Originally, the story centered on the romance of a novelist (Matthew Laurance) and a caterer (Mary Page Keller), but gradually the focus shifted to their yuppie friends (Chris Lemmon, Alison LaPlaca) and the show was rebranded as Open House.

Ben Coleman is a struggling mystery novelist, while his girlfriend Laura Kelly is a caterer with her younger sister Jane (Jodi Thelen).

Just prior to the end of that season, Linda met real estate mogul Ted Nichols, played by guest star and LaPlaca's then-boyfriend, Philip Charles MacKenzie.

The series was among the first to appear on the Fox network when they launched a Sunday night prime-time TV lineup in 1987, alongside Married... with Children, The Tracey Ullman Show and Mr.

[4][5] Matthew Laurance was the first actor hired, but they couldn't find a leading lady that sparked with him in Los Angeles, so they held auditions in New York, where they finally found Mary Page Keller.

[7] Alison LaPlaca was originally hired to appear as the undefined wife of a supporting character in two episodes,[8] but a pregnancy was written into the next script, requiring her to stick around.

[9] Acting wasn't Chris Lemmon's primary career goal—he had studied extensively as a pianist[10]—but his musical dreams and abilities were eventually utilized in the show.

[21] Noticing the popularity of Alison LaPlaca's character, they pushed Ben, Laura, and Jane into the background[22][23] as stories became exclusively centered on Linda and Richard.

They also flashed ahead three years so they could turn the Phillipses daughter into a talking toddler,[24] which was proving popular with audiences on ABC's Full House.

"[70] The South Florida Sentinel hailed it as Fox's "best series to date",[71] and The Journal News remarked that "producers Ruth Bennett and Susan Seeger choreograph this mating dance beautifully.