew Tsao	Noah Taft	March 25, 1998 (1998-03-25)	11.40[17]
18	18	"The Gold Digger"	Andrew Tsao	Ben Wexler	April 1, 1998 (1998-04-01)	10.05[18]
19	19	"Equality"	Robert Berlinger	Marsha Myers	April 15, 1998 (1998-04-15)	10.15[19]
20	20	"The Lying Game"	Linda Day	Rob Cornick & Cory Jachnuk	April 29, 1998 (1998-04-29)	11.03[20]
21	21	"Due Process"	Steve Zuckerman	Will Gluck & Matt Goldman	May 6, 1998 (1998-05-06)	8.13[21]
22	22	"The Brown Noser"	Andrew Tsao	Mark Wilding & Marsha Myers	May 13, 1998 (1998-05-13)	10.68[22]

Season 2 (1998–99)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	U.S. viewers (millions)
23	1	"Home-o-Apathy"	Andrew Tsao	Will Gluck	September 22, 1998 (1998-09-22)	12.40[23]
24	2	"The Closer"	Andrew Tsao	Rob Cornick & Cory Jachnuk	September 29, 1998 (1998-09-29)	12.35[24]
25	3	"Armageddon Outta Here"	Andrew Tsao	David Fury	October 27, 1998 (1998-10-27)	10.88[25]
26	4	"Performance Review"	Andrew Tsao	Steve Baldikoski & Bryan Behar	November 3, 1998 (1998-11-03)	8.70[26]
27	5	"Good Val Hunting"	Andrew Tsao	Noah Taft	November 10, 1998 (1998-11-10)	11.53[27]
28	6	"Networking"	Andrew Tsao	Beth Fieger Falkenstein	November 17, 1998 (1998-11-17)	10.37[28]
29	7	"A Boy, a Girl, and His Bird"	Andrew Tsao	Sy Rosen & Vicki S. Horwitz	December 1, 1998 (1998-12-01)	9.41[29]
30	8	"The Consultant"	Andrew Tsao	Mark Wilding	December 8, 1998 (1998-12-08)	9.05[30]
31	9	"Greenery"	Andrew Tsao	Will Gluck	December 18, 1998 (1998-12-18)	N/A
32	10	"The Christmas Party"	Andrew Tsao	Mark Wilding	December 22, 1998 (1998-12-22)	9.25[31]
33	11	"Romeo and Julie"	Andrew Tsao	Noah Taft	January 11, 1999 (1999-01-11)	5.62[32]
34	12	"The Retreat"	Andrew Tsao	Michael Davidoff & Bill Rosenthal	January 18, 1999 (1999-01-18)	6.64[33]
35	13	"The Prodigy"	David Owen Trainor	Bryan Behar & Steve Baldikoski	January 25, 1999 (1999-01-25)	6.73[34]
36	14	"Manifesto Destiny"	Andrew Tsao	Ben Wexler	Unaired	N/A
37	15	"The Other Executive"	Fred Savage	Marty Weiss	Unaired	N/A
38	16	"She Loves Me, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah"	Linda Day	David Rosenberg	Unaired	N/A
39	17	"Sliding Doors"	Andrew Tsao	Sy Rosen & Mark Wilding	Unaired	N/A

Awards

Year	Award	Category	Recipient	Result	Ref.
2000	Young Artist Awards	Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series – Young Performer Age Ten or Under	Sara Paxton	Won	[35]

Notes

1. Listed after Dana Gould and Steve Hytner in the opening credits from episode 2 on.