We Got It Made

1983 NBC version

The show focuses on Mickey Mackenzie (Teri Copley), a girl in her early 20s who applies for a housekeeping job in Manhattan. Her employers are two bachelors who share the two-bedroom apartment—conservative attorney David Tucker (Matt McCoy) and goofy, idealistic salesman Jay Bostwick (Tom Villard). Mickey is the first—and-only applicant for the job; in fact, both David and Jay are so taken by her beauty, they immediately hire her.

Both David and Jay had girlfriends—David's was Claudia (Stepfanie Kramer, who left midway through the first season and found far greater fame on the NBC crime drama, Hunter), while Jay dated kindergarten teacher Beth Sorensen (Bonnie Urseth). Both Claudia and Beth were skeptical about their boyfriends having such an attractive maid living with them, but they eventually grew to accept Mickey as a friend.

When it first premiered, We Got It Made looked to be successful, winning its time slot early in the run. Before long, though, negative reviews from both critics and the general viewing public eroded its viewership. NBC moved the series from its original Thursday night berth to Saturdays in January 1984. The change in its night and time did little in keeping the series on the air; in March 1984, We Got It Made was cancelled.

1987 syndicated version

We Got It Made was revived in first-run syndication for the 1987-1988 season as part of NBC's "Prime Time Begins at 7:30" campaign, in which the network's owned-and-operated stations ran first-run sitcoms in the 7:30-8:00 pm time slot to counterprogram competing stations' game shows, sitcom reruns, and other offerings. However, the series was picked up by non-NBC stations, as well.

Teri Copley and Tom Villard were the only returning cast members, Jay and Beth no longer were a couple (Bonnie Urseth had decided not to participate this time), and David was now played by John Hillner. David, Jay, and Mickey had new neighbors, as well—policeman Max Papavasiolios Sr. (Ron Karabatsos) and his son, Max Jr. (Lance Wilson-White). Mickey seemed to allow greater physical attention—and affection—from the now-single Jay and David, but at the same time, she doted on them as if they were her young sons. She also had a special relationship with teenaged Max, who frequently came to her for advice in attracting and dealing with women, although he would have preferred putting that advice to use on Mickey alone.

As they had with the NBC version, critics lambasted the series, and We Got It Made lasted only one season in syndication. The series' final original episode was released on March 30, 1988, with reruns airing until the week of September 3, 1988, in most markets.

Cast

Season 2

Runner - Russ Timmins. (Summer 1987)

In popular culture

Around the original network airing of the show, SCTV did a satirical television ad for a show starring Pirini Scleroso (Andrea Martin) called 'We Got a Maid' in which Pirini is the maid to two bachelors instead of the expected Teri Copley type that people would usually see.