And how I have Judith Light to thank for my career
Read time: 4 minutes
I’m an 80’s child so when I was growing up, sitcoms ruled the airwaves. TGIF meant a whole lot more than the end of the week. It meant that Danny Tanner was headed for your living room, along with his Full House of adorable kids (and adult housemates that were waaay too old to not have their own accommodations). Balki Bartokomous was more than a Perfect Stranger and Steve Erkle showed me how much Family Matters.
As great as those characters were, I was fixated on ABC’s Terrific Tuesday lineup, anchored by what some claim to be the most defining television show of their lives (ok maybe just me). Tony and Sam Micelli didn’t just change the lives of Angela Bower, Mona and Jonathan on that beautiful fall day in Connecticut in 1984; they changed mine too.
While most teenage boys were starry eyed for Alyssa Milano, I was awestruck by Judith Light, the middle aged divorcee who held down a gig as an advertising executive at Wallace & McQuade in New York. It’s a weird thing to tell people that a sitcom set you off on your career path. Looking back though, the show was fairly accurate on what the ad industry had in store.
Angela’s character always seemed a bit stressed out. She often stayed at the office late and took her work home with her. Tony ended up being a lot more than a housekeeper, he picked up the kids from school, made lunches and dinners and made sure that there was adult supervision for those long nights Angela spent working on a client brief. The ad world is full of tight timelines and late night crash sessions getting ready for a big pitch. I think we could all use a Tony once in a while.
In season 3 Angela is fired from Wallace & McQuade after the agency loses a big account. It’s the 80’s so nobody was hiring in sitcom world or in the real world, forcing Angela to pick up work as a low paid copywriter. Angela ends up starting up her own agency soon after, but you can start to see why Angela is so tightly wound. The ad industry can be a rollercoaster of highs and lows, account wins and botched campaigns. In early 2008, the company I was with was crushing revenue targets and landing all kinds of new client projects, it was the glory days of my advertising life up to that point. 6 months later I was personally laying off colleagues and friends as the ad budgets froze up, almost overnight. That was the lowest point of my career.
Here’s a graph of Angela’s career, look familiar?
Client meetings, creative sessions, award shows. One day you’re wearing a three-piece suit, the next you’re sporting a pair of Chuck Taylor’s, faded jeans and an ironic t-shirt, because hey “you’re in advertising”. The Who’s the Boss gang may never have ended up on the cover of Vogue but considering it was the 80’s, Angela’s pant suits and shoulder pads would have made even Hilary Clinton jealous.
Angela dated colleagues, clients and even a boss or two before finally marrying her housekeeper. If you surveyed the ad industry you would find that 90% of them have had a fling/relationship/baby with someone from work. The other 10% are dating sports stars.
I’m definitely no exception; I met my wife, and the mother of our children, at work.
My family and friends still have no idea what I do for a living. It would be much easier if I could explain it, like if I was a doctor or a teacher. It’s become even harder to explain now that I have an adtech startup. No one knew what Angela Bower actually did either, she carried home big black display boards with cartoons drawn on them, she went to fancy dinners and she sat in on commercial and photo shoots. I stopped explaining my job years ago, I just ask people what their favorite commercial is, and then I say; “yeah, I made that one”.
Angela never explained was how fast the industry would change, and how exciting that would be. Hundred year old news giants are competing with basement bloggers for readers, we skip ads that suck and we share the ones we love. Big Data is now as important as the Big Idea and Google and Facebook are fighting over who has more insight on what you ate for breakfast.
It’s a crazy ride, a fun one, and I wish that Angela Bower was still around to watch it all happen. I guess I could always check in with Judith Light, although it seems like she’s moved on to a different kind of Tony.
What childhood TV show had the biggest impact on you? Add it to the comments or send me a note at jerrid@pressboard.ca
