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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: January 4, 1987
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Charles in Charge, “Amityville” (season 2, episode 1). [Stream on Amazon Video.]
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: Not only was Charles in Charge a pioneer in the ’80s trend of first-run syndication being a viable home for cancelled network shows (something that Baywatch made famous), but it also blew the lid off of some little-known facts about property law, eminent domain, and child custody. People often forget that.
In its first season (airing on CBS), Charles in Charge had a simple enough premise. Former Happy Days star and future political kingmaker Scott Baio starred as Charles, a nice-guy college student who made ends meet by working as a live-in babysitter to a family’s three kids. Who were those kids? No one is now alive who remembers. The important thing is that despite having one of the all-time best TV theme songs, Charles was not successful enough for CBS and they dumped it. And when the show was revived for a second season in first-run syndication, a makeover was called for.
Which is why the first episode of the second season of Charles in Charge began with a transfer of property heretofore unseen in life or on TV. The original family, the Pembrokes, moved to Seattle and sublet their home to the Powells. And along with the furniture and the plumbing, so came Charles, whose nanny services were apparently tied to the home forever.
So for the rest of the series run — which lasted five seasons in total — it was Charles taking care of the Powells, including an eldest daughter (and hair-crimping hall-of-famer) Nicole Eggert, who would later star on Baywatch, making her the undisputed Queen of late-’80s first-run syndication.
While it’s no surprise that a mid-level sitcom like Charles in Charge failed to invite serious scholarly analysis, it’s worth wondering why no one ever investigated the strangeness of this mid-season transfer of property. Was Charles indentured to the home? Did he live there long enough to achieve squatter’s rights? Perhaps the darkest possibility of all is the correct one: Charles was in fact not a man but a poltergeist unable to ever leave the confines of his home. The best piece of evidence for this theory? The first episode with the Powells is titled “Amityville.” AMITYVILLE! Only the most famous movie/real-life story of a haunted house ever! Case-closed. Charles is a ghost. Somebody tell Buddy.
