#robert jayne

Unlike Jose Ferrer and Mel Ferrer, Audrey Meadows and Jayne Meadows were related — Audrey, best known for her role as Alice Kramden on The Honeymooners (CBS, 1955-’56), was Jayne’s younger sister.

Both made appearances on network series in the ’70s and ’80s, including guest-star-filled shows like The Love Boat and Hotel, but Jayne Meadows was also a regular on the short-lived sitcom It’s Not Easy, which ABC canceled after five episodes in the fall of ’83. The series centered on divorced parents, Jack (Ken Howard) and Sharon (Carlene Watkins), who live across the street from each other in order to easily share custody of their two children. The kids reside with Jack and his mother, played by Meadows, while Sharon lives with her new husband, Neal (Bert Convy), and his son from his previous marriage.

Two Marriages debuted on ABC as a summer series a month prior to It’s Not Easy, but the trials and tribulations of its neighboring families — one nuclear (Michael Murphy and Janet Eilber played the parents), one blended (led by Tom Mason and Karen Carlson) — weren’t accompanied by a laugh track. After ten episodes it too was canceled, although teen heartthrob C. Thomas Howell and teen heartthrob in training Kirk Cameron wouldn’t be collecting unemployment checks for long.

One month after Two Marriages aired its final episode, ABC decided to give its “two neighboring families intertwine comedically and/or dramatically” concept one more try with the TV movie Love Thy Neighbor. Turner Classic Movies’s website explains the setup like this: “A serio-comedy casting John Ritter and Penny Marshall as next door suburbanites who overcome their mutual dislike for one another and are drawn into an unlikely affair when his wife runs off with her husband, leaving them to cope with their children and their houses.”

Yo, I'm just pausin' while those two hoes over there scratch it out over who gets to knock the boots with me!