Webster (TV Series) - Synopsis

Synopsis

The show, set in Chicago, revolves around Webster Long (Emmanuel Lewis), a 5-year-old African American orphan whose biological parents, Travis and Gert Long, were recently killed in a car accident. He is taken in by his godfather, retired football star George Papadopolis (Alex Karras), with whom Travis had played professional football in the 1970s, and his wife Katherine (Susan Clark), an upper crust socialite with zero housekeeping skills. George and Katherine's new married life was part of the premise, but it was Webster who was the main focus of the show. The Papadopolises lived in a luxurious high-rise apartment in Chicago, with burly George now working as a sportscaster at local station WBJX-TV, and Katherine working as a consumer advocate, later becoming an accomplished family psychologist.

Although the series is set in Chicago, the apartment complex shown in exterior shots of the first two seasons is actually The Mirabella condominium building, located at 10430 Wilshire Blvd, in the Westwood district of Los Angeles, California.

Sarcastic social climber Jerry Silver (Henry Polic II) was Katherine's male secretary, as well as her professional and personal confidant. Webster also had an uncle, Phillip Long (Ben Vereen) who first appeared near the end of the first season. Phillip had issues with Webster living with a white couple (creating acrimony between him and George) and sought to adopt him and take him to live in Chicago's South Side. After his numerous attempts at this during the second season, Phillip moved to Hollywood to launch an acting career. In the later seasons, Phillip would return in a few guest appearances.

Shortly after being adopted, Webster starting calling George by his first name but calling Katherine "Ma'am." In one episode Katherine asked Webster why he used such a formal name, and he explained that he was calling her as close to "Mom" as he could without disrespecting his birth mother. George often called Webster "Web."

Shortly into the second season, Webster accidentally burned down the family's apartment with a science kit and the family moved to a large Victorian house located at 1432 North State Parkway in Chicago's Gold Coast (41°54′32″N 87°37′44″W / 41.908825°N 87.628949°W / 41.908825; -87.628949). Bill and Cassie Parker (Eugene Roche and Cathryn Damon) were the gregarious middle-aged couple who leased the house to the Papadopolises during the show's second and third seasons. Bill, a master craftsman, installed secret passageways throughout the house, which Webster explored when he, George and Katherine were first taking a tour of the property.

A ladder built against the basement wall led Webster into the closet of a mysterious bedroom, where he encountered a life-like doll moving in a rocking chair, and other spooky sights. Everyone soon found Webster in the bedroom after he was unable to escape, which forced Bill and Cassie to reveal why they were having second thoughts about renting the house. Their daughter Maggie, at age 16, had run away and had only been sending her parents letters without a return address, as a way to assure them that she was alive. Bill, more so than Cassie, had wanted to preserve Maggie's bedroom (life-size doll and all) for the day she would finally come home. After the Papadopolises displayed compassion over their story, and after some convincing by Cassie and Webster, Bill relented, letting the family take the house. The Parkers took a basement apartment, with Cassie and Katherine becoming good friends and Bill and George being less so--but time softened them up. A thread of drama was added when Maggie (guest star Jennifer Holmes) appeared for a tearful-reunion episode, complete with a son. The Parkers also had a son named Regis, who was referred to but never seen.

Many more of Webster's friends and classmates passed through, including Rob Whitaker (Chad Allen). A recent "divorce kid" living with his mother, Rob was kidnapped by his father in one episode, and the Papadopolises and the community rallied to help Rob's mother find him. When he returned, it was Katherine who successfully intervened with his father. Later in the third season, Rob's last name inexplicably became Joiner. Bill and Cassie disappeared after the third season; Cathryn Damon had left the series upon having been diagnosed with ovarian cancer (which ultimately took her life in May 1987), and instead of recasting her role, Eugene Roche was dropped as well so that their characters would not have to be used. As the fourth season opened, George and Katherine bought the Parkers' house outright.

Jerry, who was a more prominent member of the show in the first season (receiving the "co-starring" heading in the opening credits after the show's three leads), had since become an occasional character, but would continue for the entire series. George's jovial aging father, George Sr. (Jack Kruschen), known to all as "Papa" Papadopolis, began appearing occasionally in the fall of 1985. The following season, three more of Webster's friends/classmates had recurring roles.

Over the course of the fourth season, ratings dropped sharply. The show, which had been a Nielsen top 30 series, ranked 46th by the end of the season. Although ABC still saw Emmanuel Lewis especially as a bankable star, having recently featured him in his first self-headlined primetime special (Emmanuel Lewis: My Very Own Show, which aired in February 1987 and featured Lewis performing alongside Sammy Davis, Jr., Bob Hope and other big-name celebrities), the network felt that Webster was past its peak in terms of ratings, and was unsure that it would ever regain the higher numbers it had during the early seasons. Having been the Friday night 8 p.m. anchor since March 1985, Webster moved back to the "protected" time slot of 8:30/7:30 on Fridays in March 1987. ABC announced the series' cancellation in May.