Three Strikes Rule

**pluckyduck** · #1 01-09-2002, 09:32 PM

Tell me what you think.

Julia Louis Dreyfuss' new sitcom sounds like da bomb to me, and not in the complimentary slang way.

I think the Seinfeld Curse lives, yes?

Andrea
not looking forward to the premiere, even for the car accident spectacle syndrome

vonboob · #2 01-09-2002, 10:14 PM

Well, she was the “weakest link”, but if she has “the thing” what they didn’t, who knows. Weirder things had happened; just look at Ally Big-Mac…

**soxfan**[$] · #3 01-09-2002, 11:45 PM

Hmm, her husband and co-creator was the genius behind that epitome of comedy, "The Single Guy." Not the best of signs, is it?

Ailsa

vania · #4 01-10-2002, 11:14 AM

Awww, I kind of liked "The Single Guy."

**soxfan**[$] · #5 01-10-2002, 11:39 AM

Well, Jonathan Silverman was OK, and I loved the folks who played the older couple (Matt and ... and ... I've blanked out on the name here). But Joey Slotnick and Ming-na didn't click at all for whatever reason.

Ailsa
who, yes, did use to watch all of Must-See TV Thursdays

kurt_messick · #6 01-10-2002, 02:55 PM

Don't they still play 'The Single Guy' in nauseating rotation on the USA channel. Every episode repeated 10 times a year? I liked it for the first dozen showings...

vania · #7 01-10-2002, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by soxfan
Well, Jonathan Silverman was OK, and I loved the folks who played the older couple (Matt and ... and ... I've blanked out on the name here). But Joey Slotnick and Ming-na didn't click at all for whatever reason.

Right. I really HATED Ming-na on that show. She just didn't fit at all.....

#8 01-10-2002, 03:39 PM

9 times out of 10, it doesn't matter who the featured actor or actress is. It's the writers and producers that matter.

With Seinfeld, you had good actors, good writing, and good production. Focus on just the actors or actresses and you get the Michael Richards show or that Bob Patterson piece of junk.

Of course, the 1 time out of 10 exception is Baywatch, but just enough T&A and international distribution can make up for everything.

(I consider the Sam Raimi classics "Xena" and "Hercules" to be examples of the formula mix of writing, acting, and producing working. Focus only a single element such as a good actor to make it a vehicle, like "Briscoe County, Jr." and you lose.)

eplovejoy · #9 01-10-2002, 07:26 PM

Back to the original question: A commercial for the show has some guy approving of Julia Louis Dreyfuss' breasts. That doesn't seem like a good sign.

Peter,
who might just be forgetting the ads in which someone leered towards Jerry Seinfeld's belt and said, "Nice"

#10 01-10-2002, 08:35 PM

When the promos suck, you just know it's going to be bad. I mean, they take the best bits, tie them together into making you think it is going to be a laugh-a-minute, and then it's just those laughs you've been trained to laugh at tied together with promoduct placement and hidden messages not to do drugs.

Yuck.

Grouch · #11 01-14-2002, 05:43 PM

The NY Times did a recent article on the show

Interesting things snipped from the article:

~~Talent agents and executives at rival networks who have seen the pilot episode have given it a cool reception, saying it was not especially funny.

~~Watching Ellie" is also very expensive, even by current television standards. One person involved in the show estimated that each episode costs as much as $1.5 million, nearly twice as much as some other sitcoms, partly because Ms. Louis-Dreyfus and Mr. [Brad] Hall [JL-D's husband and creator of the show] together earn about $350,000 for each episode, and partly because of the way the show is recorded [with one camera rather than four].

~~Each episode of "Watching Ellie" takes place in "real time"; a clock in a corner of the screen counts down 22 minutes in the escapades of the title character, Ellie Riggs. Each week she faces a crisis: singing at a friend's wedding, giving a dinner party, enduring an earthquake.

~~Ho-hum. (Okay, that's not from the article--that's just from me, the disinterested viewer)