New York News | CBS | 1995

September - November 1995

CBS | 13 episodes (5 unaired) | Drama

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WHO'S IN IT? Mary Tyler Moore, Madeline Kahn, Melina Kanakaredes

SYNOPSIS: New York News is the story of the fictional New York Reporter, a struggling tabloid in the US's largest, most competitive newspaper market - New York City.

VERDICT: ★★★☆☆

The saxophone theme tune, the fashion, the newsroom as a setting...could this be anymore 90s?! 

Mary Tyler Moore, the woman who can “turn the world on with her smile,” leads the cast as the tough-as-nails newspaper editor Louise Felcott, so disliked that she’s universally known as “the Dragon.” Mary apparently felt that her character's storylines were not fully fledged and wanted out of her contract, though she enjoyed the opportunity to play against type.

In this episode, Madeline Kahn's character, gossip columnist Nan Chase, sets up a date with the uber-90s media personality Fabio so he can give his side of the story after she writes in her column: "Shirley MacLaine last night with Fabio twisted around each other like two pretzels!". After she's schmoozed by Fabio and a correction submitted, she's later stood up. Furious, Nan dashes into Louise's office to demand that they stop the presses so she can edit her column into a vicious Fabio evisceration, even offering to "pull the lever" herself. Looking for support, she asks Louise the last time she was stood up. "I'm not sure I ever was stood up," she answers. Nan takes a beat, and then says, "Oh...thank you for that." Of course, "The Dragon" is having none of it and tells her: “If Jesus himself were to walk through that door to announce his second coming, I wouldn’t stop the press.”

CANCELLED TOO SOON? I liked it but there may have been too much going on at one point. There were about 3-4 different storylines running at the same time - the Fabio one, one about sweatshops in Chinatown, another about a cross-dressing congressman, and then Louise being forced to submit to an efficiency evaluation from a new middle manager. Not only that, another character was shot at the end of the episode. Was it drama? Comedy? Comedy-drama? I wasn't sure. The show was aired on the same night as Seinfeld during its 7th season, yes The Soup Nazi season, so it's no wonder it didn't catch on.

Ned and Stacey | FOX | 1995

September 1995 - January 1997

FOX | 46 episodes (11 unaired) | Sitcom

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WHO'S IN IT? Debra Messing, Thomas Haden Church, Greg Germann

SYNOPSIS: He wants a promotion. She wants a new place to live. She hates his self-righteous attitude. He doesn't like her re-decorating his living room. Will their fake marriage actually result in love? 

VERDICT: ★★★☆☆

Ned and Stacey are two people that, on the surface, absolutely despise each other. He's an unscrupulous ad executive and she's a liberal journalist. They come together to advance each others goals - he wants the promotion, she wants to get out of her parents house. Cue constant bickering and already it's like a real marriage! Debra Messing is very Grace, like the character she later played in Will & Grace. Thomas Haden Church is well...I don't know, as I'm not sure what I've seen him in. His acting style is a bit off. Maybe that is his style?

CANCELLED TOO SOON? On it's original broadcast, the first season ran for 24 episodes, and although not a "hit" even for FOX, the show was renewed for a second season. Only 11 episodes were aired before it was cancelled. 

I've seen the show in its entirety and I'd say yes, cancelled too soon but maybe it wasn't quite the right fit for FOX - more of an NBC kind of show. However, had it not been cancelled we may not have ended up with Debra Messing starring in Will & Grace. Every cloud!

You can buy the full series on DVD.

My Guys | CBS | 1996

April - May 1996

CBS | 6 episodes (4 unaired) | Sitcom

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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.

Misery Loves Company | FOX | 1995

October 1995

FOX | 8 episodes (3 unaired) | Sitcom

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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.

Matt Waters | CBS | 1996

January - February 1996

CBS | 6 episodes | Drama

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WHO'S IN IT? Montel Williams, Kristen Wilson, Richard Chevolleau, Sam McMurray, et. al.

SYNOPSIS: Montel Williams - yes the chat-show host - plays science teacher, Matt Waters, a recently retired naval officer, whose brother is tragically murdered in the same New Jersey neighborhood in which Williams character grew up. Matt decides to dedicate his life to helping troubled youth at the New Jersey high school he attended.

VERDICT: ★★☆☆☆

Montel worked on the show while hosting his chat show, but this wasn't for long - Matt Waters lasted for just six episodes. Typical inner city troubled teens, array of ethnic characters, and a character who can't even read and write but has a knack for mathematics (Later in the show Matt convinces her to return to school, offering to write her a check each week so she doesn't loose out on a salary). Scenes are delivered with such seriousness and lines like: 

"Sometimes you gotta lose the battle to win the war"

"Don't through the rest of your life wondering what you could've been".

