ONE SEASON WONDERS: Can't Hurry Love

On Wednesdays I take a look at a show that lasted one season or less. Here's a look at 1995's Can't Hurry Love!

CAN'T HURRY LOVE

September 18, 1995 - February 26, 1996
19 episodes
CBS

Starring: Nancy McKeon, Mariska Hargitay, Louis Mandylor, David Pressman

Created by: Gina Wendkos

Plot: Annie O'Donnell (McKeon) is a single, thirtysomething woman living in New York City with her carefree friend and neighbor, Didi (Hargitay). She also manages an employment agency with colleagues and friends, Roger (Mandylor) and Elliot (Pressman in the pilot, Kevin Crowley in the series).

Brief Pilot Review:

There was one bright spot in this otherwise banal sitcom pilot and that was Mariska Hargitay. A few years before starting her iconic role on Law & Order: SVU, Hargitay was easily the standout in a role that was completely different for her. She had a natural charm and energy and delivered lines with such gusto even when they weren't all that good. The rest of the show did not live up to Hargitay's charms though. Nancy McKeon was pretty boring in the lead role. I don't think she was really intended to be a straight woman character, she seemed in some ways to be modeled after the early years of Monica on Friends (McKeon was actually in the running for Monica by the way). But she played it like a straight woman and a boring one at that.

The pilot dealt mainly with a date for Annie with a man she meets on the subway and a whole lot more time was given to guest star Peter Dobson's boring, bird-shooting character than the two men in the cast though one of the them was re-cast after the pilot. I'm surprised it was David Pressman who got re-cast and not Louis Mandylor, who was pretty irritating in the little time he was given. The pilot was poorly structured because we got no sense of what the ensemble would be like as a group. Comedies don't need to be premise-heavy but we do need a sense of how their characters relate to each other and this pilot didn't give any time for that. Marika Hargitay could only do so much.

What Went Wrong:

Although the only thing anyone really remembers about Can't Hurry Love, if they remember it at all, is Mariska Hargitay, the show's biggest name before at the time was Nancy McKeon. McKeon was a popular actress from her long run on The Facts of Life and this was her first return to TV since that show ended (she was also a top contender for Monica on Friends in the interlude). After the success of Friends in the 1994-95 season, every network wanted to have a show about young and hip singles living in New York City so the 1995-96 schedule was chock full of Friends clones. This was probably one of the most obvious knock-offs even though the characters were a little bit older than the Friends.

Can't Hurry Love was given a strong timeslot - CBS Mondays was still a destination with The Nanny a strong lead-in and Murphy Brown still a staple at 9pm. Previous 8:30pm occupant Dave's World had just had a successful two year run in the slot and was heading to Wednesdays. Reviews were not kind to Can't Hurry Love though. Variety called it "too comfortable" while Entertainment Weekly said it was "trite" and "stereotypical." Can't Hurry Love actually didn't do badly in the ratings. It ranked #24 for the year, not incredibly far behind its lead-in and lead-out. But CBS still pulled it in February and never came back to it. As the 1995-96 season dragged on, they retreated from their attempt to be another NBC with young and hip shows so Love didn't really fit into their "back to basics" strategy for the following season which included comedy vehicles for mainstays like Bill Cosby and Ted Danson.

Tomorrow: A look at Season 6 (Part 1) of Happy Days!

Next Wednesday: A One Season Wonder look at The Pursuit of Happiness!