Hope & Faith
Hope & Faith is an American television sitcom, starring Faith Ford and Kelly Ripa as Hope Shanowski and Faith Fairfield. Hope is a homemaker and mother of three and Faith is her sister, a soap opera star whose character is killed off, leading her to move in with Hope and her family in the fictional suburban Cleveland town of Glen Falls, Ohio. It originally aired on ABC from September 26, 2003 to May 2, 2006. During its first and second seasons, the series was part of the revived TGIF comedy block.
Hope & Faith was created and produced by Joanna Johnson, who loosely based the premise on her own life as a former cast member of The Bold and the Beautiful. The series was primarily filmed at New York City's Silvercup East, a sister studio to Silvercup Studios. In May 2006, ABC announced that Hope & Faith had been cancelled after three seasons.
History
ABC announced on January 18, 2006 that it was benching Hope & Faith for the February sweeps to make room for an expanded edition of Dancing with the Stars. The show began to air its remaining episodes from March 21, 2006 on Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. ET against American Idol. In May 2006, ABC announced that the show would be cancelled when it unveiled its fall 2006 line up.All 73 episodes were picked up by the U.S. television network WE tv.
Hope & Faith was shown for a short time in the UK on the digital-only channel ABC1, which closed in 2007. The show is also shown in Latin America, Fiji, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark and in Ireland on RTÉ. In Australia, Hope and Faith airs reruns on Channel Ten's Afternoon schedule.
Main Characters
- Hope Fairfield-Shanowski. Hope is usually the most sensible one, and is always reluctant to go along with her sister's schemes. She is married to Charlie and has three kids, Sydney, Hayley, and Justin. She likes to bake and garden, and eventually has her own catering business;
- Faith Fairfield. Faith is Hope's younger dim-witted celebrity sister. She was on Star Search, and starred as Ashley Storm on the fictional soap opera The Sacred and the Sinful. Faith is lazy and makes Hope wait on her. She always hatches schemes and manages to involve her sister in them. She makes repeated attempts to get more acting work but is never successful. In season two, one of Faith's schemes involved her and Hope's creating a catering business: as a result, Faith ended up becoming professional caterer. She also claimed to have invented the idea of the internet, stating she "has the sketches."
- Charlie Shanowski. Charlie is Hope's husband and patriarch of the family. He dislikes Faith, and is always trying to get her to leave. He is an orthodontist. He likes watching sports and is a fan of Faith's former baseball playing boyfriend The Gooch;
- Sydney Shanowski. Sydney is Hope and Charlie's elder daughter. She particularly likes spending time with her aunt Faith, whom she sees as way cooler than her mother and gets sucked into Faith's schemes. She is portrayed as popular, vain, boy crazy, mean and kind of ditzy. Paggi's version was fairly wholesome but Fox's version was more promiscuous.
- Hayley Shanowski. Hayley is Hope and Charlie's younger daughter. She is portrayed as the smart child who gets promoted to high school in season two. She is also caring and an animal activist. Sometimes she belittles her older sister because Hayley is smarter than her. She eventually becomes Edwin's girlfriend.
- Justin Shanowski. Justin is Hope and Charlie's only son. He is smart and is known to act like an adult with his mature interests. He usually pals around with his dad and likes his aunt.
Recurring characters
- Jack Fairfield. Jack is Hope and Faith's father and ever since his wife Mary Jo died, he has dated women half his age. The reason he married Hope and Faith's mother is because she was pregnant with Hope. He also had an affair with another woman when his marriage with Mary Jo was on the rocks and had an illegitimate son named Jay;
- Gary "The Gooch" Gucharez. The Gooch is a baseball player, who was a former hot-shot major league baseball player who ruined his career by failing to catch a slow moving ball. Upon meeting, he and Faith bump heads, but the pair eventually have the hots for each other and start dating. Later on, the Gooch gets a job offer to play baseball in Japan and leaves their love behind. However, he moves back to the States in hopes of declaring his love for Faith and they eventually elope in the season three première. Although their marriage is short-lived, he comes back in a later episode and he and Faith re-unite;
- Edwin. Edwin plays Haley's boyfriend. He is portrayed as a smart nerd who has many allergies and asthma. He appeared in five episodes; "Hope Has No Faith", "Silent Night, Opening Night", "Mismatch", "Faith Scare-Field", and "The Gooch";
- Henry. Edwin's older brother and someone who Sydney has a crush on. Like his brother, Henry is also smart.
