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The family life, romantic life, and career of Martin Tupper, a divorced New York City book editor. The show distinctively interjected clips from older black and white television series to punctuate Tupper's feelings or thoughts.
“A life like in the movies.”
Brian Benben
Martin Tupper
Wendie Malick
Judith Tupper Stone
Chris Demetral
Jeremy Tupper
Dorien Wilson
Eddie Charles
Denny Dillon
Toby Pedalbee
1991
During the filming of a movie about Judith's husband, Martin falls for the actress playing Judith, and Judith falls for the actor playing Richard.
Conclusion. Things heat up on the set of the Richard Stone biography, as the stars fall for each other.
1990
Martin Tupper, New York book editor and product of the first television generation, faces a crisis: his ex-wife-to-be, Judith, is demanding that he sign their divorce papers so that she can re-marry. Should he try to win her back, or is it time to get back in the dating game?
Martin, while fooling around with a much younger college girl (an Eddie Charles hook-up), ends up in the hospital. His doctor instructs him to change his lifestyle around to prevent another (possibly worse) incident. Top of the list? Cut out caffeine. Of course, he receives a lot of ridicule as he goes about this.
1994
A brother and sister screenwriting duo kidnap Little Richard and Martin from the Richard Stone UN Memorial Service, but the police assume Martin is the one responsible for the crime.
It's Richard Stone Memorial Day. It's also Martins Birthday, But no one cares. Martin and lil' baby Richard are kidnapped, and the media believe that Martin is the kidnapper.
Australians have bought Whitestone, and great change is in the air. Gibby Fiske makes his first appearance as the new boss at Whitestone, and he doesn't want to publish literature.
Cousin Phil visits, and informs Martin that he has split up with his wife (shrew). While in Martin's office, Phil sees Toby for the first time, and is smitten. Phil begs, and Martin helps Phil pursue Toby.
Martin, while putting away Jeremy's laundry, comes across an adult magazine and a joint. Martin informs Judith, and they agree that Martin will have a talk with Jeremy.
Martin goes to therapy for his performance problems, where he meets another patient with whom he begins a potentially volatile relationship.
Martin and Eddie are mugged, twice, after which Martin decides to protect himself with his 2nd amendment rights.
Eddie sets up Martin with the "ugly" sister to further his own advances toward his production assistant.
Martin gets his own TV show, "Book Beat," on public access cable station Q.
Martin's old flame dances into town and upends his life.
Martin admits having an affair; Jeremy takes disastrous advice on how to play spin the bottle.
Martin's latest fling, Charlotte, reveals more of her past than he's comfortable with.
The office gang invites Gibby to their "friendly" poker party.
Martin connects with his friend Bonnie, who is trying to become a comedienne. However, after her act bombs, she uses material from her relationship with Martin, making him uncomfortable, forcing him to end the relationship.
Martin takes Toby to his Aunt Minnie's wake on her birthday.
Worried that the divorce is the cause of Jeremy's poor concentration at school, Judith tells Martin that it's actually because of a crush on his teacher. After some wrangling with Judith, it's left to Martin to have 'the talk'.
Initially overjoyed by a whirlwind visit from his globe-trotting baby sister 'Beano', Martin finds it difficult to accept that she's more grown up than he imagined; and unfortunately, his best friend Eddie is part of the problem.
After being admonished by an old school friend for not becoming a famous writer, Martin feels galvanized to pick up the quill again—but are his central characters a little too close to home?
Martin accidentally finds himself dating a controlling, unstable woman.
In order to secure a much-needed vacation, Martin seduces a grieving widow for a tawdry book.
Martin dates a witch, and good things can't stop happening to him. Then Eddie needs surgery.
Martin bumps into a passionate woman in the laundry room, and she takes him for the ride of his life.
Martin decides to take an STD test so he can go condom-less with his girlfriend. Toby has a litter of puppies in the office.
Martin and Nina's relationship comes to a head when her environmental activism goes too far.
Bored after breaking up with Nina, Martin is phoning anybody and everybody when he accidentally takes a call meant for the suicide helpline.
Martin's new boss puts him in several compromising positions.
Judith worries about her upcoming marriage. Martin tries to console her.
