Army Wives

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Plot

Based on Tanya Biank's memoir Under the Sabers: The Unwritten Code of Army Wives, this weekly cable drama detailed the lives of several military spouses (not all of them female, by the way) stationed at Fort Marshall. Kim Delaney played the central character, Claudia Joy Holden, who as the wife of Col. Michael Holden (Brian McNamara) was the newest arrival at Fort Marshall, where most of the personnel had either just returned from Iraq or were on the verge of being shipped out. The outgoing, level-headed Claudia quickly bonded with the other wives on the premises, including Denise Sherwood (Catherine Bell), an "Army brat" who'd been living on similar bases since childhood and was presently entrenched in a troubled relationship with her husband, Maj. Frank Sherwood (Terry Serpico); Roxy LeBlanc (Sally Pressman), a footloose ex-cocktail waitress who'd wed her PFC hubby Trevor LeBlanc (Drew Fuller) after a whirlwind five-day courtship; and Pamela Moran (Brigid Branagh), a former Boston cop who was hiring herself out as a surrogate mother so that she and her cash-poor Delta Force husband Chase Moran (Jeremy Moran) could claim extra benefits. There was also an "Army Husband", base psychiatrist Roland Burton (Sterling K. Brown), whose wife Joan (Wendy Davis), the base's first female African-American lieutenant colonel, was suffering from post-tramautic stress disorder after a grueling tour of duty in Afghanistan. Essentially Desperate Housewives in uniform, the series dwelt extensively on sex, intramural jealousies, and class consciousness (an Army wife's social status was, not surprisingly, determined by her spouse's military rank); and though there was surprisingly little editorializing about the War on Terror, a lot of screen space was devoted to the emotional travails arising from the then-ongoing conflict. Filmed on location in South Carolina by Grey's Anatomy producer Mark Gordon, Army Wives debuted June 3, 2007, on Lifetime. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Credit

Mark Gordon - Executive Producer, Jeff Melvoin - Executive Producer, Katherine Fugate - Executive Producer, Deborah Spera - Executive Producer, Katherine Fugate - Show Creator, Tanya Biank - Book Author

Episodes

Army Wives: Season 01 (2007)
Army Wives: Season 02 (2008)
Army Wives: Season 03 (2009)
  • Best Laid Plans
  • M.I.A.
  • Operation: Tango
  • First Response
  • Duty to Inform
  • Need to Know Basis
  • As Time Goes By
  • Shrapnel and Alibis
  • Fire in the Hole
  • Fields of Fire
  • About Face
  • Moving Out
  • Incoming
  • Disengagement
  • Family Readiness
  • Onward Christian Soldier
  • Post and Prejudice
  • Coming Home
Army Wives: Season 04 (2010)
  • Collateral Damage
  • Trial & Error
  • Safety First
  • Change of Station
  • Army Strong
  • AWOL
  • Hearts & Minds
  • Mud, Sweat & Tears
  • Murder in Charleston
  • Forward March
  • Scars & Stripes
  • Counterattack
  • Be All You Can Be
  • Guns & Roses
  • Evasive Maneuvers
  • Heavy Losses
  • Over and Out
  • New Orders
Army Wives: Season 05 (2011)
  • Line of Departure
  • Battle Buddies
  • Drop Zone
  • Firefight
  • Farewell to Arms
  • Command Presence
  • Movement to Contact
  • On Behalf of a Grateful Nation
  • Soldier On
  • Walking Wounded
  • Strategic Alliances
  • Supporting Arms
  • Counter Measures
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Army Wives
Army Wives main cast.jpg
Catherine Bell, Kim Delaney, Sally Pressman, Brigid Brannagh and Wendy Davis as the Army Wives cast
Format Drama
Created by Katherine Fugate
Starring
Theme music composer Marc Fantini
Steffan Fantini
Country of origin United States
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 6
No. of episodes 94 (List of episodes)
Production
Location(s) Charleston, South Carolina
Running time 60 minutes
Production company(s) ABC Studios, The Mark Gordon Company
Broadcast
Original channel Lifetime
Picture format 480i (SDTV)
720p (HDTV)
Original run June 3, 2007 (2007-06-03) – present
External links
Website

