Mr. President (TV series)

Mr. President is an American sitcom created by Johnny Carson's company, Carson Productions, that starred George C. Scott and premiered on May 3, 1987. It was part of the Fox Broadcasting Company's premiere season of prime time entertainment, alongside Married... with Children, The Tracey Ullman Show, and Duet.

Mr. President
Carlin Glynn and George C. Scott
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Ed. Weinberger Johnny Carson
Written by	David Lloyd Johnny Carson Gene Reynolds Ed. Weinberger
Directed by	Marc Daniels
Starring	George C. Scott
Theme music composer	Patrick Williams
Composer	Bill Maxwell
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	24
Production
Executive producer	Gene Reynolds
Running time	30 min.
Production company	Carson Productions
Original release
Network	Fox
Release	May 3, 1987 (1987-05-03) – February 13, 1988 (1988-02-13)

Plot

The series centered around newly elected President Samuel Arthur Tresch, the former governor of Wisconsin. Others in the cast were Meg Tresch, Samuel's wife, who left him at the start of the second season, and Samuel's children, 16-year-old Cynthia and 12-year-old Nick. Charlie Ross was the Chief of Staff.

The show takes place in the near future relative to its airing: it is mentioned in the episode “Freedom of Speech” that Tresch won the 1988 United States presidential election and a newspaper headline in “Strange Bedfellows” indicates that the events of that episode take place around October 8, 1990. It is implied in “Loisgate” that Meg and Samuel separated in April 1991.

Cast

• George C. Scott ... President Samuel Arthur Tresch
• Conrad Bain ... Charlie Ross, the President's Chief of Staff
• Carlin Glynn ... First Lady Meg Tresch; she leaves the President at the beginning of the second season
• Maddie Corman ... Cynthia Tresch, the President's youngest daughter
• Susan Wheeler Duff ... Jennifer, the President's eldest daughter (married)
• Andre Gower ... Nick Tresch, the President's son
• Madeline Kahn ... Lois Gullickson, the President's sister-in-law; after the President's wife leaves him, she moves into the White House to help care for the children
• Earl Boen ... Dave
• Allen Williams ... Daniel Cummings

Production

In the summer of 1986, Johnny Carson went to the residence of George C. Scott to propose starring in a half-hour sitcom involving the day-to-day life of a man who "just happened to be the President of the United States", complete with 13 episodes as a premiere show for the upstart Fox Broadcasting Company, which had started in April. Scott found it an alluring challenge and chance to make a show better than the status quo type of programming. The result was a show that saw Scott butt heads with the attempts to emphasize gags and topical humor to go with shtick despite taking the time out of his Connecticut home to go to the West Coast (complete with a request for a motor home near the shooting stage) to volunteer services for story conferences. Scott came up with an idea for an episode where his character must appoint a Vice President and he picks a highly qualified black woman that sees repercussions ensue. However, the concept was rejected despite Scott paying a writer for a first draft, with Scott quoting the executive producer as saying, "I don't know how to do a story like that." In the buildup to the premiere, Carson described it as “not a situation comedy...I would call it more of a drama – with humor and with comedy and all the other emotions people have within a family", while Scott cited the talent alongside the chance to ensure his retirement with money.

The show was cancelled in the winter of 1987. Scott, describing the working situation as "positively Byzantine", wrote an article to the Los Angeles Times relating his experience with the show within a sardonic conversation between himself and his conscience (named Sam Tresch) after he had dealt with an acute myocardial infarction in January 1988; he stated that the show had managed to succeed only in "trivializing the presidency."

Episode list

Season 1 (1987)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
1	1	"Pilot"	Unknown	Unknown	May 3, 1987 (1987-05-03)
2	2	"The Magnetic Presidency"	Unknown	Unknown	May 10, 1987 (1987-05-10)
3	3	"Cabin Fever"	Unknown	Unknown	May 17, 1987 (1987-05-17)
4	4	"Freedom of Speech"	Unknown	Unknown	May 31, 1987 (1987-05-31)
5	5	"Meet the People"	Unknown	Unknown	June 7, 1987 (1987-06-07)
6	6	"Private Moments"	Unknown	Unknown	June 21, 1987 (1987-06-21)
7	7	"The First Son-in-Law"	Unknown	Unknown	June 28, 1987 (1987-06-28)
8	8	"Uncle Sam"	Burt Brinckerhoff	Bruce Feirstein	July 12, 1987 (1987-07-12)
9	9	"Strange Bedfellows"	Unknown	Unknown	July 19, 1987 (1987-07-19)
10	10	"Love's Labor Last"	Unknown	Unknown	July 26, 1987 (1987-07-26)

Season 2 (1987–1988)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
11	1	"Dear Sam: Part 1"	Greg Antonacci	Peter Noah	September 27, 1987 (1987-09-27)
12	2	"Dear Sam: Part 2"	Greg Antonacci	Peter Noah	October 4, 1987 (1987-10-04)
13	3	"Armageddon Kinda Sore"	Marc Daniels	David Cohen & Roger S.H. Schulman	October 11, 1987 (1987-10-11)
14	4	"He'll Have to Go"	Unknown	Sybil Adelman & Martin Sage	October 18, 1987 (1987-10-18)
15	5	"The Language Barrier"	Marc Daniels	David Lloyd	October 24, 1987 (1987-10-24)
16	6	"Loisgate"	Unknown	Unknown	October 31, 1987 (1987-10-31)
17	7	"Yes, Mr. President"	Marc Daniels	Christian Williams	November 7, 1987 (1987-11-07)
18	8	"Lois Gets Lucky"	Unknown	Sybil Adelman & Martin Sage	November 14, 1987 (1987-11-14)
19	9	"The President's Brother"	Unknown	Unknown	November 21, 1987 (1987-11-21)
20	10	"The Christmas Story"	Unknown	Unknown	December 26, 1987 (1987-12-26)
21	11	"Insecurity"	Unknown	Unknown	January 2, 1988 (1988-01-02)
22	12	"A Royal Send Off"	Unknown	Sybil Adelman & Martin Sage	January 16, 1988 (1988-01-16)
23	13	"All About Jean"	Unknown	Unknown	February 6, 1988 (1988-02-06)
24	14	"Get a Job"	Unknown	Unknown	February 13, 1988 (1988-02-13)

External links

• Mr. President at IMDb