The following is a condensed version of the full article appearing in issue #6 of Television Chronicles.

In the fall of 1989, a remarkable new show debuted on ABC which had a profound impact on a lot of viewers. It came along at a time when many parents and critics were bemoaning the scarcity of quality family programming. Little House on the Prairie, Family and The Waltons were distant TV memories. For four years, this groundbreaking series made us laugh and cry and think. It challenged our values and reaffirmed our faith in humanity. It was the first television show ever to star an actor with Down Syndrome, and later, the first show to feature a regular character with AIDS. It was Life Goes On.

When Chris Burke was growing up in New York City, he dreamed of becoming an actor. He spoke about this ambition endlessly, but most of his friends and relatives thought he was setting himself up for failure. Chris has Down Syndrome, and when he was born, his parents were told their son would probably never walk or talk. Despite this grim prognosis, he graduated from school, got a job as an elevator operator, and achieved a number of other goals which could be considered miraculous for someone with Down Syndrome.

Stardom seemed an impossible dream, but no one could dissuade Chris from his goal. In 1985, he saw a young boy with Down Syndrome, Jason Kingsley, in an episode of The Fall Guy, and his hopes were buoyed. If Jason could do it, Chris reasoned, so could he. He wrote a letter to Jason's mother Emily, a television writer, and the two became pen pals. Their friendship is what ultimately led to Chris' discovery.

In 1987, television writer/producer Michael Braverman was developing a pilot for ABC called Desperate, which featured a teenaged boy with Down Syndrome. Jason Kingsley auditioned, but was too young for the part. Emily Kingsley suggested Chris for the role. The moment Braverman saw Chris's audition tape, he knew he had found his actor.

"Chris stood out right away," Braverman says, "He was very high-functioning and very articulate. He has a perfect look, which was a nice bonus. And he sounded very natural."

Though they had nixed Desperate as a series idea, executives at ABC were so impressed with Chris' performance that they decided to create another project for him. Chad Hoffman, who was then the network's V.P. of dramatic series development, says, "He really lit up the screen. There's something very welcoming and heartwarming about him, that made you both enjoy watching him and feel really good about being with him. He had a magical quality; that's what made us realize that even though Desperate didn't work, we should try something else with him."

The network approached Michael Braverman and asked him to develop a series specifically for Chris. Though Braverman wanted to work with Chris again, he had some misgivings about Chris carrying a show. "I didn't think it was possible for him to be the lead character in a show. So we were trying to find some way to insulate him with an ensemble of some kind."

Though Life Goes On had been developed with Chris in mind, he still had to audition for the role. Not surprisingly, he won everyone over with his audition scene, and was signed for the role of Charles 'Corky' Thacher. Braverman and casting director DeeDee Bradley then set out to fill the rest of the cast.

The only "name" in the cast was Patti LuPone, a renowned Broadway star and Tony Award winner for Evita, also known for her roles in Les Miserables and Anything Goes. She was cast in the role of the mother, Libby. Despite her musical theatre background, she had no regrets about taking a non-singing role. She says, "I left Anything Goes to do Life Goes On &emdash;my agent sent me the pilot script and I was moved and educated by it. The thing that I have always loved about my career has been the surprise in it. I sort of let in unfold. I never thought about television until it presented itself to me."

The Thacher family patriarch, Drew, was played by Bill Smitrovich. Prior to being cast in Life Goes On, he had built up a long resume of theatre, film and television credits, and was most recognized from his role as Detective Dan Krychek in Crime Story. He was well-suited to the role of Drew, a hard-working, devoted family man who just can't seem to get any breaks in life. While some of the cast and crew were apprehensive about working with someone with Down Syndrome, the camaraderie between Smitrovich and his new on-screen son was immediate, perhaps due to his background: Smitrovich has an education degree, with a minor in special education.

Kellie Martin, the youngest member of the cast, was already an acting veteran at age thirteen. She made her television debut at the tender age of seven, in Father Murphy, and worked steadily thereafter, in films, television and commercials.