Army Wives is an American drama series that follows the lives of four army wives, their families, and an Army husband whose wife is in the Army. The series, shot at ABC Studios, premiered on Lifetime on June 3, 2007. The show had the largest series premiere in Lifetime's 23-year history, and the largest viewership in the 10:00 pm to 11:00 pm time slot since December for Lifetime.[1]

Army Wives is currently airing its sixth season, consisting of 23 episodes, which premiered March 4, 2012. At first Lifetime ordered 13 episodes and then ordered an additional 10 episodes in November 2011. The remaining 10 episodes begin airing June 24, after a five-week hiatus.

Contents

Premise

Based on the non-fiction book originally titled Under the Sabers: The Unwritten Code of Army Wives, by Tanya Biank, the series is set at fictional Fort Marshall, at the old Charleston Naval Base, in North Charleston, South Carolina, home to the also fictional 23rd Airborne Division. The show itself is filmed in various locations such as the Charleston Air Force Base and the sound stage off Dorchester Road in the City of North Charleston. Some scenes have been shot in and around the City of Charleston. Fort Marshall is presumably based on the actual 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg.

In the pilot episode of Army Wives, "A Tribe is Born," Roxy (Sally Pressman) impetuously decides to marry Private First Class Trevor LeBlanc (Drew Fuller) and moves with her two children to his Army post. Floundering in her new life as an Army wife, she takes a job as a bartender at a local joint known for being a Jody bar (where civilian men go to hit on enlisted men's wives). While on the post, Roxy meets Claudia Joy Holden (Kim Delaney), who believes that her husband Col. Michael Holden's (Brian McNamara) promotion did not come through because of base politics. Another Army wife, Pamela Moran (Brigid Brannagh), is pregnant with twins; she's secretly acting as a surrogate to get her family out of debt. Pamela's husband Chase is a non-commissioned officer assigned to the highly secretive and often deployed special operations unit Delta Force. Meanwhile, psychiatrist Roland Burton (Sterling K. Brown) is trying to reconnect with his wife, Lieutenant Colonel Joan Burton (Wendy Davis), who has just returned from Afghanistan. And, Denise Sherwood (Catherine Bell) is dealing with her son Jeremy's anger issues and her strict husband; Major Frank Sherwood (Terry Serpico) is about to be deployed. The unlikely group bonds when Pamela unexpectedly goes into labor at Claudia Joy's wives' tea party and subsequently gives birth on the pool table in the bar where Roxy works. Not wanting everyone to know her family's dire financial situation, Pamela relies on these new friends (and Claudia Joy, who was already a good friend) to keep her surrogacy from being exposed.

As the first season progresses, the four women and Roland all become close friends. They face things such as deployments, abuse, hostage situations, adultery, post-traumatic stress disorder, death, and prescription drug addiction.

Though the show is based on the book of the same name, and some of the characters echo their book counterparts, significant differences exist. For example, in the book, Claudia Joy loses her husband in a helicopter crash during a mission to find the remains of soldiers in Vietnam.[2]

Episodes

Cast

Main cast

Recurring cast

The characters listed have appeared in multiple seasons, or for story arcs lasting at least three episodes.