Martin's pleasure at having attractive new female neighbors is mitigated when he discovers that they are prostitutes.
Martin's mother's will is read.
Martin is revolted when a fragile Judith falls into the arms of his hated boss Gibby Fiske.
Martin and Eddie attend their school reunion, where Martin is eager to make up for lost opportunities with a recently-separated old flame.
Martin feels inferior when he begins dating a member of high IQ society MENSA.
Toby nurses Martin back to health.
Gibby desires to publish Jeremy's novel.
Eddie plays the lead role in Martin's play.
Gibby hires Toby after she is fired by Martin.
Martin tries to get his son to convert to Judaism.
Mickey (Martin's father) moves into Martin's place.
1993
Martin gets a new video camera and inadvertently videotapes children's television celebrity Uncle Bouncy committing a sex act with a prostitute in a public alleyway. Martin opts to caution Bouncy himself about his behavior in person before turning the tape over to him. But, Bouncy's abusive and intransigent attitude convinces him to sell the offending footage to Eddie for broadcast on his show.
Martin needs to find a tenant for his empty apartment in a hurry when the other tenants renege on their agreement to move in. Meanwhile, Julie is pregnant by a French exchange student and she asks Martin to pay for an abortion. Kate confronts Martin when a bill comes from the gynecologist.
Martin is disgusted by the quality of the books Gibby is forcing him to edit, and his lack of appreciation. Meanwhile, Eddie is fired from his talk show and his wife Jeanette leaves him on the same day. Eddie begins to reassess his life and Martin encourages him to make a change, proposing they collaborate on creating an up market magazine.
Martin's divorced father Mickey comes back to live in New York. Martin fixes him up with Toby's mom Angie on a dinner date. He takes her home, but to Toby's irritation ‘does nothing' to her. Martin visits the one- bedroom apartment Mickey is sharing with apartment owner Roger.
Martin finds his bar mitzvah bonds in a closet and suddenly has extra cash. Toby encourages him to invest $5,000 in a fledgling business she is setting up offering stock tips over the phone, 555-TIPS. The business goes terribly, until a wrong number mistakes it for an S&M phone-sex chat line and stays on for hours. Seeing where the real money is, Toby employs the services of her family – Gina, Angie – in order to cover the phones.
Andre Williams, a militant black writer of Martin's, bemoans the lack of publicity for his new book ‘Yo! Homeboy', so Martin gets him a slot on Eddie's show. The appearance is a disaster, as Andre accuses Eddie of being ‘the world's whitest black dude'. Shortly thereafter, Eddie makes some changes in his life, trying to increase his 'blackness.'
Martin, Eddie and Judith meet up at a secluded cabin for a reunion with old friends. Martin has ongoing mutual antipathy with Allison, an old writing rival who has since gone onto fame and success as an author. Eddie is anxious at seeing Cara - a woman he slept with once and never called again, although on first meeting she doesn't recognise him except from his TV show.
The beautiful widow of a famous author brings a new unpublished novel by her late husband to Martin with the one caveat that he cannot reveal the true origin of the book, thus giving Toby the opportunity to accept the kudos for the bestseller.
It's summer, and New York is experiencing a chronic heatwave. Martin is sweltering in his apartment due to broken air-conditioning. He seeks out his building's new super, a gorgeous woman named Debra. After fixing the fan, the two of them go all the way in torrid fashion, and all is well until . . .
It's the Whitestone office party, and Martin is less than thrilled to be there, until he notices a hottie making eyes at him from across the room. He gets to know the woman, Alannah, better during the evening. Afterwards, Martin bumps into Gibby and is surprised when he shows off Alannah as his latest plaything. In the days following, Martin is paranoid that Gibby suspects he and Alannah are carrying on behind his back.
When Jeremy visits his dad's apartment to watch a movie, Martin isn't happy to discover he's had a tattoo of a skull done on his arm. Judith drops by with Jeremy's bag and Martin brings the tattoo to her attention, but she is slightly less vocal in her condemnation than Martin. Judith asks Martin to talk rationally with Jeremy, but Martin decides that punishment is a better response.
Martin is excited by the prospect of hooking up with an old school friend who he bumps into at Judith's birthing class, but when the irresponsible father reappears on the scene, he suddenly has a rival.
