is an American sitcom television series created by Martin Cohan and Blake Hunter, that aired on ABC from September 20, 1984, to April 25, 1992, with a total of 196 half-hour episodes spanning eight seasons.

It was produced by Hunter-Cohan Productions in association with Embassy Television (later Embassy Communications and ELP Communications) and Columbia Pictures Television and stars Tony Danza as Tony Micelli, a former Major League Baseball athlete who strives to raise his daughter, Samantha Micelli (Alyssa Milano), outside of the hectic nature of New York City and relocates her to Fairfield, Connecticut, where he works as a live-in housekeeper for a single advertising executive named Angela Bower (Judith Light).

Widower Anthony Morton "Tony" Micelli is a former Major League Baseball player who was forced to retire due to a shoulder injury.

Wanting to move out of Brooklyn to find a better environment for his daughter, Samantha, he takes a job in the upscale suburb of Fairfield, Connecticut, as a live-in housekeeper for divorced advertising executive Angela Bower and her young son Jonathan.

Also appearing is Angela's feisty, sexually progressive mother Mona Robinson, who dates all kinds of men, from college-age to silver-haired CEOs.

It challenged contemporary stereotypes of young, Italian-American males as macho, boorish, and wholly ignorant of life outside of urban working-class neighborhoods.

While there is playful banter and many hints of their feelings for each other, Tony and Angela do their best to avoid facing this aspect of their developing relationship and date other people.

Angela has a steady romantic interest in Geoffrey Wells (Robin Thomas), while Tony has a variety of girlfriends who come and go, including Kathleen Sawyer (Kate Vernon) in seasons six and seven.

In addition, Tony provides a male role model for Jonathan, while Angela and Mona give Samantha the womanly guidance she had been missing.

Keeping ties with Tony's and Samantha's Brooklyn roots is motherly former neighbor Mrs. Rossini (Rhoda Gemignani), who ends up becoming a thorn in Mona's side.

Angela eventually strikes out on her own and opens an ad firm in season three, while Tony decides to go back to school at Fairfield University, enrolling in the same college that daughter Samantha would later attend.

Samantha's best friend Bonnie (Shana Lane-Block) is a recurring character during these seasons, while romance comes into her life in the form of her boyfriend Jesse Nash (Scott Bloom) during her sophomore year of high school.

[1] During the final season, Samantha finds a new love in Hank Thomopoulous (Curnal Achilles Aulisio) who became a full-time character in January 1992.

[5] She was eventually cast based on her performance, which Hunter commented was a "class [...] Jean Harlow type, or more of a Meryl Streep.

[4] ABC originally was planning to put it on mid-season in January 1984, but due to creative differences[vague] between the producers and the network, the show was delayed until the next season.

Jerry Buck, writing for Ocala Star-Banner, noted that while the series "doesn't have the same impact [as The Cosby Show], it's not bad, either."

[7] The Pittsburgh Press criticized that "the show may have a universal theme [but] it's hard to find," while Duane Dudek of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel summed the series as a "pleasant little sitcom" which was not a "struggle for mastery [but] in some ways, a rather old-fashioned love story.

The show's theme song, "Brand New Life", was written by series creators and executive producers Cohan and Hunter, with music composed by Larry Carlton and Robert Kraft.

TBS would bring back the show for one last time August 1997 to October 1997 again airing one full hour at 7:05 p.m. EST.

[17] Several episodes from seasons one, two, and eight was formerly viewed for free in Minisode format on Crackle, formerly owned by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon's IMDb TV service.

[23] The series is currently available for streaming online on Sony Pictures' YouTube channel, Throw Back TV in the United States.

episodes, Jonathan Ward played Learned's son Rick; in the Living Dolls series, David Moscow took over the role.