ONE SEASON WONDERS: The Ellen Show

THE ELLEN SHOW

Programming Details:
September 24, 2001 - January 11, 2002
13 episodes
CBS

Starring: Ellen DeGeneres, Jim Gaffigan, Emily Rutherfurd, Martin Mull and Cloris Leachman

Created by: Carol Leifer and Mitchell Hurwitz

Plot: Ellen Richmond (DeGeneres) is a dotcom executive whose company goes bankrupt so she decides to move back to her hometown to live with mother Dot (Leachman) and sister Cathy (Rutherfurd). She also reconnects with senior prom date Rusty (Gaffigan) and high school teacher Mr. Munn (Mull). 

Brief Pilot Review:

Between her groundbreaking sitcom Ellen and her long running self-titled talk show, Ellen DeGeneres starred in this short lived show. It was a little awkward to watch the first scene where Ellen appears to be a pretty thoughtless executive with the way she treats her staff considering what has been in the news with DeGeneres over the past couple months. But the episode was funnier once Ellen's character returned to her hometown and there's an A list cast of characters waiting for her there. 

Although I haven't watched Ellen (the original series) all the way through, DeGeneres seemed to be playing a very similar character here. She had a couple really good deliveries with her trademark comedic timing and approach. For having such a great cast, nothing worked here as well as it should though. Leachman and Mull seem to be given very little to do while Gaffigan hadn't quite found his comedic rhythm that he's since become well known for. The show does a nice job for a 2001 show about handling Ellen being a lesbian. It was not as in your face as her original show was but it actually did a pretty good job at just making it part of her life years before shows regularly did that.

What Went Wrong:

Ellen DeGeneres' first series was famous for Ellen coming out in character but before that, it had been a pretty standard sitcom and after that, there was some notable backlash for a variety of reasons. When Ellen re-emerged on network TV three years later, she had already started to move on and the audience seemed ready to allow for that. The vitriol had certainly died down and Ellen was well on her way to gaining the Queen of Nice reputation she held on to pretty well until 2020. Even with pretty solid notices from critics, The Ellen Show was placed in a sleepy Friday night timeslot by CBS and comedies have never had an easy time on that network on Fridays.

In November 2001, as The Ellen Show was struggling in the ratings, DeGeneres famously hosted the Emmys telecast that had been delayed multiple times in those frightening months after 9/11. When she did host, she received across the board raves for how she handled the delicate situation. CBS certainly tried to capitalize on that with the show but they were unable to and it was gone a few months later. While the show ended in early 2002, the year 2003 brought tremendous success for DeGeneres with the release of Finding Nemo and the launch of her daytime talk show.

Tomorrow: A look at Season 5 of Bewitched!

Next Wednesday: A look at 1960s flop Mrs. G Goes to College!