Mulligan's Stew

For the stew, see Mulligan stew (food). For the 1972 educational television series, see Mulligan Stew (TV series).

Mulligan's Stew
The cast of Mulligan's Stew
Genre	Comedy drama
Created by	Joanna Lee
Starring	Lawrence Pressman Elinor Donahue
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	6 episodes
Production
Running time	Pilot movie: 90 mins Series: 60 mins
Production companies	Christiana Productions Paramount Television
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	June 20, 1977 (1977-06-20)
Release	October 25 (1977-10-25) – December 13, 1977 (1977-12-13)

Mulligan's Stew is an American comedy-drama television series, that originally aired as a 90-minute NBC television film on June 20, 1977, and later, as a 60-minute series from October 25 to December 13, 1977. The series focused on the lives of the Mulligan family, who live in the fictitious Southern California community of Birchfield; high school teacher and football coach, Michael (Lawrence Pressman), his wife, Jane (Elinor Donahue), who is a school nurse.

Synopsis

Michael and Jane Mulligan have three children: Mark, Melinda and Jimmy. They find making ends meet difficult, but manageable. Things get tighter moneywise and spacewise when the Mulligans take in their nephew Adam (Moose) and nieces Polaris (Polly) and Starshine (Stevie) Freedman, after their parents (Michael's sister and brother-in-law) are killed in a plane crash in Hawaii while in the process of adopting the Vietnamese-born Kimmy, leaving the Mulligans to finalize the adoption. They deal with the changes and bond as a family.

Cast

• Lawrence Pressman as Michael Mulligan
• Elinor Donahue as Jane Mulligan, Michael's wife
• Johnny Whitaker (movie) / Johnny Doran (series) as Mark Mulligan, Michael & Jane's son
• Julie Anne Haddock as Melinda Mulligan, Michael & Jane's daughter
• K.C. Martel as Jimmy Mulligan, Michael & Jane's son
• Lory Koccheim as Polaris "Polly" Freedman, Michael & Jane's paternal niece
• Suzanne Crough as Stevie Freedman, Michael & Jane's paternal niece
• Chris Ciampa as Adam "Moose" Freedman, Michael & Jane's paternal nephew
• Sunshine Lee as Kimmy Nguyen Freedman, Michael & Jane's adoptive paternal niece

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
TVM	"Mulligan's Stew"	Noel Black	Joanna Lee	June 20, 1977 (1977-06-20)
1	"Biggest Mansion"	Unknown	Unknown	October 25, 1977 (1977-10-25)
2	"Melinda Special"	Unknown	Unknown	November 1, 1977 (1977-11-01)
3	"Winning the Big Ones"	Unknown	Unknown	November 8, 1977 (1977-11-08)
4	"Little Grey Bird"	Unknown	Unknown	November 22, 1977 (1977-11-22)
5	"Ah, Wilderness"	Unknown	Unknown	December 6, 1977 (1977-12-06)
6	"The Perils of Being Pretty"	Unknown	Unknown	December 13, 1977 (1977-12-13)

Reception

Mulligan's Stew was scheduled opposite four Nielsen Top 15 hits: Three's Company and Soap on ABC, and M*A*S*H and One Day at a Time on CBS. As a result, it suffered from dismal ratings, and was cancelled at the end of 1977. It ranked dead last out of 104 shows airing that season with an average 10.5 rating.

External links

• Mulligan's Stew at IMDb