  • Jeremy Davidson as MSG Chase Moran (Seasons 1-5)
  • Richard Bryant as SPC Jeremy Sherwood (Seasons 1-6)
  • John White, Jr. as Finn LeBlanc
  • Luke Bartelme as Toby Jack "T.J." LeBlanc (Seasons 1-4)
  • Connor Christie as Toby Jack "T.J." LeBlanc (Seasons 5-present)
  • Jake Johnson as Lucas Moran
  • Chloe J. Taylor as Katherine Eileen "Katie" Moran
  • Gigi Rice as Marda Brooks (Seasons 1-2)
  • Melissa Ponzio as Angie (Seasons 1-3)
  • Rhoda Griffis as Lenore Baker Ludwig (Seasons 1-4)
  • Kim Allen as Amanda Joy Holden (Season 1; Season 2 - 1 episode)
  • Caroline Pires as Emmalin Holden (Season 1)
  • Patricia French as Betty Camden (Season 1-2)
  • Kate Kneeland as Marilyn Polarski (Season 1)
  • Seamus Dever as Dr. Chris Ferlhingetti (Season 2)
  • Matthew Glave as LTC Evan Connors (Seasons 2-3)
  • Mayte Garcia as Jennifer Connors (Seasons 2-3)
  • Paul Wesley as PFC Logan Atwater (Seasons 2-3)
  • Gavin McCulley as Captain Thomas (Season 3)
  • Clifton Powell as Terrence Price (Seasons 3-4)
  • Jeff Rose as MAJ Bryce Ogden (Seasons 3-5)
  • Tim Parati as Chief, cook at the Hump Bar (Season 3-present)
  • Antjuan Tobias as PFC Guy Riggs (Seasons 4-5)
  • Harry Hamlin as Grant Chandler (Seasons 4-5)
  • Lee Tergesen as Officer Clayton Boone (Seasons 4-5)
  • Cory Hart as Whit Carter (Season 5)
  • McCarrie McCausland as David Burton (Seasons 5-6)
  • Ryan Michelle Bathe as Charlie (Season 6)
  • Robert John Burke as General Kevin Clarke (Season 6)
  • Kelli Williams as Jackie Clarke (Season 6)
  • Adam Boyer as Sergeant Leon "Ski" Wisniewski (Season 6)
  • Kellie Martin as Army Intelligence Captain Nicole Galassini (Season 6)
  • Susan Lucci as Audrey Whitaker (Season 6)
  • Jason Pendergraft as Dr. Blake Hanson (Season 6)
  • Larry Gilliard, Jr. as Marcus Williams (Season 6)

Ratings

The series opened its third season with 3.5 million viewers and a 2.4 rating among women 18-49, and a 1.0 rating among men 18-49. That made Wives the top-rated drama premiere in Lifetime's key demographic for 2009, though the show declined 22% among total viewers later in the year.[3]

The series opened its fifth season with a total of 4.2 million viewers up 27% from the fourth season premiere and it scored a 1.4 rating among women 18-49. The episode is Lifetime’s second most watched original season premiere among the key demos, including Women 18+ (3.0 rating) and Adults 18+ (4.0 rating), behind only the season two debut of Army Wives.[4]

Soundtrack

DVD releases

Title Episode Count Release Date
The Complete First Season 13 June 10, 2008
The Complete Second Season 19 June 2, 2009
The Complete Third Season 18 February 9, 2010
The Complete Fourth Season 18 December 4, 2010
The Complete Fifth Season 13 September 27, 2011

International airings

The series began airing in Ireland on Monday, October 15, 2007, on TG4 (in English) and in New Zealand on Thursday, June 19, 2008, on TV2. The series began airing in Australia on December 1, 2008, on Channel Ten. The series also airs in the United Kingdom on Living, and on the South African network M-Net. The series also airs in the Israel on winter 2008 on Yes stars Drama. The second season ended on M-Net on Monday, January 5, 2009.[5] In French Canada, Historia started airing the first season on January 4, 2010.[6] The series was then brought to an associated channel, Series+, and will start airing episodes starting from season 1 on November 4, 2010, on a daily basis.[7] The series began airing the second season in the Netherlands on Monday, April 26, 2010, on NET 5. The first season and the first 13 episodes of the second were aired in the Arab world on MBC 4 while the third season began on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 on Fox Series. The series airing in Russia on FOX life and in Sweden the series is aired on TV4 Plus.

References

External links


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Mentioned in

Army Wives (1944 Drama Film)
Army Wives (2007 Drama TV Series)
Catherine Bell (actress, star of JAG)
William Fitzsimmons (Folk Artist, 2000s)