[On empty seats in the classroom] "The hardest part of this job isn't dealing with the filled seats, it was dealing with the empty ones, because the empty ones remind you of the ones that got away."

Montel isn't that bad, but doesn't quite work as the lead. The title of the show puts me off - Matt Waters. MW...Montel Williams. Not a stretch. Character names in TV shows are always a bit meh anyway. A working title was "Educating Matt Waters" which is a bit better.

In the first episode, Montel, I mean Matt, returns to the school that he attended, soon becoming the talk of the faculty, namely the sister of his ex-girlfriend. She says:

"I know more than I ever wanted to know about Matt Waters"

"Did he shave his head back then?"

"He's bald?!"

CANCELLED TOO SOON? I think had it been more of an ensemble show, it would've worked a bit better. Maybe if it had been given a bit more time, things would have been different.

High Society | CBS | 1995

October 1995 - February 1996

CBS | 13 episodes | Sitcom

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WHO'S IN IT? Jean Smart, Mary McDonnell, David Rasche

SYNOPSIS: High Society, inspired by the British TV show Absolutely Fabulous, revolves around two New York City women - Ellie a foul-mouthed trash novelist who smokes and drinks heavily and her best friend, Dott, who publishes Ellie's books via her publishing house (having won it in a divorce settlement). Dott is a mother with a preppie college-aged son, Brendan, who is regularly subjected to the relentless sexual advances of Ellie. At the publishing house, the women work with a flamboyant gay male secretary named Stephano and sleazy Peter, who co-owns the company.

The show's ratings were strong, but with the network wanting to tone down the show and apparently Roseanne Barr threatening a lawsuit (she had recently obtained the rights to create an American version of Absolutely Fabulous), rather than continuing past the initial 13 episode order, the producers and network mutually agreed to call it quits.

VERDICT: I originally saw all episodes of the show when it was broadcast on BBC2 in the late 90s and it left quite an impression (they also showed Jean Smart's other one-seasoner, Style and Substance). The similarities with Absolutely Fabulous are that the two central characters - women of a certain age - act in an outrageous, drunken, campy, and decadent manner, without either really having a grasp on reality or giving a crap about what anyone thinks of them. 

In the pilot episode, the women's former college friend, Val, arrives after she decides to leave her philandering husband, and later reveals that she's pregnant and needs someone to help her through her pregnancy - "Haggish impregnated suburbanite taken in by stunning socialites!" (Val was later written out of the series without explanation after the sixth episode). The Washington Post commented on the show: "Female characters on the show act like drag queens -- men playing women -- and mean drag queens at that, since the portrayals are mighty unflattering. The whole thing plays like a misogynistic nightmare"

CANCELLED BEFORE ITS TIME? Over-the-top with some funny one-liners, beyond the difficulties it faced I can't imagine that it would have continued for a long time otherwise. 

Good Company | CBS | 1996

March - April 1996

CBS | 6 episodes | Sitcom

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WHO'S IN IT? Wendie Malick, Lauren Graham, Seymour Cassel

SYNOPSIS: Good Company was set at the offices of Blanton, Booker & Hayden, a Manhattan ad agency. Art director Will would rather be a serious painter than an ad man and his recent Cleo Award win has given him serious thought to changing career. However,  newly appointed creative director Zoe pooh-pooh's his plans to quit and assigns him to jazz up a new toilet-paper line (toilet paper with baking soda!). Other characters include Ron, the account director, Liz, another copywriter, Dale, a junior art director, and Bobby the agency's president and CEO.

Six episodes were made, and there's very little evidence of the show.

VERDICT: It's not bad, but there's nothing overly unique or stand out - it's a run of the mill workplace sitcom set in New York. For some reason the time is given in the corner of each scene - adds nothing. Wendie Malick plays Zoe, a high powered no-nonsense business woman. After Will tries to quit she tells him: "I think someone needs to remind you that this is a place of business. You can't just sit around and drink cappuccino and discuss your personal problems all day like you were a cast member of that show Friends, because I've got news for you - this isn't, and we ain't!"

CANCELLED BEFORE ITS TIME? Well...I like Wendie Malick, but the show didn't make an impression.

CPW aka Central Park West | CBS | 1995

September 1995 - June 1996

CBS | 21 episodes | Prime time soap opera

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WHO'S IN IT? Mädchen Amick, John Barrowman, Mariel Hemingway

SYNOPSIS: Central Park West was a glossy prime time soap opera created by Darren Star, chronicling the lives of young (and rich) New Yorkers, including a magazine editor, a nightlife columnist, a DA, a gallery owner and an author-teacher.

