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After seeing Emmanuel Lewis in a Burger King Commercial, Lew Erlicht, who served as programming chief for ABC, wanted to feature the actor in his own series.

At this time, Another Ballgame producer Stu Silver desired to create an original show based on the lead characters portrayed by Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in the film Woman of the Year.

Silver saw Alex Karras and Susan Clark's on-screen chemistry as being very reminiscent of this.