The Building is an American sitcom television series with dramatic elements created, written by and starring Bonnie Hunt that aired on CBS from August 20 to September 17, 1993. Although it was praised by critics, it earned low Nielsen ratings and was canceled after only five episodes, leaving one episode unaired.
Bonnie Kennedy, a commercial actress who was jilted by her fiancé, returns to Chicago to start a new life in an apartment across from Wrigley Field. The story focuses on Kennedy's struggles and the characters who live in her apartment building.
Bonnie Hunt created the show, wrote four of the five broadcast episodes and starred as Bonnie Kennedy.
Making heavy use of the Second City alumni, the show had a theatrical sensibility and minor mistakes, accidents and forgotten lines were included in the aired episodes, with a loose improvisational feel to certain scenes. The Building was the first sitcom production of David Letterman's Worldwide Pants production company. Letterman appears (unbilled) in a character role in the second episode. A sixth episode was produced, but did not air.
Two years after the show was canceled, cast members Hunt, Don Lake, Tom Virtue and Holly Wortell reunited in the series The Bonnie Hunt Show. Hunt and Wortell also starred in Life With Bonnie. Both The Bonnie Hunt Show and Life With Bonnie retained many of the distinguishing characteristics of The Building, including the Chicago setting, an improvisational/theatrical feel and the nature of the characters' relationships.