My Guys | CBS | 1996

April - May 1996

CBS | 6 episodes (4 unaired) | Sitcom

WATCH EPISODE | MORE INFO

WHO'S IN IT? Michael Rispoli, Francis Capra, Mike Damus.

SYNOPSIS: Sonny DeMarco is widower managing a small Manhattan limousine company, but when it comes to raising his two sons, Michael and Francis, he's not always in the driver's seat.

VERDICT: ★☆☆☆☆

What can you expect from a show that was pulled off the air after only two episodes? Not a lot, sadly. The Spokesman-Review said the show looked like "an escapee from the early days of FOX or one of those quickly canceled WB comedies" and that CBS had "hit the bottom of the programming barrel" I kind of have to agree. 

One scene was somewhat touching in how when we're remembering those who have departed, we can often think of everything about them with rose-tinted glasses. The boys, lamenting their dad's unedible stew, hark back to the time of their mom's cooking, which may not be as great as one of them recalls. His brother quips back: "Just because she died doesn't suddenly make her a great cook! Remember the time she made the chicken, she left the saran wrap on? You ate half of it before you realised!"

CANCELLED TOO SOON? No, very formulaic, nothing special.

The Monroes | ABC | 1995

September - October 1995

ABC | 13 episodes (7 unaired) | Prime time soap opera

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WHO'S IN IT? William Devane, Susan Sullivan

SYNOPSIS: The planned run for Maryland governor by leading business magnate John Monroe is hampered by revelations of an affair he had 20 years earlier - with a a woman who turns out to be a foreign spy - while serving at the American embassy in Brussels.The admission not only knocks him out of the gubernatorial race but also creates tension for the millionaire with his wife who, in typical political matriarch fashion, vows to endure the indignity for the family’s sake.

VERDICT: ★★☆☆☆

From the start, The Monroes faced stiff competition against Seinfeld and was not expected to fare well. In the end, it didn't - the show was dumped after five episodes, leaving seven unaired. Who pits a show against Seinfeld and expects to win? Variety said the show wasn't "particularly compelling" and EW said fans of Dynasty "may find this potboiler amusing".

In response to the news breaking of his affair, William Devane's character, John Monroe, proclaims: “This is the 90s! Who cares what I do in my spare time?”. Meanwhile, with helicopters buzzing around her head, Susan Sullivan’s character, Kathryn, nonchalantly says: “Hang on a moment, I just want to make a statement to the press…” turning to aggressively flip the bird to the TV crew hanging out of the helicopter’s door.

Elsewhere in the episode, the family urge their astronaut son James -“the golden child” - to go back into space to give the family a bit of positive press. They have another son, Gabriel, who isn't so keen on the perks of being part of the family, with the episode's opening scenes of him urging a traffic cop to give him a ticket. He's in a coma by the end of the episode.

CANCELLED TOO SOON? Interesting in parts, but on the whole - boring. Wouldn't watch more.

Misery Loves Company | FOX | 1995

October 1995

FOX | 8 episodes (3 unaired) | Sitcom

WATCH EPISODE TWO | MORE INFO

WHO'S IN IT? Dennis Boutsikaris (Joe), Christopher Meloni (Mitch), Julius Carry (Perry), Stephen Furst (Lewis)

SYNOPSIS: Four men in their late-30s, whose dreams of youth have not survived to adulthood, still have their friendship despite divorces and failing marriages. 

VERDICT: ★☆☆☆☆

Shown across five Sundays in October 1995, Misery Loves Company was one of those "friends since childhood" type of shows where the guys hang out a bar complaining about life. The stand out is Christopher Meloni (with hair) of Law & Order SVU fame. One reviewer called the show "stupid and offensive" and in response to the show's toilet humour: "Misery Loves Company deserves to live no longer than it takes to flush it from the air."

In one scene in Nicky St. Hubbins - the bar where the guys like to hang out - Mitch's current date, Sasha, enters the men's bathroom because there's a "line for the ladies room". After foregoing the privacy of an empty cubicle, she relieves herself standing up at the urinal (to raucous studio applause). Mitch's brother, Joe, can't wait to share this with the fellas, proclaiming Sasha is "a guy" and that her "arcing stream was un-lady-like". The guys later grill Mitch with jibes such as: "Did you get to third base? And when you got there, was there a man on third?". In the end, it was an elaborate piss-take (get it?) to wind-up Joe and all the guys were in on it (Sasha wasn't really a guy; it was just a squeezy bottle).

Later on in the episode, Perry plays basketball against his ex-wife's new boyfriend, Dennis Rodman (yes THE Dennis Rodman), as a way to prove he's still got it. 

CANCELLED TOO SOON? Nah. Would not watch again.