Love, Sidney

Love, Sidney was an American situation comedy which ran on NBC from October 28, 1981 until June 6, 1983. The series was based on a short story written by Marilyn Cantor Baker, which was subsequently adapted into a TV movie entitled Sidney Shorr: A Girl's Best Friend, which NBC aired on October 5, 1981, a few weeks before the series premiered. The premise involved a gay man and his relationship with a single mother and her five-year-old daughter whom he invites to live with him. Tony Randall stars as Sidney Shorr, with Swoosie Kurtz as Laurie Morgan and Kaleena Kiff as her daughter Patti. The series was produced by Warner Bros. Television.

Love, Sidney was the first program on American television to feature a gay character as the central lead, although for the series, Sidney's homosexuality was almost entirely downplayed from its subtle yet unmistakable presence in the two-hour pilot.

Synopsis

Love, Sidney was a continuation of the television movie Sidney Shorr: A Girl's Best Friend. Randall played the title character, a well-to-do gay New Yorker in his 50s, who befriends a single woman, Laurie Morgan (Lorna Patterson) and the daughter she gives birth to. At the end of the movie, he is brokenhearted when the mother and daughter move to California. Laurie's daughter Patti is played in the later stages of the movie (once time lapses to her being five years old) by Kaleena Kiff, who retains the role in Love, Sidney.