ONE SEASON WONDERS: The Building

On Wednesdays, I take a look at a series that lasted one season or less. This week, I am looking at The Building!

THE BUILDING

August 20, 1993 - September 17, 1993
5 episodes
CBS

Starring: Bonnie Hunt, Michael G. Hagerty, Richard Kuhlman, Don Lake, Tom Virtue and Holly Wortell

Created by: Bonnie Hunt

Plot: Bonnie Kennedy (Hunt) is an actress who moves back to Chicago after a breakup. She deals with friends and neighbors in an apartment building across from Wrigley Field including best friend, Holly (Wortell), downstairs neighbors Brand and Stan (Lake & Virtue), maintenance man Big Tony (Kuhlman) and bar owner Finely (Hagerty).

Brief Pilot Review:

I'll start by saying that the setting for this show is really fun. Bonnie Hunt was always inclined to make Chicago a character on her vehicles and it doesn't get more Chicago than being set at an apartment building across from Wrigley Field (where you can see the stadium outside Bonnie's window). Hunt also has a very specific brand of comedy and I think it can be a little jarring to watch at first because it doesn't flow exactly the way a standard sitcom would. It feels a little more off the cuff because a lot of her background was in improv. I'm all for improv in TV sitcoms but I've just never found Hunt's brand of improv to be particularly funny. It's all observational and it feels loose, but it's lacking in humor and actual jokes. It felt like a rehearsal where things are being tried out instead of a finished product.

Though the humor is lacking, the cast is likable and they have good camaraderie with each other. There's certainly a sense of ease between characters that isn't seen in every pilot. The pilot also features George Clooney just about a year before his breakout role on ER as Bonnie's on-screen ex. It's easy to forget that he was in a lot of sitcoms before he became a big star. He doesn't have a lot to do but he has a natural charisma (no surprise) in a more sentimental scene that plays just as well, if not better, than the comedic scenes. Of course it's a little bit of a problem that a scene with a non-series regular (Clooney) was more coherent than any other scene.

What Went Wrong:

The Building was a summer show for CBS at a time when summer originals were definitely an afterthought for the networks. The summers were populated at the time with reruns and even busted pilots (which I wish was a practice they had continued). But CBS actually made a little bit more of an effort in the Summer of 1993, launching a surprising number of shows - six comedies and two dramas. They had a plan to launch new shows in the summer and pick them up as midseason replacements if they did well but it ultimately didn't work for them as none of the eight shows made it past their initial summer run. The Building was one of their more hopeful attempts thanks to Bonnie Hunt. Hunt was well known in the Chicago comedy world, having started an improv troupe and performed with the famous Second City. 

The other thing The Building had going for it was it came from Worldwide Pants, David Letterman's new production company. At the time, Letterman was weeks away from making his high profile debut on CBS with his new Late Show with David Letterman and Letterman himself appeared in the second episode. Despite the auspices behind it, The Building was given a sleepy Friday night timeslot, paired with fellow freshman sitcom, The Boys starring Christopher Meloni and Ned Beatty. Reviews were mostly positive. Variety said it had "first class dialogue" and "a buoyant style" while the Los Angeles Times said "the cast's improvisational rhythms and impeccable comic timing sets The Building apart from the crowd." The series suffered low ratings in its Friday night slot and was pulled with one episode unaired. Bonnie Hunt returned to CBS in 1995 with The Bonnie Hunt Show. It also aired on Friday nights, albeit during the season, and didn't do any better. She jumped to ABC in 2002 with Life with Bonnie, which fared ever-so-slightly better with two seasons.

Tomorrow: A recap of Perfect Strangers!

Wednesday in Three Weeks: A One Season Wonder look at Winnetka Road!