The series started on September 13th 1995, three weeks later Entertainment Weekly was asking: "Can Central Park West be saved?" the answer was no: the show was put on hiatus several episodes later, returning on June 5th 1996. The retooling did nothing and the final episode was broadcast on June 28th 1996.

VERDICT: "$3,000 a month in Central Park West!" claims Stephanie, Mariel Hemingway's character, adding: "it's a steal!" as she gazes from the balcony of her new apartment overlooking the park. Is it a steal? I don't know. Mariel Hemingway was 34 here, but comes across as much older - a kind of corporate librarian - which is somewhat jarring against what you expect from a show produced to appeal to younger viewers. 

Stephanie soon gets into a war of words with Mädchen Amick's forever smoking character, Carrie, who claps back: "I do what I like, where I like, when I like" after Stephanie, her editor, criticises Carrie's column, attitude, and high salary ($200,000 a year!). Carrie gets in the last word: "Enjoy the delusion of power, because when reality hits, it can be a real bitch!" before storming off in a huff. Newsflash for Carrie, as later on, her step-dad and owner of the magazine tells Stephanie: "see that she quits, otherwise you may be the one standing on the employment line!"

I guess this cattiness sets the tone of the show and I anticipate more scenes like this throughout the series. Mariel Hemingway was indeed soon in the employment line by episode eight (I'm not sure if she left of her own accord or was fired), to be replaced by Raquel Welch (for some reason).

CANCELLED BEFORE ITS TIME? It's nothing overly special, more of a guilty pleasure.

Courthouse | CBS | 1995

September - November 1995

CBS | 11 episodes | Drama

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WHO'S IN IT? Patricia Wettig, Jenifer Lewis, Annabeth Gish, Shelley Morrison, Nia Peeples, Michael Lerner  (and Jorja Fox who plays a drug addict in the pilot)

SYNOPSIS: Partially inspired by NYPD Blue and the OJ Simpson case, Courthouse portrays the daily trials and tribulations in one courthouse (assumed to be in New York, going by the first episode) and people who are employed there - judges, district attorneys and public defenders.

The show included Jenifer Lewis (as Juvenile Court judge Rosetta Reide) as the first recurring African American lesbian character on TV, but the role was ordered to be toned down for broadcast.

VERDICT: In the opening scene a Judge (clearly disliked, from the brief minute he's in it) is gunned down in the courtroom by an offender he's just put to death. Later on, Jorja Fox's character is dragged by two cops from her hospital bed back to prison, just because another judge felt like exercising his right over Nia Peeples public defender character.

From what I can see, Courthouse was hated. Poorly rated from the offset, I'm surprised how it managed to get to nine episodes (plus three unaired). But is it crap? No, the characters are strong and interesting, and Jenifer Lewis' character is the stand-out (more so than Patricia Wettig who assumed she was the star). The language is a bit more adult - an asshole, a bastard, here and there.

CANCELLED BEFORE ITS TIME? Not quite right for 1995, but it would have fared better a few years later. I'd watch more episodes.

Can't Hurry Love | CBS | 1995

September 1995 - February 1996

CBS | 19 episodes | Sitcom

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WHO'S IN IT? Nancy McKeon, Mariska Hargitay

SYNOPSIS: The series is about Annie (a Monica Gellar type), a single, thirty-something living in New York City and her three friends (no, it's not Sex and the City). The general premise of the series centers around Annie's search for romance in the big city.

Most of the action takes place in either Annie's small studio apartment or the employment agency she manages. Supporting characters included Roger and Elliot (Think Joey and Ross) who work with her at the agency, and Didi (somewhere between Rachel and Phoebe), the slaggy free spirit of the group, who often lives across the hallway from Annie (in the pilot she's on hand with a roll of condoms).

VERDICT: Definitely CBS' attempt at Friends: 30-somethings living in New York City, hanging around one apartment. I think looking back 25 years later, this is one of the shows you can say "I wish it had more episodes". Two episodes of the show reference Maxwell Sheffield from The Nanny, almost insisting upon that they share the same New York universe. 

CANCELLED BEFORE ITS TIME? Yes, it's not Friends, but it has its moments, for example: In the pilot, Annie feeds a couple of pigeons on her windowsill, naming them Bill and Hillary. "how can you tell them apart?" asks one of her colleagues, "Bill is the one banging the blue jay"