Martin and Judith take a pre-Xmas drive and get stranded in a barn, Eddie is stood up by a girlfriend and spends Xmas in a bar with Santa Claus, Toby wants to become a nun and Jeremy's special Xmas present from his girlfriend doesn't quite go according to plan.
Martin and Judith take a pre-Xmas drive and get stranded in a barn, Eddie is stood up by a girlfriend and spends Xmas in a bar with Santa Claus, Toby wants to become a nun and Jeremy's special Xmas present from his girlfriend doesn't quite go according to plan.
Martin's sister Susan wants to get married in a small ceremony without the family knowing. Nevertheless, the whole family ends up getting involved, planning a big wedding party.
Martin is blinded in a bizarre accident.
Martin's girlfriend takes a job as his ex-wife's nanny.
Toby falls in love with a priest.
Trouble in their romantic relationship may spell the end of a book collaboration for two writers (Donna Mills and Jake Steinfeld), and it's up to Martin to help them work things out.
Gibby takes a vacation, leaving Martin in charge of Whitestone with one simple condition – he has to fire one of the company's book editors. Judith is depressed when her patient commits suicide.
Unbeknownst to Martin, Jeremy uses Eddie's empty bachelor pad to attempt to score with a hot teen TV star.
Martin runs into old high school love Cheryl Castorini, but suspects she may be keeping a secret about their former relationship from him.
Martin's irritating mother comes to New York for plastic surgery, but things take a turn for the worst when she has a heart attack on the operating table.
Martin tries to cheer Toby up when her cat dies by buying her a replacement. When she refuses the gift, he has to keep the pet himself.
Richard, Judith, Jeremy and the baby are moving to Washington D.C. Martin is despondent, but events take an unexpected turn.
1992
Martin's romance with Sandra comes to an abrupt halt when he learns that she is the wife of a candidate for the Senate.
Martin decides to date Sandra regardless of the consequences.
Toby is plagued by nightmares in which she murders Martin in gruesome scenes of violence.
Gibby convinces a reluctant Martin that the big Xmas book should be the memoirs of a gay man dying of AIDS.
Martin is told he will have to take a pay cut, so he quits his job, only to find things are even worse elsewhere.
When Richard misses his and Judith's second anniversary, she confides to Martin that all is not well in their marriage.
Martin decides that Jeremy's tough and sarcastic new girlfriend Clair is a bad influence and forbids him from seeing her.
Martin convinces Toby to marry Gibby so that he can get his green card, but becomes annoyed when the wedding plans disrupt her work.
When Martin's parents arrive for Jeremy's thirteenth birthday, they announce they are getting a divorce.
Eddie invites Martin to a Talk Show Digest awards night, where they are both approached by a beautiful woman called Alisha.
Martin runs into his hero, author Elliot Sterns (Patrick MacNee) and manages to spoil a romantic evening out.
Martin's new girlfriend has just come out of a bad relationship. She and her former lover, Ryan, had many problems before their breakup. But now Ryan is trying to rekindle their relationship despite her new relationship with Martin. Now Martin finds himself competing against her former lover, and Ryan has qualities that may be more than Martin can compete with.
Martin has a great date with Jeanette, a writer's agent who happens to be black.
When Judith convinces Martin its time to split up their photographs, they take a trip down memory lane.
After having had lunch with a fellow editor, Martin is shocked to find him dead at his desk.
A Blumberg family reunion has everyone's nerves on edge.
Martin plans for a weekend break are dashed.
Martin courts disaster when he throws a raucous bachelor party.
Martin overreacts when he suspects that Jeremy has begun to have sex.
Martin falls for Judith's new housekeeper (Salma Hyack).
Martin does battle with a rat.
Ellen, a beautiful writer of Martin's, asks him to her apartment, with an unusual request that he conceive a child with her. After talking it over with Jude, he accepts under the impression that he'll get to make love to her, but she only wants him to donate semen.
Gibby foists his possibly illegitimate son and Whitestone's newest editor upon Martin - Alex Farmer. Toby takes an immediate dislike to Alex and his secretary Skylar.
Martin is seeing a college girl, but then he meets her mother and has a crush on her. The only problem he has to overcome now is that she hates him.
