On Wednesdays, I take a look at shows that lasted one season or less. Here's a look at 1998's Encore! Encore!
ENCORE! ENCORE!
September 22, 1998 - January 27, 1999
11 episodes
NBC
Starring: Nathan Lane, Glenne Headly, Ernie Sabella, James Patrick Stuart, Trevor Fehrman and Joan Plowright
Created by: David Angell, Peter Casey, David Lee, Chuck Ranberg, Anne Flett-Giordano
Plot: Joseph Pinoni (Lane) is a famous opera singer on the verge of a major career achievement when his vocal cords are damaged. He returns home to Napa Valley to recover and stays with his family, including sister Francesca (Headly), nephew Michael (Fehrman) and mother Marie (Plowright). Rounding out the main cast is the vineyard manager, Leo (Sabella).
This pilot seemed to show how Frasier could have gone horribly wrong (even with some of the same names involved). It was a show that tried to be highbrow but wasn't actually. The setting and Nathan Lane's character were very stuffy and highbrow but the show was just a standard sitcom with standard sitcom jokes. It shows how well Frasier pulled off its farce style with highbrow characters. I think that's because they misunderstood Nathan Lane's brand of humor and how best to make him funny. Lane is a naturally funny person but he does best with broad comedy, that's what makes him such a great stage actor. The role he had in this show didn't work for that because the character didn't seem to make sense for Lane aside from being a singer (and it wasn't like he was going to sing since the character's vocal chords were shot).
The cast was uniformly good. Lane is still capable of some good moments even when given bad material. He had a nice chemistry with Glenne Headly as a brother and sister pair while Joan Plowright added a touch of elegance. And Ernie Sabella (Pumbaa to Lane's Timon in The Lion King) wasn't given much to do in the pilot but is always reliable. The biggest issue is the cast was let down by the material. The premise was there, the performances were there. This actually could have been a really funny sitcom but it just wasn't. I don't know if it deserved the vitriol it got then and has gotten when looking back at flops though because it was more disappointing than horrifically bad. Also, one final note - not only did they choose to make Lane's character straight but they commented on it too? It was a few months after Ellen and the same time as the debut of Will & Grace on the same network, I think they could have let Lane be a gay character.
NBC was in a transition heading into the 1998-99 season. Seinfeld had left the airwaves and Frasier had moved to the 9pm Thursday slot vacated by Seinfeld. That left a hole on Tuesday nights and NBC had pegged the promising third season of Just Shoot Me! to take over the 9pm Tuesday slot. Before that though, they had a sitcom that seemed to have much more in common with Frasier (and came from that show's team) than the shows that were left on Tuesday. Nathan Lane was a well known commodity at the time from movies like The Lion King and The Birdcage and, of course, his many Broadway hits. But the show was pegged as trouble from the start with advertisers balking when shown clips from the show at the May upfronts and then NBC re-tooling the show over the summer.
The finished version was not a big improvement over the original version in the eyes of the critics. Reviews were uniformly negative for the show. Deseret News called it "dull, contrived and unfunny." The Baltimore Sun was a little kinder, calling it merely "uneven" while suggesting Lane could make it funny and the New York Times called it "predictable." The series premiered to bad ratings, creating a gaping hole in the lineup between Mad About You at 8pm and Just Shoot Me! at 9pm. NBC pulled Encore! from the night before November Sweeps. It resurfaced on Wednesdays through the winter months of December and January before it was done for good. While Lane has appeared in supporting or guest roles in award bait shows like The Good Wife, The People vs. OJ Simpson and Only Murders in the Building, he has never fronted another TV show.
Tomorrow: Very Very Little League
Wednesday in Three Weeks: A One Season Wonder look at Maggie Winters!
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