I 40 Paradise

I 40 Paradise was a 30 minute daily cable TV sitcom on the Nashville Network. Running from 1983 to about 1986, it made television history by becoming the first sitcom to produce an entire episode in a single day. Previous to this, it took an entire week to produce a 30 minute sitcom. I 40 Paradise was set in a truckstop/restaurant/tavern on Interstate 40 between Knoxville and Nashville in a small town, Crab Orchard, Tennessee. The main characters included "LuAnn Bledsoe", the owner of the Paradise, played by Barbara George; "Sonny Rollins", the goofy, "Goober" style mechanic, played by Bruce Carnahan; "Stogie" the bartender, played by John Ribble; "Georgia", the wannabe-country-music-singer-who-sang-off-key waitress, played by Trish Dougherty; "Buck", the house band leader and resident country music singer, played by Jack Crook; "Randy", Buck's kid brother, a multi-talented singer and musician, played by Lionel Cartwright; "Little Jake", the adorable 12-year-old boy-next-door, played by Jack Miller;"Melody Dawn Rainey", the girl singer, played by Kelli Warren. After the original pilot aired several regular characters were added. Calvin,played by Bruce Borin, a shoe salesman, and Velma played by Liz Borin, the local beautician and Calvin's girlfriend as well as a character named "Lathrop Wells" who ran the pool hall was also featured on the series.