InsidePulse DVD Review – Charles in Charge – Season One

Credit: Amazon.com

Creators:

Barbara Weisberg
Michael Jacobs

Cast:

Scott Baio ………. Charles
Julie Cobb ………. Jill Pembroke
James Widdoes ………. Stan Pembroke
April Lerman ………. Lila Pembroke
Jonathan Ward ………. Douglas Pembroke
Michael Pearlman ………. Jason Michael Pembroke
Willie Aames ………. Buddy Lembeck
Jennifer Runyon ………. Gwendolyn Pierce

The Show

“New boy in the neighborhood…
Lives downstairs and it is understood…
He’s there just to take good care of me…
Like he’s one of the family.

And I sing, I want…
I want Charge in Charge of me!”

Scott Baio was on a little show called ‘Happy Days’, a popular TV show in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. He played Charles “Chachi” Arcola. He was teen idol for millions of teenage girls during this time. His popularity on that show led to his own spin-off, ‘Joanie Love Chachi’ in 1982. That didn’t work out quite that well, but girls still loved Scott Baio. That led to ‘Charles in Charge’.

Scott Baio plays Charles. We never know his last name. He is just Charles and he is in charge. Charles is a college student who moves in with the Pembroke family in Season 1. He doesn’t pay rent, but he does help take care of the Pembroke children and the house. So in a way this show was like ‘Who’s the Boss’ in that Scott Baio and Tony Danza both are Italian-Americans who are nanny/maids for a family. The Pembroke family consists of a mother and father and three children. You had teenager, Lila, middle-schooler, Douglas, and 10-year-old, Jason. In addition to the Pembroke family, Charles has his best friend, Buddy, and sometimes girlfriend, Gwendolyn, to help him along the way.

This show is like ‘The A-Team’ to me. I remember watching the episodes as a little kid, but I didn’t remember what happened on the shows. But this show is more 80’s fun. It’s silly at times, but it’s funny. Charles and Buddy are a great comedic duo and Charles and the kids have a good chemistry with each other as well.

Now I must tell you that I think that the next season with the new family, the Powells, is a lot funnier. That may be due to the fact that the superhott Nicole Eggert is part of the Powell family. This first season is the only season to be on network TV, though. I didn’t know that. But it’s true. I think it got cancelled for a few years because it was too much like ‘Who’s the Boss?’. It came back in syndication with the new seasons and new family and I’m glad it did. I would have actually liked to have seen more from the Pembrokes as their family really felt real.

This season also features guest appearances by Meg Ryan and Matthew Perry before they both went on to become big stars. It’s weird to see them here at such a young age, but it’s cool to see them at the same time.

This is not a serious show. It’s a fun little 80’s show that is really funny at times. The chemistry between all the actors on this show is what made this show work. Mainly Scott Baio as Charles and Willie Aames as Buddy carry the show as they were the only ones to advance to the next season. But everyone in this first season play their parts well and help setup funnier and better seasons of this show!

Episodes:

Disc One:

Episode 1 – Pilot
Charles takes his first task for the Pembroke family, watching over the three Pembroke kids, Jason, Lila, and Douglas, for the evening. But when the girl of his dreams finally accepts his invitation for a date, it’s all Charles can do to keep his heart and home from falling to pieces before the night is over.

Episode 2 – Extracurricular Activity
Charles encourages the Pembroke kids to take on some new exciting after-school activities. But when the kids find frustration rather than fulfillment, it’s up to Charles to show them how to make bonus points with the team.

Episode 3 – Another Saturday Night
Gwendolyn, Charles’ girlfriend, goes on a warpath when she discovers that Charles has been spending time at a singles’ hot spot with his friend, Buddy. Gwendolyn and Buddy get into an argument and Charles has to cool things off between them or lose one of them for good.

Episode 4 -War
Charles is asked to spend some time with Jane, the pretty girl the Wilsons want to hire to watch their kids. But with Jane’s easygoing style, the normally mild-mannered kids quickly run wild and develop new ways of antagonizing their two sitters.

Episode 5 – Cousin Elliot
Charles is on top of the world after winning his softball game, but his good day ends when Cousin Elliot arrives with some lenient ideas about how to raise children.

Episode 6 – Slumber Party
The battle of the sexes heats up when Charles swears off women after a fight with Gwendolyn, only to find out that Lila has invited over all her girlfriends for an overnight party.

Episode 7 – Discipline
It’s grade time for the youngest members of the Pembroke household, and no one is very happy with the results. When Charles reluctantly goes to Douglas’ school to face his teacher, he finds he still has a lot to learn about responsibility himself.

Episode 8 – Trick or Treat
Buddy is afraid he won’t be able to mask his nervousness with his date for the Halloween Ball, and he asks Charles for help. But when Gwendolyn spies Charles and the girl together, the guys must come up with some clever tricks to set the matter straight.

