Ellen: The Dentist

Ellen: The Dentist
ABC
September 21, 1994
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Ellen, as These Friends of Mine was re-titled (partly to emphasize DeGeneres and partly to avoid confusion with the hot new show called Friends), kept the slot on Wednesdays after Roseanne, and would finish the season at #13 in the ratings, not much of a drop from Roseanne's #9 (although, yes, Roseanne had peaked).  Holly and Anita were gone (except for those two unaired as yet episodes), Paige Clark (Joely Fisher) was added as Ellen's friend, Ellen bought the bookstore, and the credits were modernized to be over the opening scene, rather than the more traditional separate credits still in use on Roseanne and other shows.  The show seems to have been aiming for a hipper feel, as in the tag that parodies a Budweiser commercial of the time (with literature substituted for the TV references of the original).  This season debut, written by Mark Driscoll, isn't as funny as I remember, although I still like the "May I bayou a drink?" pun.  Laughing gas makes Ellen hit on her cute new dentist (Harley Venton, who was the man who grew up in Angela's house on Who's the Boss?).  Meanwhile Adam is torn between monogamy and "freedom."

Christine Romeo would soon play another nameless Woman on the series.  This is the first of 23 Ellen episodes directed by Tom Cherones.