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The Olympics now over, NBC looks for viewers and offers two new comedies, Watching Ellie and Leap of Faith. They may succeed, not for their contrived creative nuances, but merely for their familiarity.
By ERIC DEGGANS, Times TV Critic
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 26, 2002
When it comes to NBC's new comedies Watching Ellie and Leap of Faith, this TV critic has some good news and some bad.
First, the bad: both shows are more ambition than achievement -- efforts to break the formulaic mold of TV comedy but, somehow, fail to be funny.
The good news (for the networks, at least)? They may still become huge TV hits.
Truth is, if any lesson is to be learned from this year's horribly atypical TV season (irrevocably altered by the impact of September's terrorist attacks), it's that viewers haven't really responded to quality -- at least, not in the way some pundits expected.
Some of prime time TV's best shows -- including Fox's 24 and ABC's Once and Again -- have struggled to find viewers. Instead, less ambitious fare such as CBS's The Guardian and NBC's Crossing Jordan have become the unlikeliest hits of the year, wrapping conventional cops and courts stories in outlandish or stylish new garb.
So along comes Watching Ellie -- featuring likable, talented Seinfeld alum Julia Louis-Dreyfus in a quirky new show that doesn't fail nearly as badly as previous attempts by former castmates Jason Alexander (ABC's Bob Patterson) or Michael Richards (NBC's The Michael Richards Show).
All of a sudden, cancellation seems a lot less certain -- despite Watching Ellie's decided shortage of laughs.
That's an analysis sure to be disputed by Louis-Dreyfus, who has developed her comedy into the ultimate star vehicle, carefully crafted to serve her needs and provide employment for her relatives.
Her husband, Brad Hall, is an executive producer, while her real-life sister, Lauren Bowles, plays her onscreen sister. They will film only 15 episodes this season, little more than half the 24 shows usually produced for a network series.
Unlike her days in Seinfeld's ensemble, Louis-Dreyfus shares the spotlight with no one here. Despite a quirky cast, Watching Ellie is indisputably a showcase for Louis-Dreyfus, who is featured in every scene and first meets viewers in a skimpy lingerie-and-bathrobe outfit that shows off her well-toned abs (an effective, if exploitive, way to hook male viewers).
And there's the gimmick: Watching Ellie presents the travails of professional singer Ellie Riggs in real time. Just so viewers get the message, a transparent countdown clock in the left hand corner ticks off the seconds, demonstrating that a minute in Ellie's life equals 60 seconds for the audience.
"There's going to be a lot of comedy and a lot of character stuff that we are going to get by virtue of being with (Riggs) all the time," said Hall, whose last notable gig was a two-year stint on Saturday Night Live (with his future wife) beginning in 1982. "It feels more intimate."
Tonight's episode sounds like a snoozer on paper: Riggs must conquer a flooding toilet in time to get dressed and run down the street -- past a psychotic ex-boyfriend -- to make a gig at a Manhattan club one block away.
Still, this 22-minute excursion has moments of hilarity, including a scene where a doctor neighbor dashes out of his shower, sans towel, to help Riggs revive a handyman who has conked his head while trying to watch her get dressed.
But Watching Ellie comes up short in too many other ways. The running gags (in two episodes, Riggs' ex-boyfriend always has some oddball item attached to his head and the sister appears only through telephone conversations) never quite cross from quirky to funny.
Its real-time premise would feel groundbreaking if Fox's 24 hadn't nailed the concept months earlier. And there's an aspect of Riggs' relationship with her boyfriend -- the star has asked us press types to keep details a secret, so I shall -- that may make it awfully tough for audiences to like her.
Speaking of unlikable traits, allowing Louis-Dreyfus to actually sing for long moments probably looked good on paper; in truth, her voice is nice for somebody who sings in the shower, but not quite ready for prime time, otherwise.
Ultimately, the viewers will judge, and Watching Ellie might just be good enough for a public that places great value on familiar faces.
A similar verdict may come for Leap of Faith, the latest comedy to be fed into the buzzsaw that is the 8:30 p.m. slot after Friends.
It's not that shows do badly there -- the last resident of the timeslot, the now-canceled Inside Schwartz, was the highest-rated new comedy on network television.
The problem is that shows airing after Friends are judged by a single standard: How many Friends fans stick around?
Inside Schwartz kept less than 70 percent of Friends' gigantic Thursday following. If Leap of Faith doesn't do better, expect it to hit the showers by the time Rachel has her baby in May.
"We're choosing to see it all as a really good advantage," said Leap of Faith creator Jenny Bicks, a former writer for Seinfeld and Dawson's Creek who last served as a consulting producer on HBO's Sex and the City. "I feel like I'd rather know. I'd rather be out there and have the audience tell me they like or don't like the show, rather than feel like I never had a shot."
Unfortunately, Bicks' former employer looms large over Leap of Faith, which focuses on lead character Faith Wardwell (played by Tampa native and ex-Jack and Jill star Sarah Paulson). She's a spunky advertising executive who cancels her wedding after a fling with a hunky actor.
Forget that Sex and the City lead character Carrie Bradshaw also walked away from her fiancee just a few weeks ago (or that Jennifer Aniston's Rachel Green made a similar choice on Friends).
Forget, too, that Leap of Faith shows Wardwell at a bridal shower that degenerates after she admits her infidelity -- just as a baby shower for Sex and the City's Miranda Hobbes disintegrated after pal Charlotte York admitted envying Hobbes' pregnancy.
But note this: The opening scene of Thursday's Leap of Faith debut features four urbane pals sipping martinis at a open-air cafe in Manhattan, trading quips on fashion and sex.
Sound familiar?
Not to Bicks. "I would never have left a wonderful place like Sex and the City just to copy it," she added. "If (the two shows) have similarities, perhaps part of what people are hearing is my own voice (as a writer). I wrote a number of (Sex and the City) episodes. I cannot change my voice and shouldn't, because that's where you get your truest nature."
Perhaps, but Leap of Faith seems too much like another watered-down, network TV copy of Sex and the City -- casting Paulson's Wardwell as a witty, optimistic woman looking for romance and fulfillment in the dating jungle that is New York City (Jill Clayburgh, who once played a divorced mom rediscovering dating in the 1978 film An Unmarried Woman, now plays a similar character as Wardwell's recently divorced mom, Cricket).
Like Watching Ellie, Leap of Faith is filmed with a single camera, like a movie, with enhanced production values and a storytelling style that suggests a sophistication beyond your typical, living-room-and-kitchen-set sitcom.
Together, both shows represent a major step for NBC away from more traditional filmed-live comedies such as Three Sisters or Frasier.
So it's possible each series will offer just enough quality to engage fans without confusing, confounding or intimidating them. It's not the strongest endorsement; but in the upside down world of today's network TV, it may be endorsement enough.
To reach Eric Deggans call (727) 893-8521, e-mail deggans@sptimes.com or see the St. Petersburg Times Web site at www.sptimes.com.
Watching Ellie makes its debut at 8:30 tonight on WFLA-Ch. 8. Grade: C-plus. Rating: TV-14. Leap of Faith starts at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, also on WFLA-Ch. 8. Grade: C. Rating: TV-14.