Disc Two:

Episode 9 – A Date with Enid
The Pembroke family has a bad case of the rainy-day blues until Douglas meets Lila’s friend, Enid, and falls in love with her. Lila and Charles are recruited to help make Enid more attractive, but the situation quickly changes from desire to disaster.

Episode 10 – Friends & Lovers
In a true test of their relationship, Charles and Gwendolyn decide to “see” other people, but Charles becomes blind with jealousy when Gwendolyn has no problem finding new guys to date.

Episode 11 – Home for the Holidays
There’s nothing like the family for the holidays, and Charles has his hands full when his trip home to Vermont is interrupted by a sudden snowstorm. Instead, he’s forced to spend a chilly holiday with Grandma Irene Pembroke.

Episode 12 – Accidental Puppy
Bruce Springsteen fever is in the air. Charles, Buddy, and Gwendolyn unsuccessfully wait on a curb for two days to get tickets to the upcoming concert. Meanwhile, Jason and Douglas bring home a dog they found, but Charles must convince the boys that they can’t keep what doesn’t belong to them.

Episode 13 – The Commotion
Charles is in a race against the clock to finish his assignment for the school paper, but there’s not a minute to spare with everyone screaming for attention in the Pembroke household. It’s up to Charles to resolve everyone’s problems fast, before his deadline.

Episode 14 – Mr. President
Charles hits the campaign trail when Gwendolyn convinces him to run for student body president. After he’s slammed at the debate by his opponent, he reorganizes his virtually nonexistent campaign strategy, and in the end the best person for the job wins.

Episode 15 – Jill’s Decision
When Jill rushes to an assignment that could give her a big promotion, Charles scrambles to take care of the kids and still keep his date with Michelle. Later, Charles and Michelle comes to the hilarious conclusion that their plans don’t have to be fancy to be romantic, while Jill realizes that maybe being a “career mom” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Episode 16 – Pressure from Grandma
It’s vacation time for the Pembrokes, which means that Charles is in charge of the kids and Grandma Irene for an entire week. When Grandma Irene tries to tempt Charles to join her in a new venture, Charles must decide if he really needs a break from his current job with the kids.

Disc Three:

Episode 17 – Snowed In
Cabin fever strikes when the Pembrokes get stuck at a movie theater during a blizzard, leaving Charles in charge of the kids and a group of Lila’s girlfriends with no heat and no food in the house.

Episode 18 – Charles “R” Us
Money woes force Charles and Buddy to create a business that will train students to be household helpers. But in the process of training their new recruits, Charles and Buddy discover that they may need a helping hand themselves.

Episode 19 – Charles’ Spring Break
It’s spring break and the sunny Florida shores are beckoning Charles and his friends. But when they finally save enough money to go, Charles finds that there really is no such thing as a true vacation from the Pembroke family.

Episode 20 – The Wrong Guy
Matters of the heart take an unusual twist when Lila asks Charles for support in dating a boy her parents despise, and Douglas needs some serious advice after he receives his first kiss.

Episode 21 – Mr. Brilliant
In an attempt to do something nice for Mrs. Pembroke, Charles invites one of her former schoolmates to dinner, despite Mr. Pembroke’s hesitation. The meal quickly goes from bad to worse with the arrival of the unpleasant and condescending guest of honor.

Episode 22 – Meet Grandpa
Everyone is very excited about upcoming vacation plans as Buddy and Charles prepare for their summer jobs at a resort. But when the kid’s grandfather arrives with an important announcement, everyone soon realizes that family always comes first.

Score: 6/10

The Video:

The video is given in fullscreen color with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Transfer is decent with minimal distortion. Colors look bright. Looks as good as the 80’s can look!

The Audio:

The audio included is in English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono sound. No problems here either. No need to turn up the volume or anything like that. But with some of the 80’s sound, you might want to.

The Extras:

Bonus Episode from Season 2
This is the first episode of the next season of ‘Charles in Charge’, which happened two years after season one. Charles and Buddy go on a two-week camping trip, and when they return they find that the Pembrokes are moving to Seattle and a new family, the Powells, are moving in. Can Charles find his place in this new family or is it time to join Buddy in the wild life of a college bachelor? This is a sneak peak at the next great season of this show. I say again that the Powell family is better than the Pembroke family, so I’m glad they had this little taste of them here.

The Great 80’s TV Flashback
This is a half-hour look at some of the great TV shows from the 1980’s. It talked about how 1980’s TV shows changed the landscape of television. TV shows included in this talk were ‘Charles in Charge’, ‘Miami Vice’, ‘The A-Team’, ‘Magnum P.I.’, ‘Knight Rider’, ‘Simon & Simon’, ‘Murder, She Wrote’, ‘Quantum Leap’, ‘Gimme a Break!’, and ‘Kate & Allie’. All of these shows were about having fun, even if some of the things they did were so unbelievable!

Score: 3/10