| Video Roundup March 2008
Ellen, the Sitcom
 Long before she had her own
syndicated talk show or was hosting the Emmys and the Oscars, Ellen DeGeneres was a
struggling stand-up comic whose quirky observational humor was drawing her comparisons to
Bob Newhart. Following appearances on The Tonight Show and a Showtime special,
DeGeneres got her big break: a network-TV sitcom. Seinfeld had made a star out of
its namesake, Jerry Seinfeld, and programmers at ABC hoped for the same kind of hit with Ellen.
The show ran for five seasons, from 1994 to 1998, all of
which are available on A&E TV multi-DVD sets. The DVDs give the opportunity to study
the evolution of the show, from its beginnings as These Friends of Mine, through
cast changes and DeGeneres' very public coming-out party, to the show's waning days when
it seemed like America simply wasn't ready for an openly gay TV star. The show turned
Ellen DeGeneres into a household name, much like I Love Lucy had for Lucille Ball.
The initial supporting cast -- Ayre Gross (Adam), Maggie
Wheeler (Anita) and Holly Fulger (Holly) -- would last only one season, but the show's
plot and formula would be honed over succeeding seasons. DeGeneres played Ellen Morgan, a
neurotic bookseller looking for love in Los Angeles. Gross, whose sardonic goofiness was a
perfect contrast to DeGeneres' more rambling, physical style, would return for season two,
while Joely Fisher, half-sister of Carrie Fisher, would first appear as Ellen's
self-absorbed friend Paige, and David Anthony Higgins would debut as Joe, a soft-spoken
cynic who works at Buy the Book, Ellen's bookstore. Season three would add TV veteran
Jeremy Piven as Ellen's cousin Spence and Clea Lewis as the effete oddball Audrey, who
made appearances in the second season. This is the cast that would remain through the
final episodes -- 72 of the series' 109 in all -- and be responsible for the show's
highest points.
In season two, for instance, Ellen becomes a gun lover when
her apartment is robbed, and takes ballet lessons to fulfill a childhood dream, taking
both a little too seriously. In season three, Paige becomes the Hollywood insider she has
dreamed of being, and goes overboard with the movie-mogul behavior, taking some jabs at
"the business" in the process. In season four, a pregnancy test becomes the Ellen
equivalent of Seinfeld's "master of my domain" contest.
The show's most famous episode aired in the fourth season,
a two-parter in which Ellen reveals that she, like the star who plays her, is gay. Here,
the casting of Oprah Winfrey as Ellen's therapist is especially astute. It was on Oprah
that DeGeneres made her homosexuality public. One of the running devices of Ellen
was the inclusion of celebrity guests, so Oprah's role fit in as just another of these.
While Ellen draws the closest comparison to Seinfeld,
named by some critics as the finest sitcom in the history of television, there are some
noteworthy differences between the two shows. The cast of Ellen took three seasons
to settle, while Seinfeld's was set from the very beginning. Jerry Seinfeld's humor
is also different from Ellen DeGeneres' -- more urban, distinctly a product of New York
City, compared to DeGeneres' neurotic ramblings and physicality. Ellen was also not
afraid to show real affection among the characters, while the relationships on Seinfeld
were spiced with tension, which added comic effect.
Seinfeld ran for nine seasons and could have gone on
for a few more, while it was obvious that Ellen was running on fumes in its fifth
and final season. But at its height, Ellen was as hip and funny as anything on
network TV, even if it wavered a bit while getting there. Watch these DVDs and you'll see
where the show hits and misses, and where Ellen DeGeneres, talk-show host, got her start
in TV land.
...Marc Mickelson
marc@hometheatersound.com |
