Ellen: When Ellen Talks, People Listen

Ed Begley, Jr. as himself

Ellen: When Ellen Talks, People Listen
ABC
July 15, 1998
Sitcom
DVD
C

Mike Larsen wrote this pointless episode in which he plays the Paper Suit Guy.  It's set at the radio station (KPOV), so Kevin McDonald and Susan Norfleet return as Chuck and Julie.  Ellen speaks out on her radio show about how people aren't willing to help each other, so she strikes a chord, transforming L.A. and helping Paige meet a nice guy played by Judge Reinhold.  But the experience sours and we're left with a message of what?  We should reach out to each other even though it'll probably go badly?  Someone else might've made this darkly funny, or at least sharpened the Begley self-parody, but it's understandable why this first aired during the summer.  (It's the penultimate episode.)

Old Woman Amzie Strickland was already playing old on two episodes of The Bob Newhart Show and one episode of Three's Company (as Gladys Moore, "Jack's Other Mother"), and she was on That Girl twice.  Diana Theodore, who had an unknown role on Roseanne in 1995, plays a Young Woman here.  And, yes, that's Jane Brucker being marginally funnier than she was on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, here playing the news reporter Mimi Samuel.

The Unnaturals

Around that time

The Unnaturals
Ha!
1991
Sketch Comedy
VHS
C+

This Mike-centered show is more interesting than funny.  At least Jane Brucker is better than she was on Whose Line Is It Anyway?  There are moments that I like, such as Mike imitating a French ambulance, and there is a certain what-the-hell-why-not quality to the proceedings.  Still, I probably would've gone with a C if not for the Mark Mothersbaugh theme, which is used not only at opening and closing but between scenes.  And, yes, this was made for Ha! but taped two years later on Ha!'s merger with the Comedy Channel: Comedy Central.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Series 4 New York Compilation

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Series 4 New York Compilation
Channel Four
17 April 1992
Improv Game Show
VHS
C+

There's some good stuff here, from the very slashy Superheroes (Greg as Proctologist Man makes Ryan Touchy-Feely Man) to Ryan & Greg's Expert about the Afterlife to some memorable exchanges among Greg, Clive, and the studio audiences.  Furthermore, Ryan has perhaps the single funniest moment anyone ever has in Props, "And there's your baby," with Brad of course giving able support.  And then there are three games from the Sam & Jane episode, including him singing about bed-wetting, weary sigh.  Note that there's no sign of Meskimen or Smith.

The 1992 series ranges from D+ to B, averaging out to exactly a C+, which isn't bad, especially considering the ill-advised return to New York.  This was gradually becoming The Ryan Stiles Show, before then turning into The Ryan & Colin Show, but Greg is still a strong presence in London and New York, and of course the British half of the fourth series is still very British.  The '93 series would shake things up again, yet still be recognizable to early viewers of the show.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 4.10

Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode 4.10
Channel Four
28 March 1992
Improv Game Show
VHS
D+

This remains the worst episode of the programme, at least in my collection.  The main problem is the line-up, individually and as a group.  Poor Ryan is left to carry it as best he can, and you can see in the way he passive aggressively either tries to deliver a joke that Jane steps on in Expert or refuses to cooperate with Sam in Backwards Scene that he's having a bad time.  (And compare Richard Vranch's forced smile here to how he looks in London, especially if it's a Josie episode.)  Chip can't even be counted on to do good singing like usual.  And Sam and Jane, sigh.  There are reasons why they wouldn't be asked back.  (We will see her again though.)  She's simply not funny and she's not very good at teamwork (not just in Expert).

Sam is, and I've felt this way for twenty-five years, the single most annoying contestant I've ever seen on this show.  Yes, more than Archie Hahn, who is occasionally funny or at least harmless.  But I loathe every line delivery of Sam's, especially that he seems so tickled by his own "wit."  And for some reason Clive, or maybe the producers, give him way too much to do, and even have him win!  Ugh (in the old-school sense).  And while this is hardly the only episode of the half-series to have the New York audience back to Arsenioing like last year, it is pretty noticeable.  I think this is the first time I've watched this episode in full in over twenty years and today it was basically a matter of seeing how low it could go.  That it ends on a sex change Hoedown that only maybe Mike McShane could've saved sealed the D+.