pattana746 Horrible show, not believable. Who would believe the two teenagers were sisters? They look nothing alike and the mother also looked completely different with red hair. Schneider creeped me out, hanging around all the time, like he was a pedophile.

bkoganbing One Day At A Time is how Bonnie Franklin took it with her new life as a liberated woman and divorcée. This show is one of the first where women predominate and they weren't scatterbrained fools like Lucy Ricardo.Still there was a lot of humor in this show with Bonnie Franklin trying to raise a family of two daughters on more than just her divorced husband Joe Campanella. She got herself a job and was around as much as possible for her two daughters Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli.The daughters were as different as could be. Phillips was a wild child and Bertinelli a good girl. That was an interesting part of the show, that two very different personality types could be with the children. Happens in a few million families across the globe. Over 9 seasons the girls went through a few boyfriends and got married, Phillips to Michael Lembeck and Bertinelli to Boyd Gaines.Making an occasional appearance was Franklin's mother Nannette Fabray. She was an old fashioned woman, who tried very hard to understand the new feminist philosophy. The janitor of their building was Pat Harrington, Jr. who was an alpha male, but over 9 seasons kind of softened his rough edges. I remember him addressing Franklin, Fabray, and Bertinelli as each preferred, Ms. Romano, Mrs. Romano, and Miss Romano. That summed up each of their outlooks on life.A lot of humor and a realistic look at the problems of single mothers with kids is what One Day At A Time is remembered for.

Scott Marcus I'm surprised to see a comment praising Bonnie Franklin. The fact that she was an unknown is completely irrelevant. Many new faces appear, and often carry shows. Bonnie Franklin is quite possibly the worst actress to ever lead a television series. And hence, "One Day at a Time" is one of the worst shows of all time. It was only slightly tolerable for the first season, because of Richard Masur. Once he left, the show became completely worthless, with horrible acting and ridiculous characters -- elevating Pat Harrington's moronic super into a major character was just another bad decision. To this day, I cringe at the thought of this show, and Bonnie Franklin's stupendously bad performances.

Brian Washington This was one of my favorite shows, at least for the first few seasons that it was on. This was one of the first shows that dealt with divorce and more importantly how it effects the children. Bonnie Franklin did a wonderful job as Ann and Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli were great as Julie and Barbara respectively. However, the character that really made the show was immortal Dwayne F. Schneider played by Pat Harrington. He brought a wonderful sense of humor to offset the more serious moments of the show. However complaint I do have a few complaints about the show. One is that I think that once Julie was written out of the show it should have ended there. Another is that like so many other shows that struggled for ratings, they fell into the trap of bringing on the cute kid character in the form of Alex. Also, if Ann was truly trying to be the modern independent woman, why did she wind up getting married towards the end of the show?