By Fred Leland
October 19, 2001
Ellen DeGeneres is one of my favorite comedians, but I groaned several times while watching the pilot for her new show (The Ellen Show) on CBS. Oh yes she's Gay, but now she's the former head of several failed dot.coms, who goes back to her roots (thank you RuPaul,) and ends up staying. She finds employment as a career counselor at the local high school and tries to fit in with a crabby principal, her old fling turned teacher, and a Lesbian P.E. coach.
I'm thrilled to tell you that by the third show, and now the fifth, everything has gelled together: the cast has their timing down, and the jokes have me throwing my head back and laughing heartily, it's so chock full of jokes I feel exhausted by the time the credits come round. Although Ellen (Ellen Richmond) is the focus of the show, Cloris Leachman (Dot Richmond) steals the show as Ellen's mother. Dot is like the rest of Clark (the fictitious town in the Midwest,) which means she finds Ellen's big city ways quite alien to her, but she rocks to her own beat too. In one of my favorite scenes: Ellen's office has been taken over by the passive aggressive Home Economics teacher, Pam. Dot walks in, says "Hiya cupcake," picks one up from a pan, notices her daughter and says "Oh hi dear." It's hard to convey how funny this scene was, but often Ellen's character is amazed by her mother's private world and how often she gets snapped out of it.
The person out of water has been done before, but the new Ellen show is snappy thanks to T.V. veterans like Carol Leifer and Mitchell Hurwitz (DeGeneres' CO-Executive Producers.) The Ellen Show is rounded out with a great supporting cast. Martin Mull plays Mr. Munn, the slightly sour school principal, which is a type of character that Mull has played often but he's so good at it and it works here. I don't know who the idiot was at CBS that canceled Welcome to New York, but Jim Gaffigan is back on television as Rusty Carnouk, Ellen's former teenage suitor. However Rusty the adult, is a chubby dimwitted rube of a teacher who might still have a crush on Ellen. Kerri Kenney (Viva Variety and The State) plays Pam, the sweet passive aggressive android with a fetish for all things domestic, who resents that Ellen's office is the area she wanted to use to expand her kitchen. Diane Delano ("Popular") plays Bunny, a female PE teacher who mistakenly thinks that there's some sort of chemistry between herself and Ellen, just because Ellen happens to be Gay too. Although you could argue that Bunny is a stereotype Delano plays her with a style, like a linebacker in a miniskirt -something about it doesn't seem quite right. Finally there is Catherine Richmond (played by Emily Rutherfurd,) who is the baby of the family and feels a little jealous that her big sister is moving back home. Catherine is a wallflower and most of the jokes involving her, revolve around Ellen trying to get her out of her shell or trying to stuff her back into it when Catherine goes too far.
I find it hard to second-guess network television anymore, I mean I'm definitely outside of the clique that finds "Friends" entertaining. And this is yet another television season of bad ideas trotted out as networks try to fill their schedules with stuff other than reruns of established shows. But The Ellen Show is a great show that warrants strong backing by CBS. And September 11th supposedly has turned us into a bunch of couch potatoes on Friday nights, so maybe Ellen's second television outing will continue to find its audience.
Reader Feedback ,
I just re-read the review of Ellen's new sries and I agree whole-heartedly. The show is wonderfully well written and has found its place now. There is only one problem... CBS has stupidly pulled the show off the air. My biggest beef with CBS is the timeslot. This is the timeline. First, the show premiered on 9/23/01 at 9:30pm and got good ratings. Then it was moved to Fridays at 8pm for two weeks, then came 8:30pm til December at which time the show was moved to Mondays at 8:30pm in an effort ot boost ratings, which it did succeed in doing. In fact, the show ranked in the top 20 shows during that time. This should have proved to CBS that Friday night was not a good time or day for the series. Alas, after a month of Mondays, the show was put back on Friday nights and the ratings sank again. In the midst of all of this, there were periods of weeks at a time when the show did not even air. It stands to reason people would have a hard time finding the show, thus causing the audience to give up looking for it..
As of January 26th (Ellen's 44th birthday), CBS has haultd production on the remaining 4 episodes left to tape and its up in the air as to if the series will be renewed or not. Suppossedly, the last 5 episodes filmed this season will air in March/April. CBS is backing down on its promise to Ellen and the fans. The word will come down this May when CBS announces its fall 2002 schedule. Many of Ellen's fans are making a valiant effort to save the series.
If you have been entertained and made happy by the show and want to see it stay on the air, please take a moment to do the following. Write CBS at www.cbs.com at their feedback form located on the main page at the bottom. Pick "The Ellen Show" from the menu and tell cbs what you think. Let them know you like the show and want to see it given a fair shot to make it. Also you can go to www.savethatshow.com and vote for the show. They communicate with the networks and you can even write a letter on the site that will be printed and mailed directly to CBS.
It is apparent to me that this
is homophobia manifest to the max. On top of that it is gender bias as well.
In recent years shows with female leads have died an early death at the
hands of CBS. Ellen is a gifted comedian and deserves far better treatmnt
than she has received. Thanks to what Ellen did when she came out, we have
a voice on television today in a way we probably never would have. We must
stand up for that positive voice for our community that both Ellen and Her
show represent.
