RIP.
I’ve seen “Benson” and “Soap” a few times.
Any idea what party the fictional Governor was, or what state? The show ended on 3-way election cliff hanger right?
I saw a fake article suggesting that Benson won the election, that he was Connecticut RINO and he was being suggested as a running mate for Al Gore or something.
The state was never quite made clear. I always pictured it as Connecticut, but it could’ve been just about anywhere (one ep had them crash in a helicopter in the desert, which was still supposed to be in the state). The capital, like the city in “The Simpsons”, was Springfield, IIRC.
We had a discussion about the politics of the show on IMDb some time back (the thread is still there), but since Gatling was elected in 1978, he did mention he was a Democrat (there were only 18 GOP Governors after the 1978 elections, IIRC), but was a fiscal Conservative and mentioned about having to make drastic cuts to the budget and laying off state workers (one episode, which got Katie upset with him, was where he was forced to fire an old lady pastry chef who worked in the mansion because he couldn’t justify the expense to the taxpayers).
The Democrats dumped Gatling for a 2nd term and he ran and won as an Independent. He was in the process of running for a 3rd term in the last season of the show, and he emphasized that Governors were forbidden from seeking a third (4-year) term, but cited a truly unusual law in the fictional state that said they could serve a maximum of two terms as a member of a given party, and since he had been elected just once as each (Dem and Ind), he could exploit it by running a second time as an Independent.
He chose to run a 3rd time after the Dems had given Benson the nod for Governor, so it was a 3-way race. Presumably, Gatling had enough appeal from both parties he could win with a plurality (similar to the margins we’ve seen for candidates in Maine for Governor).
always thought it was Connecticut because the Gov was a cousin of Jessica & Mary who lived in Dunn’s River.