A Year in the Life is a 1986 Emmy Award–winning miniseries
and a one-hour dramatic series that ran on NBC during the 1987–1988 television
season, created by Joshua Brand and John Falsey (whose long partnership also
produced the television shows St. Elsewhere, Northern Exposure and I'll Fly
Away).
The series began as a three-part miniseries which was first
broadcast in December 1986. As suggested by the title, the miniseries followed
the various members of the Gardner family of Seattle during the course of one
year. The major event of that year was the sudden and unexpected death of wife
and mother Ruth Gardner (Eva Marie Saint).
Following the success of the miniseries, NBC decided to launch
a one-hour drama series the following fall. Richard Kiley played Joe Gardner,
owner of a successful plastics business and father of four adult children. The
children were twice-divorced daughter Anne (Wendy Phillips), who had returned
home with her two teenaged children; daughter Lindley (Jayne Atkinson) and
husband Jim (Adam Arkin), parents of a newborn baby daughter; black sheep son
Jack (Morgan Stevens); and conservative youngest son Sam (David Oliver),
married to free-spirited Kay (Sarah Jessica Parker). Diana Muldaur was a later
addition to the cast as Dr. Alice Foley, Joe Gardner's new romantic interest.
Trey Ames played Joe Gardner's grandson, David Sisk.