Early on, it became obvious that Kellie would be the series' breakout star. A Variety review of the series pilot said of Martin, "Her acerbic outbursts give the show its only bite," and John Leonard of New York magazine called her "a wonderful, bespectacled bundle of internal contradictions, of pubescent seething." Kellie literally grew up on the set, blossoming from a sassy, sarcastic kid into a self-assured young woman over the course of four years. In the first season, Becca was a gangly 13-year-old who wore red glasses (Kellie still has her red glasses, in a chest of keepsakes from the series), was often embarrassed by Corky, tossed sarcastic quips, and was impatiently waiting for her body to develop (in the opening credits each week, she looked down at her chest and sighed, "Come on, where are you guys already?")!

One of the most impressive aspects of Life Goes On was its consistency in casting its supporting roles. From the pilot to the final episode, the school principal was played by the same actress, Gloria jpgford. The priest who baptized baby Nick returned for Paige's near-wedding and performed Becca and Jesse's ceremony in the finale. Marshall High had a regular roster of teachers who returned over and over again. A visit to Libby's office wouldn't be the same without seeing Miller hunched over a sketch pad at his work-station.

This consistency in casting made the Thachers seem more like a real family, and Glen Brook a real town. Michael Braverman says, "I have always been and still am a great believer in casting even the smallest role with the most appropriate and best actor you can get for the role. We don't throw anything away."

A number of actors stopped by Glen Brook on their road to fame. Dean Cain played a surfer in "Corky and the Dolphins" a few years prior to landing his role as Superman on Lois & Clark. Before she was on Friends (and before she was blonde), Lisa Kudrow played Stella, a ditsy secretary in "Becca and the Band." Greg Kinnear played Paige's obnoxious date in "Break a Leg Mom," and Shannon Doherty toyed with Corky's affections in "Corky's Crush." Other notable guest stars include Quincy Jones, Leon Redbone, and Elizabeth Berkley (Showgirls).

Life Goes On premiered on September 12, 1989 and garnered immediate critical acclaim. People magazine called it "a warm, delightful, touching family show, the kind guaranteed to make you feel good to be drawing breath." The New York Times hailed it as "sensitively written, wonderfully cast and beautifully executed."

The cast and crew put in longer hours than most one-hour TV shows. Much of the extra time was devoted to fine-tuning the scenes in which Chris had a lot of dialogue. Like most people with Down Syndrome, Chris has a speech impediment that causes him to have difficulty pronouncing certain words. Many of his scenes called for several re-takes. When interviewed at the time, Patti LuPone said that working with Chris was tougher than working with most other actors. "It's difficult to play a scene because Chris has a hard time remembering his lines."

Kellie Martin said that she spent more time preparing for her scenes with Chris, because "when he does get it right, I have to get mine right. They can't spend a lot of time with me forgetting a line because they need time with Chris." She was quick to add, "but it's not a big difference at all. I love having scenes with Chris. He shows a different side to my character."

Though many people perceived Life Goes On as a "Down Syndrome show" (a factor which probably contributed to the low ratings), the focus in the first season was distributed evenly among the Thacher clan. Equal weight was given to stories involving Corky and the difficulties he faces mainstreaming at a regular high school; Drew's dream of quitting his construction job and opening his own restaurant (he achieved this goal in "Pig o' My Heart"); Becca's unrequited love for Tyler Benchfield; Paige's inability to hold a job or a boyfriend; and Libby's constant struggle to balance motherhood and a career.

Since the series often tugged at the heartstrings, and tackled heavy issues (disabilities, homelessness, and later, drunk driving and AIDS), Michael Braverman and his writers tried to balance the drama with humor. One of the ways they injected humor into the show was through Corky's dreams.

Braverman says, "Well, we started in the pilot with dreams. Part of the function I thought of the show would be to see it through his eyes. That was always one of my goals. To try to see the world through the eyes of someone with Down Syndrome. And consequently even in the pilot, I thought the idea of doing dream sequences, to get inside his head, would be a way of doing that. And we decided to do those in a funny way because we were on at 7:00 and it was basically a kid's show."

One of the most memorable first season episodes was "Save the Last Dance for Me," in which Becca's elderly ballet teacher is forced to move into a retirement home when she can no longer care for herself at home. Viveca Lindfors, who played the teacher, Mrs. Doubcha, won an Emmy Award for her performance in this episode. The episode holds a special place in Kellie Martin's heart as well, who named it as her favorite episode in a 1995 interview. "Most people don't remember it, but that was my favorite," she says.

