First airing at the beginning of the 1990s, HEARTS AFIRE became popular due to the prescience of its politics, and the apparent chemistry of its characters, both of which manage to come across here on this collection of episodes from the first season. John Ritter stars as John Hartman, the assistant to Senator Strobe Smithers, an aging Southerner who merits comparison to Strom Thurmond. Hartman is joined in the Senator's office by fellow employees Billy Bob Davis (Billy Bob Thornton), a childhood friend and fellow Vietnam vet; and Dee Dee Starr, the bimbo secretary who is also the Senator's mistress. When Georgie Anne Lahti comes to apply for the position of press secretary, Hartman hires her immediately because he is very attracted to her. He quickly discovers, however, that her liberal politics and feminist past are at odds with the Senator's politics, as well as his own. Nonetheless, Hartman invites her to stay at his house until she finds a DC home, and the two soon find their attraction undeniable. Thus the season is established with a dynamic of sexual and political tension that gives rise to endless hilarity.