50 Fun Facts About One Day at a Time

Which rock guitarist did the actress who played Barbara on One Day at a Time marry in 1981, midway through its run?

Eddie Van Halen married the sitcom's Barbara in 1981, three years before the final episode aired. Their son Wolfgang was born in 1991.

In the 1975 sitcom One Day at a Time, Ann Romano moves her daughters from Logansport to which Midwestern city?

Indianapolis is where the newly divorced Ann starts over, though every episode was taped before a studio audience in Hollywood.

Which actress plays Lydia, grandmother of the Alvarez family, in Netflix's One Day at a Time?

Rita Moreno was the first actor announced for the reboot. She said she took the part on the condition that Lydia be sexual.

Grandmother Lydia of Netflix's One Day at a Time fled which country, the ancestral homeland of the Alvarez family?

Cuba is the homeland Lydia left after Fidel Castro took power. The reboot reimagined the 1975 sitcom around a Latino family.

Which producer developed the 1975 One Day at a Time and returned in his nineties to produce the Netflix reboot?

Norman Lear, born in 1922, was an executive producer on both versions. His company first pitched rebuilding the sitcom around a Latino family.

Which actress, the original Julie on One Day at a Time, returned in the Netflix reboot as counselor Pam Valentine?

Mackenzie Phillips came back as Pam Valentine, who leads a therapy group for female veterans. Off screen, she had started work as a drug rehab counselor in 2016.

Which actress played divorced mother Ann Romano for all nine seasons of the original One Day at a Time?

Bonnie Franklin first appeared on television at age nine, on The Colgate Comedy Hour. She stayed with the sitcom for its entire run.

Which organization's central saying shares its exact wording with the title of the sitcom One Day at a Time?

Alcoholics Anonymous uses the phrase as its central sobriety saying. The title took on an ironic edge in 1980, when one of the sitcom's young stars entered rehab.

Which singer performs the re-recorded theme song of Netflix's One Day at a Time, in an arrangement by her husband?

Gloria Estefan sang the 1975 theme in a new arrangement by her husband Emilio. She later guest-starred as Mirtha, Lydia's estranged sister.

What job does Schneider hold at the apartment house where Ann Romano lives in the original One Day at a Time?

Superintendent Schneider hands out mostly unwanted advice to his tenants, above all to Ann. In the Netflix reboot, the character became the wealthy landlord instead.

Which actor won an Emmy for playing the meddlesome Schneider on the original One Day at a Time?

Pat Harrington Jr. won the Emmy in the sitcom's final year, and was one of only three cast members to stay for the entire run.

Which future Food Network host joined the original One Day at a Time at fifteen as wisecracking daughter Barbara?

Valerie Bertinelli was 15 when the sitcom began and appeared in 208 of its 209 episodes, missing only one in nine seasons.

Penelope Alvarez, the single mother in Netflix's One Day at a Time, is a veteran of which branch of the military?

Penelope's US Army service left her with PTSD, and her therapy group of fellow female veterans recurs throughout the reboot.

Which network aired the original One Day at a Time, a fixture of its hit Sunday-night lineup in the early 1980s?

CBS paired it on Sunday nights with Alice and The Jeffersons, yet moved the sitcom around its prime-time schedule eleven times.

After Netflix canceled One Day at a Time following three seasons, which cable channel revived it for a fourth?

Pop TV picked it up, making the sitcom the first original program canceled by Netflix to be revived on a traditional linear network.

Which actress stars as single mother Penelope Alvarez in Netflix's One Day at a Time?

Justina Machado played Vanessa Diaz on Six Feet Under before leading the reboot, a part that won her two Imagen Awards for best actress.

Which song serves as the theme of both the 1975 and 2017 versions of One Day at a Time?

This Is It was sung on the 1975 original by Polly Cutter. When the reboot changed networks for season four, the theme was cut for time.

Which actor, Ned Ryerson in Groundhog Day, plays Penelope's lonely boss Dr. Berkowitz in Netflix's One Day at a Time?

Stephen Tobolowsky plays the lonely doctor, who employs Penelope and slowly grows close to her mother Lydia.

In which Los Angeles neighborhood does the Alvarez family live in Netflix's One Day at a Time?

Echo Park replaced the Midwestern setting of the 1975 original. Like that sitcom, the reboot was recorded in front of a live studio audience, at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City.

The finale of the original One Day at a Time sends Schneider to which state to care for his niece and nephew?

Florida is where Schneider heads in the last episode. Ann had already left town in the episode before, so the finale belongs to him.

Near the end of the original One Day at a Time, Ann Romano accepts a job in which foreign city?

London is where Ann heads in the penultimate episode, leaving both daughters behind to raise families of their own.

Which Betty White sitcom reunited the actresses who played Ann and Barbara on One Day at a Time?

Hot in Cleveland starred the original Barbara, and her TV mother guest-starred in one of her last acting roles. The actors behind Julie and Schneider made cameos too.

Which singer of the 1962 chart-topper Johnny Angel played Ann Romano's business partner Francine on One Day at a Time?

Shelley Fabares first guest-starred as Ann's office rival, then became a regular. Her real-life aunt played Ann's mother on the same sitcom.

Which WKRP in Cincinnati star joined One Day at a Time as Sam Royer, who becomes Ann Romano's second husband?

Howard Hesseman, WKRP's Johnny Fever, played Sam in the last two seasons. Sam is also the father of Barbara's husband.

What medical emergency leaves Lydia between life and death as season two of Netflix's One Day at a Time ends?

