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Style & Substance CBS, 1998
Chelsea Stevens (Jean Smart) is a one-woman cooking, decorating and entertaining machine who thinks every crisis can be solved by a decorative centerpiece. As America's reigning queen of domesticity, style, and gracious living, she has created a media empire consisting of magazines, video, and television spots. Enter small-town girl Jane Sokol (Nancy McKeon), who has been brought to the Big Apple to manage Chelsea's business after she sells it to Ferber Enterprises. Level-headed Jane goes head to head with neurotic control-freak Chelsea in her daily attempts to handle budgets and Chelsea's difficult staff -- not to mention Chelsea's meddling interference in her life. "When Jean's name came up for the part, I thought, 'Well, she'd be good,'" series creator Peter Tolan says. "That was the biggest disservice I did to her. She's great. She's a real comedic actress, and that's something that has been undervalued the last few years." Backing up Chelsea and Jane is a mildly amusing office staff that hits on every extreme stereotype we've been seeing for years. These characters include: gay interior designer Mr. John -- an older British man whose dialogue mostly involves his kinky private life, wisecracking food stylist Trudy -- whose dominant personality is repeatedly attributed to her being Jewish, and Chelsea's oh-so-charmingly inept secretary Terry. Recurring roles include Chelsea's obnoxious attorney Bobby and hick farmhand neighbor Earl (played by Alan Autry). Whether it was mocking or a tribute, critics could not help but notice the similarities between Chelsea and Martha Stewart -- who has been rumored to be difficult to work with. "I'm not trying to do an impression of her, but I've watched to get ideas of stuff that she does," Smart said. "We don't want to hurt her feelings, and we don't want to make fun of her." To alleviate any hard feelings, Style and Substance implied a rivalry between the two, suggesting Chelsea to be a Martha Stewart-wannabe. Despite raves over both Jean Smart's brilliant and energetic performance and Nancy McKeon's ability to sharply play the exasperated straight man, the show's office antics did not produce instant ratings, resulting in cancellation after only five episodes. Style and Substance returned as a summer fill-in and actually faired much better, but by then the network had written it off.
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