ONE SEASON WONDERS: Hiller and Diller

On Wednesdays, I take a look at shows that lasted one season or less. Here's a look at Hiller and Diller!

HILLER AND DILLER

September 23, 1997 - March 13, 1998

13 episodes

ABC

Starring: Kevin Nealon, Richard Lewis, Jordan Baker, Allison Mack, Kyle Sabihy, Jillian Berard, Faryn Einhorn, Jonathan Osser and Eugene Levy

Created by: Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel

Plot: Ted Hiller (Nealon) and Neil Diller (Lewis) are a comedy writing team for television. Hiller is a family man with wife Brooke (Baker) and three mostly average children (Berard, Einhorn & Osser) while Diller is an absentee father with two rebellious children (Sabihy & Mack). Their worlds collide more when Hiller helps Diller's kids get into his kids' school.

Brief Pilot Review:

Hiller and Diller bills itself as a sitcom with equal billing for the two stars but the pilot episode felt a lot more like Kevin Nealon was the lead and Richard Lewis was a supporting character. The pilot starts with a couple lame Dad jokes from Nealon before Dad jokes were even really a thing and the show establishes his home and family much more clearly. It is well into the show before we even meet Richard Lewis' character, it even comes after meeting his on screen children. It was an unusual approach. I understand the story reasons why they did it but it didn't do a very good job establishing the dynamics of the series going forward which I assume would have been a lot more about the relationship between Nealon and Lewis.

The cast wasn't very memorable besides Nealon and Lewis either. Jordan Baker was saddled with a pretty thankless "mom" role while the Hiller kids were pretty irritating. The Diller kids were a little bit funnier but even they were used more for a funny joke (Diller bringing fake kids to an interview at a prestigious school) than developed as characters. I could see where the show was planning to go so I don't think a ton of exposition was needed but I would have liked to have gotten a better sense of how Nealon and Lewis would play off each other. What I saw was pretty standard sitcom stuff and nothing that was very funny even coming from two experienced comedy performers.

What Went Wrong:

ABC didn't have the ratings of NBC in the late 1990s but they did have their own solid brand of sitcoms that were successful on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Many of them were based around comedians - Tim Allen, Brett Butler, Ellen DeGeneres, Drew Carey and more. In the Fall of 1997, they had said goodbye to Roseanne but their top comedy, Home Improvement, was still in place. After successfully launching Spin City after Home Improvement in the 1996-97 season, ABC tried another new comedy with Hiller and Diller. It seemed like a solid bet as Kevin Nealon and Richard Lewis were both well known comedians - Nealon from Saturday Night Live and Lewis from late night TV and Anything But Love. For that matter, Eugene Levy was a well-known name too.

Reviews were not good for the show. Variety said when Eugene Levy wasn't around, the show "hangs like limp fettucini." The Washington Post said "Nealon and Lewis complement each other, but only in this respect: Each is irritating in different ways." Deseret News went even further to call it "remarkably terrible." Hiller and Diller did alright in the ratings overall but lost a huge portion of the Home Improvement lead-in. In those days, pressure was very intense on shows following the biggest hits. ABC pulled it off the lineup in early November. It got one more airing in mid-December and then very briefly resurfaced on Fridays in March 1998 before it was gone for good. Nealon and Lewis have continued to work steadily since, most famously on Weeds for Nealon and Curb Your Enthusiasm for Lewis. Of course, Levy found the most success in sitcom world with Schitt's Creek.

Tomorrow: Very Very Back Injury!

Next Wednesday: A One Season Wonder look at The Tony Danza Show!