Lifetime Army Wives

‘Army Wives’ is an original program aired by the Lifetime Channel that premiered in 2007. It is a drama that chronicles the lives of four wives of husbands in the army. It also focuses on a man whose wife is away in the army. The show had the largest series premiere in Lifetime’s network history when it aired its first episode on June 3, 2007. The program is loosely based on the book Under the Sabers: The Unwritten Code of Army Wives, written by Tanya Biank.

The cast includes Kim Delaney, who used to star on ‘NYPD Blue’, Catherine Bell, previously seen on CBS’ ‘Jag’, and Brian McNamara, who has an extensive list of credits on various television programs, including ‘Seinfeld’, ‘Matlock’ and ‘Star Trek: Voyager’. ‘Army Wives’ has done exceptionally well for the Lifetime network, a channel that has taken some heat over the years for its dramatized low-budget films that tend to deal with abused housewives and their struggles in fighting back against male aggressors.

To many critics, Lifetime panders to women in this regard, by offering up mostly one-sided depictions of domestic violence issues and the like that only paint male characters in a negative light.

‘Army Wives’, though, presents a different kind of program for the network, and includes some insights into what it must be like to have a spouse overseas fighting in a seemingly endless war. That is probably what has made the show so successful, since it is a glimpse into one side of the issue that we do not normally see presented on other programs.