Sitcom Title: One Day at a Time
Years Aired: 1975-1984
Stars: Bonnie Franklin, Mackenzie Phillips, Valerie Bertinelli, Pat Harrington Jr.
Feminist Focus: A family of females who struggle to define themselves and discover independence, success and happiness.
One Day at a Time was another in the string of successful sitcoms developed by Norman Lear. Bonnie Franklin starred as a recently divorced mother raising teenage daughters played by Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli. The feminism of One Day at a Time clearly presented ideas of the 1970s Women's Liberation Movement, yet was grounded in real day-to-day situations.
The Divorced Single Mother
Bonnie Franklin’s character epitomizes the feminism of One Day at a Time. Ann Romano has always been someone’s daughter or wife or mother; now she is striking out “on her own,” although this means "with her two teenage daughters." They all move to an apartment in Indianapolis, where they face life's challenges, tempered by doses of comic relief and their friendly but rough-around-the-edges building superintendent, Schneider.
The Daughters
Mackenzie Phillips' Julie is the older, more rebellious one, while Valerie Bertinelli’s Barbara is a bit more centered. Nonetheless, both grapple with serious issues including sexuality, birth control, drug use, infidelity and even a friend’s attempted suicide.
While the daughters don’t have perfect relationships with their mother, the family struggles together and the members love one another and help one another.
Some of the feminist issues One Day at a Time explores:
- Did a company that hired Ann do so to exploit her looks?
- Julie’s boyfriend pressures her to be intimate with him.
- Ann explores the singles bar dating scene with another divorced friend.
- Ann’s ex-husband says he can no longer pay child support.
- Barbara contemplates her self-image and beauty when her nose is broken.
Many other episodes deal with the continuing theme of independence. The women contend with relationships, harassment, love, fidelity, inappropriate advances, marriage, work, finances and finding themselves - Ann’s goal from the beginning of the series.