Producer Chuck McLain told David Hinckley of 'New York Daily News' in 1983, "Some companies do try to make everything a back-door pilot but most do not. Most movies are just movies. 'Bare Essence' is an uncommon case because even before the mini-series was filmed, I thought it was a weekly series. So Warner Bros. authorized me to make a presentation on it, and even though CBS wasn't interested, since they already had 'Dallas', 'Knots Landing' and 'Falcon Crest', NBC didn't have any serials, so they were."
On 'Bare Essence', Genie Francis played a 20-year-old entrepreneur who ran a high-financed cosmetics and perfume empire after saving the international corporation from bankruptcy. "It's not such a far-out possibility," Genie made the observation at the time. "After all Tyger doesn't own the company. She married into the family that controls it. Today's (in 1983) young people are taking their place in the business world. Tyger is a perfect little mogul-ess, determined, ambitious and aggressive." Genie also pointed out, "I have older advisers around me. For instance, the head of our empire is a 70-year-old person, played by John Dehner. I also have such helpers as characters played by Jessica Walter, Jennifer O’Neill and Ian McShane."
D.C. Denison of 'The Boston Pheonix' noted the fate of a character would usually be dictated by a change in storyline. He gave as an example, Tyger's roommate and confidante, Kathy Bradshaw. Chuck McLain clarified, "The character of Kathy has turned out to be wrong for the story. Kathy was intended as a contemporary for Tyger, someone she could talk to. But once she was on the show, I realized that I now had 2 very similar heroines when all the attention should have been going to Tyger. So, I've had to write her out.
"The first thing I considered, once I made the decision, was how I could write Kathy out to best serve what we're doing on the show. I wanted to rectify the mistake in a way that would be beneficial to Tyger and to the main storyline. I wanted to write her out at a time when Tyger was very, very vulnerable, and to use her leaving as a way to play up to that vulnerability. As it's planned now, Kathy will be written out just as a new romantic interest is entering Tyger's life. Kathy's departure, which will make Tyger feel even more alone, will work very well with this new storyline."
Media monitor Joan Crosby of 'Compulog' observed, "When 'Bare Essence' began the serial focused on the lives and loves of women perfume executives, but as the season wore on, British actor Ian McShane's character, Greek shipping tycoon Niko Theophilus, became more dominant."
'Bare Essence' lasted 11 episodes. 'The A-Team' provided lead-ins for the first 3 weeks on Tuesday nights in February 1983. The network then pre-empted 'Bare Essence' for the following 2 weeks to telecast basketball. Then the next 5 episodes were shown on Friday nights after 'Falcon Crest' ended its 1982-83 season. The network then pre-empted 'Bare Essence' for the following 6 weeks due to lackluster ratings. Then the remaining 2 episodes were shown back-to-back in the non-ratings season on a Monday night in June as a movie, 'Bare Essence: The Final Chapter'.
'Bare Essence' lasted 11 episodes. 'The A-Team' provided lead-ins for the first 3 weeks on Tuesday nights in February 1983. The network then pre-empted 'Bare Essence' for the following 2 weeks to telecast basketball. Then the next 5 episodes were shown on Friday nights after 'Falcon Crest' ended its 1982-83 season. The network then pre-empted 'Bare Essence' for the following 6 weeks due to lackluster ratings. Then the remaining 2 episodes were shown back-to-back in the non-ratings season on a Monday night in June as a movie, 'Bare Essence: The Final Chapter'.
Ian McShane made the comment at the time, "Next year (1984) there will probably be a mini-series called 'The Best of Bare Essence' and 10 years from now (1993), it will be a cult series. We certainly needed better writing and more delineation of character. They would bring in characters who were confusing. Also, the network changed the time slots, so the audience felt confused and they (the network) felt we would not make it." Genie insisted, "I didn’t take the cancellation of 'Bare Essence' as a personal failure. Many of the prime-time series of that period didn’t make it either."