For executive producer Michael Braverman, another episode stands out. "It's very hard to pick favorites. There are certain episodes I liked more than others. But there was one that I'm so fond of, that I directed, that I loved, which was the pig episode. I picked a couple of hard ones for myself to direct. It was more fun. It was called 'Pig o' My Heart.'"

"Pig o' My Heart" provided Braverman and his crew with an unusual challenge: how to get a 750 pound pig to come down a flight of stairs. In the episode, Corky finds a pig and sneaks it into his bedroom. In one scene, the pig follows Corky up a flight of stairs.

Braverman explains, "what I didn't know when the script was written was that pigs don't come down stairs. So we had this crane that had to take this pig down every time it went up stairs. It was fun. That was a fun episode."

At the start of the second season, Libby discovers she is pregnant, a plot development necessitated by Patti LuPone's real-life pregnancy. New characters&emdash; Libby's sister Gina and her daughter Zoe (played by Mary Page Keller and Leigh Ann Orsi) &emdash; were introduced to help care for the family during Libby's difficult pregnancy. By confining her character to bed for part of her pregnancy, the show allowed LuPone to take some time off after the birth of her son, Joshua.

Season Two also brought another casting change. Monique Lanier left the show to have a baby, and Tracey Needham assumed the role of Paige. The second season saw more stories set around the family restaurant, where Drew toiled to turn a profit, and Corky and Paige held part-time jobs. Becca finally snares Tyler's interest, but their date to the prom is interrupted by Libby's labor pains in the season finale, Proms and Prams.

The third season brought many changes to the Thacher family. The restaurant burns down when Corky accidentally leaves a burner on. In order to rebuild the restaurant, Drew has to take on Libby's boss Jerry as a silent partner. Both Corky and Paige find new jobs, Paige at a pipe factory, and Corky at a movie theatre.

Season Three also brought a new development into Corky's life -- a girlfriend. Andrea Friedman took part in a focus group of people with Down Syndrome recruited by the show's staff to comment on the series. Andrea told the producers that Corky should have a girlfriend. Soon thereafter the character of Amanda Swanson was created and Andrea was cast in the role.

The Thacher daughters were both involved in love triangles in Season Three. Paige was courted by her boss's rich son and by a bohemian artist, whom she eventually married. After years of wanting Tyler, Becca suddenly finds herself interested in the new kid in school, Jesse McKenna, played by Chad Lowe. When she kisses him, he immediately rejects her- and she wants to know why. The reason is devastating- he is HIV-positive.

The decision to introduce an HIV-positive character was prompted by Michael Braverman's concern that many teens lacked the facts about AIDS. In focus groups conducted by the show, Braverman discovered that many teens have misconceptions about how AIDS could and could not be transmitted. He felt that due to the series' popularity with children and teens, the show had a forum to transmit an important message.

"I think part of our function was to educate," says Braverman. "Obviously the first concern is entertainment. The second one is certainly to educate."

The AIDS storyline was conceived as an eight episode story arc, but ended up dominating the remainder of the series.

Co-executive producer Michael Nankin told a Los Angeles Times interviewer, "Part of what made us develop Jesse more fully was Chad, because he realized the character in a way that was really delightful. But part of it was that we found a really compelling romance, in which two people were passionately in love with each other, but couldn't have sex. And so as writers we had to focus on other aspects of a relationship, like responsibility and loyalty."

Chad Lowe says, "The character of Jesse really evolved for everyone&emdash; the writers, the directors and the creators of the program&emdash; as we began to explore the life of a young man living with HIV. No one really knew the power or the impact that this character would have on the show itself and each individual and all of us as human beings."

The depth and sensitivity which Chad Lowe brought to the role is not surprising. His manager Tim Wood had died of AIDS several months before he landed the role.

"I had a real sense of loss and the courage that one must have to live with HIV and AIDS."

Chad also spent considerable time with Rod Garcia, who was the inspiration for the character of Jesse. By sharing the ups and downs of his nine-year battle with HIV and AIDS with the show's writers, Garcia helped to ensure that the AIDS storylines were realistic. Sometimes it worked too well. Garcia told Entertainment Weekly, "Sometimes it's too much. I'll look at Chad and I'll be crying, then he starts crying. I leave the studios a mess."

