Sisters: Seasons One & Two

Creators Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman's ‘90s NBC drama about the Reed sisters of Winnetka, IL, begins each episode with the ladies in a sauna reflecting on recent developments. In the pilot, Teddy (Sela Ward) returns to town with her teenage daughter, Cat (Heather McAdam), just as Teddy's widowed mother, Beatrice (Elizabeth Hoffman), is selling the family home. To Teddy's disappointment, her younger lawyer sister Frankie (Julianne Phillips) has been seeing Teddy's ex-husband, Mitch (Ed Marinaro), a seafood shop proprietor. Although the other Reed sisters—Alex (Swoosie Kurtz) and Georgie (Patricia Kalember)—are married, one will soon divorce. If the women deal with fairly conventional issues, the men are another matter. Alex's surgeon husband, Wade (David Dukes), likes to dress up in ladies' lingerie, and Georgie's unemployed husband, John (Garrett M. Brown), becomes a karaoke crooner and releases a CD. After their son falls critically ill, John finally puts his bathrobe away and rejoins the work force, although his fans continue to follow him around. Each episode toggles between pathos (flashbacks to the sisters' childhood) and quirky comedy, breaking the fourth wall by having the characters engage with their younger selves on a regular basis. There's even a musical sequence as Teddy gives door-to-door cosmetic sales a try, and a film noir nod when Alex suspects her insolent daughter, Reed (played by Ashley Judd beginning with the second season), of the same sort of sociopathic tendencies as the teenager in Mildred Pierce. Sisters would run on NBC for four more years, garnering an Emmy for Ward (among numerous nominations). Compiling all 29 episodes from the 1991-92 first and second seasons, extras include a multi-part interview with Cowen and Lipman. Highly recommended. (K. Fennessy)