Realizing it was unlikely that TV audiences would catch every episode of this nightly series, the writers began every episode with at least one line of dialogue that encapsulated what had occurred the night before.
Every episode of the series featured a spot of the fictional talk show "Madame's Place." Creator Wayland Flowers used this format as an opportunity to give air time to undiscovered stand-up comedians he believed in, many of whom made their one-and-only television appearances on this show. However, two of these unknown comics went on to host their own successful talk shows: Arsenio Hall and Jay Leno.
They shot five episodes per week, and then after the show wrapped on Friday afternoon, Wayland Flowers and Madame would have to hustle for the Friday night tapings of Solid Gold (1980). It's been alleged by several sources that Flowers developed a cocaine habit in an effort to keep up the pace, and in an on-set interview with Armistead Maupin for Interview magazine, Maupin remarked that Flowers had lost a great deal of weight.
Madame's look was based on movie stars such as Gloria Swanson. Many believe that Madame was based on a Washington, DC gay icon, waitress and restaurant hostess Margo MacGregor.
The bawdy show was explicitly created for late-night television, but it garnered greater exposure weekday mornings on the USA network. It began airing on USA on June 30, 1986, and had a permanent home on the station until 1991, although it was relocated to late-night near the end of its run. Subsequently, TV Land sporadically aired it throughout 1999. In the UK, it was broadcast during the afternoons on The Paramount Channel from 1995-1996.