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Wish You Were Here

Wish You Were Here

★ 7.0/10•1990•30m•NR•Comedy
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Wish You Were Here is an American sitcom that premiered on July 20, 1990 as a summer replacement on CBS in the 9:30pm slot which lasted for only six episodes. Its premise was that stockbroker Donny Cogswell, portrayed by Lew Schneider, quits his job and sends video cassette postcards of his European adventures to family and friends back in the United States.

StatusEnded
Runtime30m
LanguageEN
First Air DateJul 20, 1990

Episodes

E130m

Paris

Donny Cogswell buys a video camera, then quits his job as a Wall Street stock broker, when he's about to be fired. Back at his apartment, it turns out he'd left the shower on that morning, causing a great deal of water damage, which cost him most of his savings. Then his girlfriend Janet breaks up with him. So Donny decides to do some travelling, and the first place he goes is Paris. A couple of weeks later, Janet receives a video tape from him, and starts watching it. She keeps watching it when her new boyfriend, David, comes over to her apartment. Donny is trying to show Janet how romantic Paris is, and that she should come there to be with him, but by the end of the tape he realizes she was right to let him go. David, meanwhile, has gotten fed up with her watching the tape, and leaves.

Jul 20, 1990

E230m

Budapest

Donny sends a video tape to his grandpa Ziggy as a birthday present, which Ziggy and his family watch at his party, over Ziggy's protests. Donny meets a woman named Anna in Budapest, and travels with her on a train to Ziggy's old home village. But whenever he uses his family's original name, people get angry, and he has no idea why. Eventually, Anna, returns to explain the situation. It turns out his family was nobility, and oppressed the people of the village, so the family name was now a curse among them. Anna takes Donny to see her grandmother, who was an old girlfriend of Ziggy's. Then the villagers show up to apologize, after they found out Donny was Ziggy's grandson. Because Ziggy had given up all his wealth and power, and he was the one member of the family they liked.

Jul 27, 1990

E330m

Barcelona

In Barcelona, Donny sort of unintentionally makes dates with three different women on the same night: Anita at 7, Gina at 9:30, and Angel at midnight. None of the dates go exactly as planned, and in the course of each one, Donny manages to sustain a different injury. Meanwhile, the video is watched by Donny's old roommates, Gary and Steve, as well as their new roommate, Warren. They keep making bets about what will happen next on the tape.

Aug 3, 1990

E430m

Marrakesh

Donny's little brother Larry is at college, dressed up like Lawrence of Arabia, because he's obsessed with that movie, which he used to watch with Donny alot. His girlfriend Meg shows up to watch Casablanca with him, but then he receives a tape from Donny, and he'd rather watch that. It turns out that Donny is in Morocco, heading toward Marrakesh. He and Larry always wanted to go there. But the truck Donny was riding in breaks down, and he's stuck in another city. He hires a boy named Ali to handle his camera part of the time. Donny wants to catch a bus to Marrakesh, but there are no seats left, because of all the German tourists in town. He does manage to find a ticket which someone else drops, though. He also spends some time hanging out with a bus inspector named Henri, and then Ingar, a Swedish exchange student Donny dated in high school, shows up. Along with her fiance. Apparently he often left Larry alone to go out with her. Also he's upset that she missed their prom because she

Aug 10, 1990

E530m

French Riviera

Okay, so it's not a city. I don't think a specific city was ever mentioned in this episode, in fact I don't think anyplace more specific than ""France"" was mentioned, but I'm pretty sure it takes place on the French Riviera, anyway. Donny gets a job as an au pair, looking after a couple of mischievous boys, Michael and Pierre, who make life difficult for him in various ways, and keep trying to use his camera themselves. Donny sends the tape to Jean, who used to be his babysitter.

Aug 17, 1990

E630m

Somewhere Near the Balkans

This is the wackiest episode. It was funny, but I never really bought that most of the stuff that happened really would have happened. Anyway, Donny is in prison... somewhere near the Balkans... for having assaulted someone and stolen his camera. He keeps trying to convince the captain and guards that it's his camera, which had been stolen from him some time ago, in Athens. On the tape we see that the maid at his hotel in Athens had stolen it, and sold it to some guy, and apparently he later sold it to a young man named Adonis, who didn't know it was stolen. He wanted to travel and send videos home, and he went to Washington, D.C. with the camera. Meanwhile, Donny talked to a lawyer as well as the American consul, neither of whom was of any help. But eventually Adonis showed up, and Donny convinced him that it was his camera, so he had Donny released. His travels were over, but he convinced Donny to keep on travelling, even though he was also thinking of quitting. Donny spoke to his pa

Aug 24, 1990

Actors

Jayne Eastwood

Jayne Eastwood

Lew Schneider

Lew Schneider

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The Dick Van Dyke Show
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The Carol Burnett Show
The Brittas Empire
Key & Peele
The Danny Thomas Show
Nick Cannon Presents: Wild 'N Out
Leave It to Beaver
The Cosby Show
Two Guys and a Girl
Happy Days
Kenan & Kel
Major Dad
$#*! My Dad Says
The Goldbergs
Cosby
MAD

Similars

Cheers
Good Times
3rd Rock from the Sun
The European Side
Night Court
A Different World
Cory in the House
Andy Capp
To the Manor Born
Ink
Saved by the Bell
One-Upmanship
Are You Being Served?
Arli$$
All Along the Watchtower
All Our Saturdays
All in Good Faith
What I Like About You
Keeping Up Appearances
El Chavo del Ocho