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: Buddy bragged about crushing a number of cans in a row, and could have done more if they were empty.
 * Channel Hop: Moved to Syndication after a season on CBS.
 * Credit Card Plot: In one episode Charles got a credit card with a low limit, intending to use it responsibly. However, the kids get hold of it and run up a large bill, causing Charles to be embarrassed when his card is rejected during a date.
 * 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. He started out as a girl-crazy guy who had no interest in academics but wasn't stupid at all. As the series progressed, he became progressively more stupid and eventually insane.
 * Identity Amnesia: During a bout of amnesia, Charles' personality changes and he becomes "Chaz".
 * It's a Wonderful Plot: Without Charles, the Powell family (and Charles's mother) end up with a lot more money, but they've all turned into spoiled jerks.
 * Ivy League for Everyone: Late in the series, Charles gets accepted as a graduate student to Princeton.
 * Joisey: After the move to syndication the show was explicitly set in New Brunswick, NJ.
 * Rutgers students at the time jokingly identified one of the real restaurants on Easton Avenue as that owned by Charles' mother in later seasons.
 * Never Learned to Read: One of Charles' friends is revealed to be illiterate when a fire breaks out and he can't read the instructions for a fire extinguisher.
 * No Name Given: Charles and his mother. This was lampshaded in the final episode ("Did you ever wonder why he had no last name?").
 * Old Hero, New Pals: When it moved from network to first run syndication the only characters carried over were Charles and Buddy. Mrs. Pembroke was there as a Spinoff Sendoff, showing the house to the new family moving in.
 * Oven Logic: One episode of had a multi-tiered example; Charles and Buddy don't know what temperature to bake the cake at, so Buddy surmises that if a baked potato cooks at 350 degrees, a cake, which is approximately 10 times as big, should cook at 3,000. Since the oven only goes up to 500, they decide to compensate by cooking it for 6 times as long.
 * Poorly-Disguised Pilot: Had three episodes in the final season which were failed attempts at a pilot for a new series. In each a character would visit somewhere where there would be a character that looked suspiciously like one of the regular cast members. Ellen Travolta, who played Charles' mom, had an identical twin sister who ran a car wash in New York. Willie Aames' character Buddy had an identical cousin working in a hotel in Hawaii. Nicole Eggert's character had an identical cousin living in New Mexico.
 * Radio Contest: Charles is not only a great babysitter, but he also knows exactly when to call the radio station to be the tenth caller.
 * 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.
 * Slumber Party: In the first season the daughter has a slumber party, and all the girls end up talking to Charles about what boys are really like.
 * Special Guest: Olympic gymnast Julianne McNamara and Samantha Smith, the girl who wrote to Yuri Andropov, in "Slumber Party".
 * Sweater Girl: Some of the girls Charles dates.
 * Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Initially played straight during its network run, but averted after the Retool, when the Pembroke/Powell home was explicitly located in New Brunswick, NJ not far from Rutgers University.
 * Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Ben Stein pops up as an Obstructive Bureaucrat in various settings.