From Charles Bronson to Charles in Charge, and the cone of ignorance that is Scott Baoi.
Who’s Charles, and why is he in charge?
America in the 80s saw a boom in sitcoms. This is a much larger topic and one I might cover in more detail later; suffice to say, one such sitcom to emerge from this era was Charles in Charge. It ran for 5 seasons (1984-1990). The story is set around a male live-in nanny/chaperone who gets involved in a variety of typical sitcom scenarios, all while being the caretaker to a bunch of kids, each with their own “totally original” personalities. (Geez, parents spending too much time being 80s yuppies to look after their kids, they had to hire Hollywood creep Scott Baio).
To the show’s credit, it was fairly progressive to have a male lead take on the role of caregiver, a somewhat fresh concept for its time in the mid 80s, where the mindset of child care was still firmly female-led. However, this same concept was achieved much better in Full House (87-95) and Three Men and a Baby (87). and Mr.Mom (83).
The title character, Charles, is played by suspender stretching Scott Baio. Also starring hoarder of A’s, Willie Aames, who played Charles’ wacky best friend “Buddy” and Jennifer Runyon, who played Gwendolyn Pierce, a girl waaaaay out of Charles’ league. The series was created by Michael Jacobs & Barbara Weisberg.
Season one featured the Pembroke family.
James Widdoes…………………Stan Pembroke
Julie Cobb……………………………Jill Pembroke
April Lerman………………………..Lila Pembroke
Jonathan Ward……………..Douglas Pembroke
Michael Pearlman…………….Jason Pembroke
Due to the uncertainty of the series at the end of its first season, it wasn’t renewed. However, plans later changed, the show was retooled and brought back in 1987 with a new family cast. Baio and Aames were the only returning main cast (They kind of screwed over that original cast, huh?)
In a typical 80s sitcom style, the Pembroke kids all have their own stereotypical, sometimes zany personalities. For instance, Douglas is the stereotypical 80s nerdy kid; one of his traits was wearing a collection of sci-fi and fantasy masks. In this episode, he wears a mask that looks a little like the Aliens from Mac and Me (88), but wait, that film hadn’t come out yet!? Wait, still, to add to the strangeness, Jonathan Ward was actually in Mac and Me, so the whole thing kind of comes full circle in a weird kind of way. (In all likelihood, the mask was probably just some cheaply modified mask prop.)
A Game on Film and in the first episode, no less.
In the first episode of the series Charles has a study “date” with Gwendolyn Pierce, on the same night he’s supposed to be looking after the kids (Oh no!). Charles must now attend to the kids’ issues while trying to keep his “date” going. Meanwhile, Douglas keeps trying to play his Vectrex in the living room, much to the annoyance of Charles.
The Games on Film this time are…
Vectrex (82-84)
(Developer Smith Engineering)
(Manufacturer General Consumer Electronics)
Mine Storm (82)
(General Consumer Electronics)
(Programmed by John Hall)
This was a built-in game that came with the Vectrex.
Are they actually playing?
YES, he may not be playing well, but this is one instance where we can categorically say the actor is playing the game. Douglas says he’s playing, “killing Martians”. In actual fact, the game is called Mine Storm (82). A built-in game for the Vectrex.
Charles “interacts” with the game when he unplugs it, as the power on the screen cuts off. There is a clear correlation between character and game. The most shocking thing is when Charles slams the AC adapter /cord down on the tables. No wonder Jennifer Runyon left after the first season (pure speculation, can’t confirm if Runyon was a fan of AC adapters and/or Vectrex).
The only thing that remains to be asked is, where’s that Vectrex now? Hidden in the depths of CBS, or sold off to some unknowing collector we may never know.
Want more pointless speculation?
“Killing Martians” doesn’t sound quite right to me; that might be the objective of a game, but doesn’t Killer Martians sound more like a video game title? Was this a misread line, perhaps?
The likely reason for the change is to have something that sounds more like a generic space shooter for the non-game-playing audience that isn’t in the know. Though to be fair, Mine Storm wasn’t exactly a great name either.
Vectrex? more like what’s next
The Vectrex, although ambitious, wasn’t a huge hit and got lost in the mix of all the video games coming out at the time, and was one of the many casualties of the North American video game crash. The Vectrex was discontinued in 1984.
The graphics were vector-based (no shit, hence the name.) Unlike its pixel-based competition, Graphics were created by straight lines, so everything is a wire-frame. This gives the games a somewhat limited but unique look, because there are no colours or textures. Vectrex games came with plastic filter overlays for the screen that added “graphics” and limited colour.
The Vectrex is reported to have sold around 300,000 units in its lifetime for comparison, the NES had sold 1.1 million by 1986 in the US. While it may not be fair to compare the two, it does show the changes in market tastes and just how significantly Nintendo impacted the video game industry in the mid-80s.
Something that set the Vectrex apart from its competition at the time is that the console was equipped with its own monitor. Potentially allowing one person to watch TV while another plays Vectrex. The system was marketed as the arcade at home, sporting a miniature joystick and 4 buttons on its controller.
The Vectrex, having its own monitor, offered a degree of portability, but still needed to be plugged in to a main power supply. This is something the episode actually shows, as Douglas carries the Vectrex between rooms.
Handhelds were still in their infancy at this point, but it would have been just as easy to have Douglas walk in playing a Game and Watch. (Nintendo’s series of popular LCD handhelds) I think the answer is quite simple: seeing Douglas carrying around the large Vectrex monitor has more comedic potential, and the Vectrex also better communicates the idea of a video game, whereas a general audience at this point might not understand a handheld.
Charles in Charge exists in a pre-NES world. The Pembroke kids would have been Nintendo’s key demographic. If this episode had aired a few years later; who knows, Douglas might have been playing an NES. Even later, and it could have been a Gameboy.
The Vectrex was quite ambitious for its time and still has a dedicated following, some of whom are quite talented and make homebrew games for the system, so in some ways it gets to live on. (I wonder if any of these Vectrex fans making homebrews have seen this episode?)
Technically there is a Game on film in every season one episode of Charles in Charge. That’s right, the opening title sequence features clips from the first (Pilot) episode, one clip just so happens to show Douglas standing in front of the Vectrex. (Does this make the Vectrex the most recurring video game console in a 80s sitcom?)
I’ve only seen season one of Charles in Charge, so there might be more episodes with more games in later seasons, but they will have to wait for another time and another Games on Film.