A stroke leaves Lydia in hospital for the finale, Not Yet, whose script the Writers Guild Foundation listed among the best of the 2010s.

The father of the actress who played Julie on One Day at a Time led which 1960s folk-rock vocal group?

The Mamas & the Papas were led by her father, and in the 1980s she toured as a singer with a re-formed version of the group.

Before One Day at a Time, the actress who played Julie appeared at twelve in American Graffiti for which director?

George Lucas cast her as Carol, and because she was only 12, producer Gary Kurtz had to become her legal guardian during filming.

Which future Star Wars lead guest-starred on the original One Day at a Time as Harvey Schneider?

Mark Hamill played Harvey in the 1976 episode Schneider's Pride and Joy, a year before Star Wars made him Luke Skywalker.

Melissa Fumero and Stephanie Beatriz, Penelope's cousins in One Day at a Time, were co-stars on which police sitcom?

Brooklyn Nine-Nine made them co-stars. In the Alvarez family, Fumero plays Estrellita, Penelope's childhood best friend, and Beatriz plays Pilar.

What does teenage activist Elena Alvarez reveal to her family in the first season of Netflix's One Day at a Time?

She is gay, something she works out after briefly dating a classmate named Josh. The news does not sit well with her father, Victor.

Which Broadway star has a voice-only guest role as Juanito, husband of Penelope's cousin, in One Day at a Time?

Lin-Manuel Miranda voiced Juanito in The Politics Episode, an animated special made in 2020 after the pandemic halted filming.

Schneider's arrogant father in Netflix's One Day at a Time is played by which Ferris Bueller's Day Off actor?

Alan Ruck plays Lawrence Schneider, whose plan to turn the building into condos nearly costs the Alvarezes their home.

Which sport does Alex Alvarez play in Netflix's One Day at a Time, with Schneider driving him to games?

Baseball is Alex's game, and the whole Alvarez family turns out to cheer him on. In season four he also signs up for fashion design classes.

Why does Elena's friend Carmen secretly sleep at the Alvarez home in season one of One Day at a Time?

Her parents were deported to Mexico, leaving Carmen with nowhere else to go. She later moves to Austin, Texas, to live with her brothers.

Long before becoming the Alvarez grandmother in One Day at a Time, what was the young Lydia's profession?

Dancer and performer is how Lydia describes her younger self, a skill she puts to use training her granddaughter Elena to dance.

In season three of Netflix's One Day at a Time, what setback does Schneider suffer after defying his father?

A drinking relapse ends eight years of sobriety for Schneider. The way young Alex handles it persuades Penelope to lift his grounding.

What is the first name of Schneider, usually known by surname alone on the original One Day at a Time?

Dwayne is his name in the 1975 original. The reboot's Schneider got a different first name, borrowed from the actor who created the role.

What kind of business does Ann Romano launch with former office rival Francine Webster on One Day at a Time?

An advertising agency of their own turns the two workplace rivals into partners, and Francine grows from a guest character into a regular.

How does Nick, Ann Romano's boyfriend on One Day at a Time, die, leaving his son Alex in her care?

Nick dies in a car crash after only one season on the sitcom, while his orphaned son stays with Ann's family for two more years.

What is Max Horvath's job when he marries Julie on the original One Day at a Time?

Flight attendant Max was written out when the actress playing Julie was fired, then returned alongside her in season seven.

Barbara's husband on the original One Day at a Time is studying for which profession when they marry?

Dentistry is the calling of Barbara's husband, played by Boyd Gaines, who went on to win four Tony Awards on Broadway.

Michael Lembeck, Julie's husband Max on One Day at a Time, later won a directing Emmy for which sitcom?

Friends earned him the Emmy for The One After the Superbowl, the most-viewed episode of the series. He also directed The Santa Clause 2.

In the first pilot filmed for One Day at a Time, Ann had which job, later given to the reboot's Penelope?

Nurse Ann also had only one daughter in that first pilot. A major rework gave her two girls before the version that launched the sitcom.

The actress who played Ann Romano on One Day at a Time earned a Tony nomination for which 1970 Broadway musical?

Applause starred Lauren Bacall, while the future sitcom lead made her Broadway debut in it and introduced its title song.

Which Brill Building songwriter, a co-writer of Be My Baby, composed the One Day at a Time theme with his wife?

Jeff Barry wrote the theme with his wife Nancy, and also composed the themes for The Jeffersons and Family Ties.

Which Jeffersons star guest-stars in Netflix's One Day at a Time as a tenant living in apartment 227?

Marla Gibbs plays Mrs. Jones, whose apartment number is a tribute to 227, the sitcom she starred in from 1985 to 1990.

Which actor appears in Netflix's One Day at a Time as Berto, the late husband of Lydia?

Tony Plana, who played Betty's father Ignacio, is Berto. In season four, Lydia scatters his ashes in the rooftop garden he had tended.

Which actor, later Higgins on Magnum, P.I., played Ann Romano's boss Mr. Connors on One Day at a Time?

John Hillerman, a Texan, learned Higgins's English accent from a recording of Laurence Olivier. On the sitcom, he played one of Ann's two bosses.

Which actress has a recurring role as Ramona, a friend from Penelope's therapy group, in Netflix's One Day at a Time?

Judy Reyes, Carla on Scrubs, plays Ramona. In 2020 she appeared opposite the reboot's leading lady in the film All Together Now.

Ann Romano's boyfriend Nick on One Day at a Time was played by which future Alias star?

Ron Rifkin played Nick for one season, two decades before he became intelligence agent Arvin Sloane opposite Jennifer Garner.