Decades Before Orange Is The New Black, Fox Aired Its Own Show About Women In Prison
"Orange Is the New Black" wasn't the first TV show to shine a spotlight on female inmates. In 1987, there was a trashy, one-and-done sitcom that took the women-behind-bars premise and tossed it in a blender with "The Golden Girls."
Conceived as comedic spin on Aussie series "Prisoner: Cell Block H," "Women in Prison" was released by the fledgling Fox network roughly 39 years ago and focused on five distinctive women sharing a confined space — a formula that was all the rage in TV at the time.
While "Orange Is the New Black" was a dramedy, Fox's slammer girl-centric sitcom — which was filmed in front of a live studio audience — was all about crude humor and laughs. There were also no orange jumpsuits: just '80s fashion and big hair.
Set in the fictional Bass Women's Prison in Wisconsin, the story follows Vicki Springer (Julia Campbell), a pampered, high-society woman who finds herself locked up after being framed for shoplifting by her husband.
After 13 episodes, Women in Prison was sentenced to television's death row
To round out the ensemble, the late Wendie Jo Sperber ("Bosom Buddies") played Pam, an embezzling computer nerd serving time for fraud. Perhaps the most notable cast member to modern audiences would be CCH Pounder ("The Shield") as the hotheaded, husband-murdering Dawn Murphy.
If you're borrowing from "The Golden Girls," the cast wouldn't be complete without a floozy and an old lady. Antoinette Byron filled the heels of a British prostitute named Bonnie Harper, and Peggy Cass played the bank-robbing Eve Shipley, the wise elder of the group.
According to an old Fox promo, People magazine said "'Women in Prison' could turn into the trashiest hoot on TV," but that didn't seem to be the case. In its mixed review, The New York Times deemed the show's storyline potential as extremely limited, while also noting that joke punchlines — which relied too heavily on insult humor — were often punctuated by a grating laugh track.
The show debuted during Fox's inaugural year of primetime programming. After it completed its run with only 13 episodes, it was sentenced to television death row.
Despite the fact that the show faded into obscurity, CCH Pounder reportedly has fond memories of "Women in Prison." While she admitted it "was not quite what it was billed to be," she added that the cast "had a lot of fun doing it."