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Babes is an American situation comedy series that ran for one season on the Fox Television Network from September 13, 1990 to August 10, 1991. It was produced by Dolly Parton and Sandy Gallin's Sandollar Productions for Twentieth Century Fox Television. Parton even guest starred as herself in episode #14 entitled "Hello, Dolly".

Overview

The series followed the lives of the Gilbert sisters, a trio of plump siblings who had other things on their mind other than their weight — like work, relationships, popularity, and starting a family. The ladies also shared a small apartment in New York City together, which added to the comic friction.

The Gilbert sisters were Darlene (Susan Peretz), the eldest, who was a dog groomer and recently divorced; Charlene (Wendie Jo Sperber), the middle sister, who was a makeup artist for a commercial photographer and was the more active one out of the three; and Marlene (Lesley Boone), the younger sister, who was seen as a dreamer with a naive, yet trusting, personality.

Also in the cast was Marlene's boyfriend, Ronnie Underwood (Rick Overton). He disappeared at mid-season, as a result putting all three sisters on the dating market. At that time, the girls' landlady, Florence Newman (Nedra Volz), became a regular.

Controversy and cancellation

At first, the show was criticized by several groups for making fun of overweight people due to some of the jokes that were used in the show's early episodes, but the controversy faded as later episodes began to put a more positive spin on the characters when it came to weight issues. Although it had good ratings, mainly due to having the top 20 hit The Simpsons as its lead it, but also at least partially because of the controversy, it did not earn a second season and was cancelled at the end of the 1990–1991 season with 22 episodes.

External links

• "One Fun Babe", a 1990 Entertainment Weekly profile of Sperber that discusses her role on the series.
• Episode guide
• "Babes" at Jump The Shark