- Mandi Ragner. Mandi has been Faith's best friend since they were in school. Mandi dates Hope and Faith's father Jack for one episode. She comes back in a later episode and tells their father that she is pregnant with his child. He planned to marry her, but when the baby was born it was obvious it wasn't his. She appeared in three episodes; "Jack's Back", "Natal Attraction", and "Stand By Your Mandi";
- Handsome Hal Halverson. Handsome Hal is a successful used car salesman. He uses celebrities and makes fools of them in his commercials. In his first episode he makes a fool out of Faith in his commercials. In his second episode he makes a fool out of the Gooch in his commercials. And in his final episode he loses his car dealership and becomes broke. Faith decides to be nice and invites to stay with him. He has a scheme for him and Faith to host a morning talk show. The producers love him, but they tell him to dump Faith. He appeared in one episode each season; "Car Commercial", "Another Car Commercial", and "Homeless Hal";
- Nancy Lombard. Nancy is Faith's therapist. She helps Faith after Charlie and Hope force her to see her. In one episode she tells Faith to do something fun, which she drags Hope into. She can also be very sensible towards Faith and usually tells her the right thing to do, but can cause some backfire for both Hope and Faith. She appeared in four episodes in Season 3 "Faith's Therapy", "Hope in the Middle", "The Restaurant", and "Old Faithful";
- Brooke Spencer. Brooke is Faith's replacement on The Sacred and the Sinful. Many think that Brooke is a better fit as Ashley Storm, but some still think Faith is better. She has a disliking to Faith and always tries to out stage Faith. At the Daytime Emmy's, it is revealed that Brooke Spencer is a man and Jacqueline Karr is her mother, another famous soap star. She appears in 4 episodes in Season 1, which are, "Silent Night, Opening Night", "Trade Show", "Daytime Emmy's: Part 1", and Daytime Emmy's: Part 2".
- Jay. Jack Fairfield had an affair with a lady and Jay was born. Therefore, Jay is Hope's and Faith's younger half brother. Galecki appears in 3 episodes. The name of the episodes are "Blood Is Thicker Than Daughter", "The Restaurant" and the episode "Jay Date".
Notable guest stars
- Clint Black
- Nick Lachey
- Tony Curtis
- Dean Cain
- Robert Wagner
- Cheryl Ladd
- Regis Philbin
- Kathie Lee Gifford
- Jenny McCarthy
- Carmen Electra
- Jaclyn Smith
- Ben Bailey
- Mark Consuelos
- Rue McClanahan
- Carol Kane
- Lynda Carter
- Susan Lucci
- Susan Flannery
- Dominic Chianese
- Tom Arnold
- Peter Vack
- Kevin Sorbo
- Roger Clemens
- Willie Randolph
- Brian Austin Green
- Dixie Carter
- Hal Holbrook
- Andrea Martin
- Paul Shaffer
- Wynonna Judd
Episodes
Reruns and syndication
Shortly after the series was canceled, WE tv acquired the cable syndication rights to Hope & Faith and it debuted in August 2006, lasting through May 2010. It can be seen on CMT and ABC Spark in Canada. The show had also been aired on RTÉ One and RTÉ Two in Ireland, and ABC1 in the UK. As of 2014, it is unknown if another cable network will pick up the series.Home media
On March 31, 2009, Lionsgate Home Entertainment released Season 1 of Hope & Faith on DVD in Region 1.| Season | Ep# | Release date |
| Season 1 | 25 | March 31, 2009 |
| Season 2 | 26 | TBA |
| Season 3 | 22 | TBA |
International versions
A Turkish adaptation of the series, titled Belalı Baldız, began in September 2005 on ATV. Lead actors and actresses are Berna Laçin, Nurgül Yeşilçay and Kenan Işık. Reruns began in July 2008 on TürkMax.International syndication
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