Ellen: Just Coffee

Ellen: Just Coffee
ABC
October 29, 1997
Sitcom
DVD
B

We know it's the '90s because a "riot girl" asks Ellen to dance, and because the marquee at the movie theater includes Pulp Fiction.  (The exterior was presumably shot in '94; the other movies are of similar vintage.)  And because Ellen meets a woman she's interested in, who seems to be interested in her.  Lisa Darr makes her first of eight appearances as Laurie Manning, but at first there's a great deal of miscommunication, not in a farcical way but more in the sense that Ellen is new at dating women (and Laurie is rusty at it) and neither is sure if they're meeting for just coffee or if it's a date.  The coffee venue is Cup of Joe, run by Ellen's former employee.  Ellen gets dating advice from fellow "skirt-chaser" Spence, while Paige has the priceless line, "Call me old-fashioned but I don't think the woman should do the calling."  This funny and intelligent story was written by Maxine Lapiduss who did eight for Roseanne in the good old days of 1991-92, and Mancuso of course also directed Roseanne.  Note that Laurie's twelve-year-old daughter Holly is mentioned and we'd soon meet her.