The AIDS scenes were also grueling for Kellie Martin, who called them "the hardest I've ever been in." After a tough day of shooting, she found the emotions hard to shake off and says she often left the studio with a heavy heart.

All involved agreed that no matter how gut-wrenching and draining the scenes were, they were telling a story that was important. When she heard that producers were thinking of writing her out of a few episodes so that she could catch up with her school work and college applications, Kellie quickly vetoed the idea.

"I told one of the producers, 'Don't you dare!' Not now. Every scene matters. Every line matters."

The fourth season focus drifted even further away from the core family unit, and dealt more with the Thacher children. Paige returned from her European honeymoon without her husband. After wallowing in despair for a few weeks, she decided to return to work, only to find the pipe factory had closed down. She then teamed with an unlikely partner, her former supervisor Artie McDonald, to open a business&emdash; Darlin' Construction (after Artie's nickname for Paige). Paige's husband resurfaced and they were reunited briefly, until she became pregnant and he suggested she terminate the pregnancy. Artie comforted Paige when she lost the baby and ended her marriage.

Fed up with their parents interference, Corky and Amanda eloped. Her parents tried to have the marriage annulled, but the couple fought to stay together.

The relationship between Becca and Jesse was taken to new levels in the fourth season. Jesse developed full-blown AIDS and Becca helped to nurse him through bouts with pneumonia and other AIDS related complications. As Jesse's illness drew them closer together, Becca and Jesse fought to suppress their desire for a physical relationship.

USA Today applauded the show's handling of the AIDS storyline: "This is risky material, frank and fearless storytelling that looks into bleak places largely ignored by family-hour TV. Yet it earnestly insists on hope. Love and support sustain the characters even in the darkest moments."

Their work in the fourth season of Life Goes On earned Emmy nominations for both Kellie Martin and Chad Lowe. Kellie did not win in her category (Best Supporting Actress), but Chad was named the Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Chad was overseas filming a television movie, and was not able to attend the Emmy ceremony. He took out a full page ad in Variety to express his thanks to the people including the show's producers "for creating and maintaining groundbreaking, courageous, informative, entertaining television," and to Kellie Martin, "for her incredible, inspiring, honest work. This won't be your last nomination."

As the fourth season drew to a close, everyone felt the series was ending as well. ABC president Ted Harbert was quoted as saying, "I love the show, but I'm not sure there's a place for it." This time, most of the cast also felt it was time to move on. Kellie Martin had graduated from her on-set high school and was applying to colleges.

Chad Lowe told a reporter, "I'd like to go out with a message of hope, instead of going on another season and having to scrounge for ideas."

Patti LuPone had been offered the lead role in the musical version of Sunset Boulevard and had asked to be let out of her contract. In the words of one observer, her role had been reduced to "flipping flapjacks."

She told the Los Angeles Times (1/9/93), "My character is just filled with lethargy and so subservient... I don't even know how I played it for so long."

When she was offered the role of Nora Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, she jumped at the chance, because "There's just so much more going on in the woman. Compared to Libby Thacher, she's an ax murderer."

The series' finale was a typically heart-wrenching episode. Several years in the future, Becca tells her young son, Jesse, about her high school graduation and break-up with Jesse, their reunion after she graduated from college, and their marriage. The episode also detailed Corky's frustration at not being able to graduate with Becca's class, and Paige's purchase of a home she remodeled.

The season finale was also a momentous one for another Thacher family member. Arnold the dog, who mournfully clutched his food bowl in his mouth week after week in the opening sequence, finally got fed in the last episode. At the end of the opening credits, when Arnold resignedly lays down with his empty bowl, a cupboard falls open and a large bag of dog food spills out on the floor.

"We thought we'd pay off Arnold," laughs Michael Braverman.

In the last episode of Life Goes On, Libby tells her son, "The world is a better place because of you, Corky." For the legion of fans inspired, educated and uplifted by its storylines, the world is a better place because of Life Goes On.

- Brenda Scott Royce

Brenda Scott Royce is the author of Hogan's Heroes: A Complete Reference, Donna Reed: A Bio-Bibliography, and numerous articles about film and television.

Reference:http://www.general.net/tvchronicles/lifegoes.html

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