Series synopsis
Benson is an American comedy television series that premiered on ABC on September 13, 1979. It ended on April 19, 1986. It was created by Susan Harris. It stars Robert Guillaume, James Noble, Inga Swenson and Caroline McWilliams.
A butler deals with life at the governor's mansion.
Premise
A butler deals with life at the governor's mansion.
Cast and characters
Leading cast
- Robert Guillaume as Benson DuBois
- James Noble as Governor Eugene Xavier Gatling
- Inga Swenson as Gretchen Kraus
- Caroline McWilliams as Marcy Hill
- Missy Gold as Katie Gatling
- Ethan Phillips as Pete Downey
- Didi Conn as Denise Stevens
- Lewis J. Stadlen as John Taylor
Supporting cast
- René Auberjonois as Clayton Endicott III
- Billie Bird as Rose Cassidy
- William Smith
- Julius Harris
- Marty Allen
- Tracey Gold
- Barbara Babcock
- Luis Ávalos
- Clyde Kusatsu
- Beverly Todd as Casey Turner
- William Bogert
- René Enríquez
Guest cast
Episodes
This series spans 8 seasons with 161 episodes.
| Season | Episodes | First aired | Last aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 0 | 3 | ||
| Season 1 | 24 | September 13, 1979 | May 8, 1980 |
| Season 2 | 22 | October 31, 1980 | May 22, 1981 |
| Season 3 | 22 | November 6, 1981 | May 14, 1982 |
| Season 4 | 22 | October 22, 1982 | March 31, 1983 |
| Season 5 | 22 | September 16, 1983 | May 4, 1984 |
| Season 6 | 24 | September 21, 1984 | April 5, 1985 |
| Season 7 | 22 | October 4, 1985 | April 19, 1986 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Making of Season 1 Documentary | |
| 2 | Inside the Governor's Mansion: Remembering Season One of Benson | |
| 3 | Favorite Episodes |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Change (Pilot) In the pilot of this spinoff series of Soap, Benson, the Butler of Jessica Tate helps out her cousin Gene Gatling, who is the Governor of the state. Benson's first escapade lands him into finding a way for a huge company to build their new bridge without killing beavers. His success in this idea seems to land him a ""trial offer"" for this new job. |
September 13, 1979 |
| 2 |
Trust Me Katie attends a controversial rock concert, even though her father forbid her to go and had Benson watch her. Now the question is, who will get home in time? The Governor or Katie? Benson, afraid Katie will not come home in time applies for another job in the meantime. |
September 20, 1979 |
| 3 |
The President's Double Governor Gatling goes with African president Ukassi to a dinner. The African president becomes a victim of an assasination attempt and while his wounds get worse, Benson plays the part of the African president. The problem is that the assasins want that president dead and they have their desires on killing him not knowing that it's Benson. |
September 27, 1979 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Thick as Thieves Benson and Kraus are held hostage during a market robbery. |
October 31, 1980 |
| 2 |
Benson in the Hospital Humor swipes the Governor's Mansion when Benson is hospitalized. Benson turns out to be their funniest patient ever. They realize that he has a strange malady that has all the doctors in question. |
November 7, 1980 |
| 3 |
Fool's Gold After a press conference, Benson notices a strange difference in one side of the fire place. He tries to twist it so it is similar with the other side. When he twists the knob a secret map comes out which gives the staff gold fever. They go to the shed in back and frantically look for the gold. |
November 14, 1980 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Benson's Appointment The Governor tries to work out the struggles to make Benson the State Budget Director. |
November 6, 1981 |
| 2 |
The Grass Ain't Greener Benson goes undercover to investigate conditions in a Prison. |
November 13, 1981 |
| 3 |
Sit-In In Benson's office, a conductor holds a concert in protest. He would like to point out the musician's plight with the culture's subsides. Meanwhile Mary has her last working day with Benson. |
November 27, 1981 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Death in a Funny Position (1) A yacht cruise becomes a murder mystery when the owner of the boat is stabbed to death. |
October 22, 1982 |
| 2 |
Death in a Funny Position (2) Murders abound on a working vacation aboard a yacht, but Benson saves the day. |
October 22, 1982 |
| 3 |
What a Revoltin' Development While attending a conference in Latin America, Benson and Pete are kidnapped by revolutionaries. In exchange, they want 6 United States fighter jets in their possession. |
October 29, 1982 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Band of Gold In the 5th season opener, Denise and Pete are about to get married in the woods, but trouble arises when Pete forgets to put gasin the car and him, Benson, Denise and Kraus are are stranded. They then have to find a way to cicilization so they steal the minister's gasoline can and take off. |
September 16, 1983 |
| 2 |
Human Element G.I. operatives replace Gene with a double. |
September 23, 1983 |
| 3 |
God, I Need This Job Everyone thinks that Benson is out of it when he sees, hears, and talks to Jessica Tate's ghost. |
September 30, 1983 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Scandal While going undercover, Benson learns that the Lieutenant Governor is accepting bribes from a construction company. |
September 21, 1984 |
| 2 |
The Inheritance Benson finds it hard to believe that he is the sole heir to the Playbird magazine empire. |
September 28, 1984 |
| 3 |
Let's Get Physical Benson's pleasure turns to panic when the attractive doctor who conducted his physical wants to meet him to discuss the results. |
October 12, 1984 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Benson the Hero While Governor Gatling is away, Benson and Clayton are depended upon to spend an 8 million dollar budget surplus before the next fiscal year, which is only a matter of several hours away. When the surplus was found out by someone, The Governor and Clayton go through political embarassment. |
October 4, 1985 |
| 2 |
Love and Politics When Benson revisits a relationship with Senator Hartford, the Senator changes her position on Clayton's commercial-development-of-state-parks bill. When Benson calls her on it, she flip-flops again and ultimately abstains. |
October 11, 1985 |
| 3 |
Uncle Jack Benson tries to bring the Governor and his brother Jack together after 25 years of not seeing each other. |
October 18, 1985 |
Production
Release
| Original network/platform | ABC |
|---|---|
| First aired | September 13, 1979 |
| Last aired | April 19, 1986 |
| Runtime | 30 minutes |
| Status | ended |