"It's not as though [the ten commandments] were written in stone, darling."
December 25, 2011 12:22 AM Subscribe
The Powers That Be was a short-lived, irreverent sitcom about a dim US Senator (John Forsythe, in his last major starring role on television) and his dysfunctional family, that aired on NBC between 1992 and 1993. Created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, who would go on to create
Friends, the show co-starred David Hyde Pierce (pre-
Frasier) as the Senator's
suicidal son-in-law.
Norman Lear was one of the show's executive producers.
"Several of the show's principals subsequently became involved in long-running and popular sitcoms created after the show's demise: series creators Crane and Kauffman went on to develop Friends, Joseph Gordon-Levitt took a role in 3rd Rock from the Sun, Robin Bartlett played a recurring part on Mad About You, Peter MacNicol would soon reach fame with a similar eccentric character (as John Cage) in Ally McBeal, and David Hyde Pierce was chosen for his role as Niles Crane in the series Frasier partly on the basis of his work in this program. Holland Taylor also went on to greater sitcom stardom later in the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men."
Only 19
episodes were produced, all of which are now available on YouTube:
Season I
* Episode 1, Parts
1,
2,
3.
4,
5
* Episode 2, Parts
1,
2,
3
* Episode 3, Parts
1,
2,
3
* Episode 4, Parts
1,
2,
3
* Episode 5, Parts
1,
2,
3
* Episode 6, Parts
1,
2,
3
* Episode 7, Parts
1,
2,
3
Season II
* Episode 1, Parts
1,
2,
3,
4,
5
* Episode 2, Parts
1,
2,
3
* Episode 3, Parts
1,
2,
3
* Episode 4, Parts
1,
2,
3
* Episode 5, Parts
1,
2,
3
* Episode 6, Parts
1,
2,
3
* Episode 7, Parts
1,
2,
3
* Episode 8, Parts
1,
2,
3
* Episode 9, Parts
1,
2,
3
* Episode 10, Parts
1,
2,
3
* Episode 11, Parts
1,
2,
3
* Episode 12, Parts
1,
2,
3
posted by zarq (21 comments total)
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posted by taff at 1:17 AM on December 25, 2011 [2 favorites]