Plot

Seven tricenarians living in Philadelphia struggle with everyday adult angst.

Hope and Michael are a married couple in their thirties, living in Philadelphia and struggling with everyday adult angst. Michael runs an ad agency with his friend Elliot, whose marriage to Nancy is beginning to show the cracks of age, as is the friendship between Hope and her best friend Ellyn. Michael's best friend Gary is trying to get over his mutually-destructive affair with Michael's cousin Melissa and get on with his womanizing life. It sounds like just another soap, but is given a unique atmosphere by the production team (the Bedford Falls company, also responsible for "My So-Called Life") whose intelligent scripts, believable characters, and frequent dips into the slightly-surreal world of the characters' minds places the series as one of the highlights of the late 1980s.—Spiral Lobster <discordia@tanagra.demon.co.uk>

Sensitive, introspective adults or self-absorbed, whiny yuppies? That debate still rages around this drama series about a group of close-knit friends in Philadelphia. Michael and Elliot, colleagues at a large ad agency, leave those jobs to open an agency of their own. Hope, Michael's overachieving wife, finds her attention divided between their new baby Janey, and her dreams of becoming a publishing executive. Elliott's wife Nancy likewise had to give up her former bohemian life as an aspiring artist to raise their two children. Melissa, Michael's photographer cousin, covets both a stellar career and a stunningly handsome life partner. Gary, the college professor who is Michael's best friend, is chronically afflicted with Peter Pan syndrome. And Ellyn, Hope's longtime friend, is a neurotic businesswoman.—Jwelch5742