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pilot

1. Pilot

Aired:             Wednesday, March 28, 2001: 8 pm
Filmed:            November 3, 2000 (In front of a live studio audience)
Production #:      WK101
Story By:          Don Reo & Damon Wayans
Teleplay:          Don Reo & Damon Wayans
Directed By:       Andy Cadiff
Music By:          Derryck Thorton
Edited By:                  Skip Collector & Carlos Barbosa

Ratings:           Ed 7.6/12
                   My Wife and kids 10.4/17
                   That 70's Show 6.0/10
                   Everybody Loves Raymond 6.7/11
                   7 Days 3.0/5
                  Dawson's Creek 2.4/4

Repeat Ratings:

Pitch: Michael is wondering why he can't have a traditional family.

Synopsis:
The episode begins as a normal day. The kids are off to school, and Michael and Janet are off to work. Junior tried to get Michael and Janet to give him some money to go to a rap concert, while Claire is mad at her dad because he ripped one of her obscene posters of a naked man off of her wall and Janet anounces to Michael that she could possibly get a new full time job as a broker. Over the course of the episode we learn of each character's humor and personality. We see that the Kyle's are a typical sitcom family. Michael Kyle is a great father with a good sense of humor. Janet is a perfect housewife who is also a very determined worker who has high hoped of getting afull time job as a stock broker, it is her dream. Junior is their 16 year old son who is heavily into rap music, baggy pants, and trying to stay cool. Claire is their oldest daughter, the middle child and she is also becoming a younf women who is set on being normal and staying cool as well. And lastly there's Kady Kyle, who is daddy's little princess. She also very much looks up to her sister.

Details:

Junior's role model is rapper M.C. Murder Death who's number one hit single is "Bullet to the Brain". We see Junior listening to the song and hear some of the lyrics which are:
"You tried to take my bucks...
I line them up like ducks
Pull out my gat
...and I start to buck
Because I'm M.C. Murder Death
and I don't give a #@%$!
Michael and Janet keep a "love chest" in which their most cherished items over the years are kept for memory sake. For example, Janet keeps a picture of Junior from the day he was born at the hospital.
The Kyle's had a nanny (Roza Lopez) watch Kady before Michael decided to stay home. Roza was teaching Kady spanish.
The Kyle's live in the Subburbs in Statford Conneticet.

Character Information:

Michael grew up listening to Michael Jackson.
Michael always gets a "good morning kiss" from Claire every morning...it's a routine...until this episode.
Claire is 12 years old.
Junior has a dream of working at footlocker one day...mostly because he'll get 15% off.
Junior's going through puberty.
One of Junior's favorite rappers is M.C Murder Death, who's number one hit is "Buller to the Brain."
Claire thinks a boy at school named J.B. is cute.
Curried Catfish is Michael's favorite food.
Michael hid Janet's engagement ring in a chocolate covered strawberry. Janet kept the stem to remember that night and she found it again in this episode in the "love chest".
Michael's nickname for Janet is "J".
Michael paid for 4 years of schooling for Janet.
Michael used to work at U.P.S but left because he wanted independence and his won compnay, he now owns his own fleet of delivery trucks.
Janet's boss is Mr. Anderson.
In this episode Janet becomes a full time broker.
Michael and Janet's marriage counsellor is Dr. Boucher.

Quotes:

Junior: "Mom says to give me 35 dollars so I can go to a rap concert."
Michael:"Is that what she said or are you para-phrasing?"
Junior:"Come on dad, you own an entire fleet of delivery trucks--we have the money"
Michael:"No--I got money. You Broke."

Michael-Insult-of-the-week:
Michael: "See I grew up on Michael Jackson. Now Michael he put on a show--then he'd be up there dancin' and kickin' and moon walkin', sweatin'. He'd lose weight, you'd see him lose weight on stage. That's not plastic surgery, he sweated that nose off! And they'd have special effects, man they're'd be an explosion- BOOM Michael would dissappear and then there would be another explosion and you'd hear [Michael Jackson imperosnation] "Eeeh hee heee"! And he's reappear on the other side of the stage with Tedo and the monkey!
Behind the scenes:
"My Wife and Kids" was a mid-season replacement which was originally commisioned with the working title "Not The Cosby's" which was also the working title for the FOX sitcom "Maried With Children" which aired 11 seasons.
Promotion began for the Pilot episode during the 73rd Oscars on ABC which had over 800,000,000 viewers. To give the show more promotion the show was moved to the Wednesday time-slot behind Drew Carey's Apil Fool's episode. The Wednesday night slot was titled "Wednesday Night D-Day" which consisted of two new back to back episodes of "My Wife and KIds" followed by "Drew Carey" and then by another new ABC show starring Dennis Leary called "The Job". (D-Day ofcourse standing for Damon Wayans, Drew Carey, and Dennis Leary). Also Tisha Campbell guest spotted on Rosie O'Donnel and Live with Regis the floowing week to further promote the show and also with Damon Wayans appearing on "The View"...all ABC talk shows.
ABC handily won the first hour of the night with two episodes of the new Damon Wayons' comedy "My Wife and Kids," building on itself with a 10.4/17 and an 11.7/18 (last week, "The Drew Carey Show," 5.5/9, and "Spin City," 5.2/8). The fourth annual "What's Wrong With This Episode" edition of "The Drew Carey Show," took a 9.4/14 (7.8/12), followed at 9:30 p.m. by "The Job," 7.6/11 (7.1/11). "Once and Again" concluded the night at 10 p.m. with a 6.5/11 (5.8/10).
Tisha Campbell learned she was pregnant after initial casting and shooting...so the writers started writing story-lines to write a pregnancy into the series with Janet getting pregnant but ABC wanted to air the episodes in no particular order so the writers had to work around her pregnancy in the stories...hiding her belly.
Don Reo, who co-created "My Wife and Kids" with Damon Wayans is known for also co-creating the popular "Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "M*A*S*H". He is a Peabody Award winner as well.
ABC offered a 1 million dollar signing bonus to Damon Wayans for signing onto "My Wife and Kids".

Guest starring: Marlene Forle as Roza Lopez.