Charles in Charge

""Charles in Charge, of our days and our nights!""

Charles In Charge was a Dom Com from 1984-5 and 1987-90 starring Scott Baio as a college-age "nanny" to the children of the families he lived with—first the Pembrokes and later the Powells (after the show moved to syndication and the Pembrokes "moved to Seattle").


 * Attractive Bent Gender: Averted in "Still at Large." A female teacher tells Charles that he's "a good looking man," but "an ugly woman."
 * Beautiful All Along (Enid in the episode "A Date with Enid")
 * Can-Crushing Cranium
 * Disguised in Drag: Charles and Buddy in "Still at Large."
 * Dumbass Has a Point (Buddy, who does this to himself).
 * Expository Theme Song: The tune very finely summarizes the show itself, and the feelings of the children he looks after, saving many a fan from having to explain the program, so much as just show a friend the intro.
 * First Gray Hair: Buddy reacts disastrously to spotting a single grey hair.
 * Flanderization (Buddy Lembeck)
 * Identity Amnesia
 * Ivy League for Everyone
 * No Name Given (Charles and his mother. This was lampshaded in the final episode ("Did you ever wonder why he had no last name?")).
 * Retool: Upon moving to syndication, Charles' employers the Pembrokes were replaced by the Powells. Also, a prominent recurring role was added for Charles' mother Louisa, as portrayed by Ellen Travolta.
 * Special Guest (Olympic gymnast Julianne McNamara and Samantha Smith, the girl who wrote to Yuri Andropov, in "Slumber Party")
 * Sweater Girl (Some of the ladies Charles dates.)
 * Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs? (Ben Stein pops up as an Obstructive Bureaucrat in various settings).