Marlene Mapplethorpe and Connie Roche, the top-selling hosts at Home Shopping Experience (HSE), a regional shop-at-home network serving New Hampshire and 3/8ths of Vermont. Their personalities and programs couldn't be more different. Marlene caters to the modern, sophisticated woman on The Look With Marlene Mapplethorpe. Connie, a bubbly mother of two, chats it up with her callers and sells all things crafty and cozy on You're Home, With Connie Roche! They coexist by keeping a polite distance, until Suzanne Somers-a home-shopping juggernaut-launches her own home shopping network, Year-Round Somer(s), and chooses New Hampshire as one of three test-market states. Today's Special, The Pilot, brings you right in on this pivotal day. Attempting to protect HSE from Somers' inevitable pull of audience and sales, HSE's owner, Bob Evans, makes some dramatic changes that have the station reeling: layoffs, new studio tenants (a regional Spanish-language soap opera, Andale Te Amo), and most shocking of all, Marlene and Connie now must share air-time to boost ratings and sales.