Following directly from the previous episode, all of Martin's hopes seem shattered when Kate appears unimpressed, but, touched by his clumsy attempt at romance, she finally accepts his offer of a date . . .
Everything seems to be going great in one of Martin's relationships. He and Kate couldn't be happier, and they plan on living together at Martin's apartment.
1995
Martin has trouble climaxing and is referred to a therapist. Through hypnotism, she leads him to suspect he is repressing the memory of childhood abuse.
Martin tries to seduce Judith's best friend from college, but she only has eyes for someone else…
Martin looks for a new best friend, after Eddie decides to move to LA to join a sitcom.
Under pressure from Gibby to get an elite writer, Martin attempts to lure the writer dating Toby (who coincidentally, is an award-winning author).
Martin dates a woman that acts strange in public, and yet, is an etiquette expert.
Jeremy's math teacher is the cause for Jeremy's low math grade.
Martin's life is examined after he dies.
After Jeremy chooses to go to Richard Stone's induction into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame instead of with Martin on a Father's Day canoeing trip, Martin reluctantly tags along. In typical Tupper fashion, he goes home with a girl named Katrina that he meets there. It turns out that she has 2 interesting, but related surprises for Martin.
This picks up with Martin and Katrina struggling to write songs for the new Crevice album. Katrina suffers from a light writer's block, and ends up taking inspiration from Martin's college poetry. Crevice breaks up over the creative changes, and Katrina debuts her first single as a solo artist on Eddie's show. The fan's are not pleased.
Martin's building goes co-op, and to be able to afford purchasing his apartment/condo, he dates Gibby's insane sister.
Martin dates Judith's sister.
Toby is in a rut. Uses self-help book.
Martin needs to make some quick money, so he writes for pornographic movies.
Martin tries to get a homeless woman's memoirs.
Eddie learns that he was adopted.
Martin's friend likes Toby.
Martin and Judith visit Jeremy at college. Sparks ignite.
With their relationship rekindled, Judith suggests that she and Martin join a support group for couples on their second time around.
Martin moves into Judith's high-tech apartment.
Gibby picks Martin to represent Whitestone at the Chicago Book Fair, informing him with one weeks notice. This means a ton of extra work and pregnant Toby doesn't really feel up to it, so Martin suggests they take on a temp to lighten the load. Toby offers up her cousin Louie, and although initially reluctant, Martin assents, giving him a trial period to prove himself.
Flashback episode: Martin's fortieth birthday is approaching fast and Eddie insists on throwing him a party. Unfortunately, Judith is planning a party of her own thus bringing them into conflict. Martin suggests compromise by urging them to plan the party together. As they argue over the details, they reminisce over their past disagreements.
At a Salary Review Meeting, Gibby has some good news for Martin; Martin's to be put in charge of his own division at Whitestone, a quality publishing imprint called Camelot New Press. Things get off to a bad start however when the first round of author interviews yield nothing. Through a quirk of fate, Martin remembers an old manuscript he admired, ‘The Barrel Maker' by Julian Keppel and stays up all night reading it. He contacts the emotionally fragile author and promises to make it Whitestone's next bestseller.
Martin thinks things are getting out of hand after Judith discovers "some little tricks" to improve her sex life.
Judith plans a dinner party for their couple friends, so she suggests that Martin not invite currently single Eddie. When Eddie finds out, he makes Martin feel guilty until he invites him, but the evening doesn't go well. Eddie has nothing in common with the couples and so he storms out. Next day, Martin and Judith meet a recently separated friend, Rema, whom Martin invites to their apartment for dinner, planning to also invite Eddie and match them up. Eddie begins spending all his time with Rema and hardly sees Martin.
Martin's old apartment is becoming a huge money pit, costing him exorbitant maintenance fees and so he resolves to get rid of it. He has a meeting with Irwin Bader who isn't optimistic of getting much over $1,500, even though he sold it to Martin for $2,400. Libby expresses an interest on behalf of her son, but Martin passes on the idea.
Preparing for Eddie's wedding, Martin questions whether or not he has a future with Judith.
Martin and Judith learn Dr. Stone might be defrosted and revived.
