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ONE SEASON WONDERS: The Bonnie Hunt Show

On Wednesdays, I look at shows that lasted on season or less. Today I am looking at 1990s flop The Bonnie Hunt Show!

THE BONNIE HUNT SHOW (also known as BONNIE)















Programming Details:
September 22, 1995 - April 7, 1996
11 episodes
CBS

Starring: Bonnie Hunt, Janet Carroll, Mark Derwin, Richard Gant, Brian Howe, Don Lake, Eamonn Roche, Tom Virtue and Holly Wortell
Created by: Bonnie Hunt & Rob Burnett

Plot: Bonnie Kelly (Hunt) is a TV reporter who has just moved to Chicago from Wisconsin. Along with her bosses (Derwin & Carroll) and co-workers (Wortell, Gant, Virtue, & Howe), Bonnie also had mostly improvised scenes with real-life people about actual events.

Brief Pilot Review:
Bonnie Hunt, who was closely associated with Rob Burnett and David Letterman, had her own little troupe of performers who followed her to different projects. Many of them starred together in the short-lived The Building in 1993 and went on to their most successful collaboration (at two seasons), Life with Bonnie, from 2002-2004. This one came in-between and was not a success. It's too bad though because this was pretty charming and had some funny moments, especially from Hunt. The show wasn't big on laughs as a whole though, it was more one of those "cute" shows than uproarious shows. 

It also definitely had a theatrical feel, which was Hunt's preferred way to do television. The "improvised" scenes (which in the pilot were with children who were - gasp - right around my age at the time) were pretty fun. Though it veered a little close to Kids Say the Darndest Things, it was certainly a unique element of the show and I would have been interested to see that in future episodes with all sorts of different people. I think the cast was a little too large because the show understandably focused on Hunt but I had a hard time keeping everyone else straight. Overall, this was a show with a lot of potential that I wish had found an audience.

What Went Wrong:
The Bonnie Hunt Show had the odds stacked against it when it premiered in Fall 1995. Critics were mixed on the show as it was frequently compared to The Building and generally regarded as harmless but not super funny. The bigger problem was it was scheduled in a sleepy Friday night timeslot airing after another new sitcom, Dweebs, and against ABC's very popular TGIF lineup. Back then, timeslots mattered tremendously and this was not a slot that had a lot of success. In fact, a little show called Everybody Loves Raymond took the slot the next season and the instant it showed any signs of life it was pulled off of Friday nights and given a much better Monday slot.

The Bonnie Hunt Show lasted just six episodes before being placed on hiatus. It reemerged in March and had a new title - simply Bonnie - but only lasted five more episodes before it was cancelled again. As mentioned above, Hunt had one more shot at sitcom success with 2002's Life With Bonnie. The fact that that show lasted two seasons made it easily the most remembered one. Hunt has had some success in movies and also hosted a talk show for two years but she is sort of a personality who has had a lot of valiant and decent attempts at long term success but just hasn't broken though for whatever reason. She might be best known now as a voice actor for eight different Pixar movies.

Tomorrow: A look at the first season of Rhoda!
Next Wednesday: A One Season Wonder look at 2000s flop Help Me, Help You!
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