'Til Death

This show was so good but the new season is horrible. Woodcocks were great - why did they take them out? Kenny was the best character - made me LOL and he is gone. WTF? The Allie and Doug characters are lame - no other word to describe watching them outside of painful. I fast forwarded past most of "the wedding" episode - if I wanted to watch a cartoon I would. Now Til Death has added their political comments to the show in "the wedding" episode. We don't tune in to hear your political agenda. Boston Legal did that and they are off the air. The worst part of the show used to be the one scene in every episode (yes we noticed) where Joely would have her fake boobs (we know they are fake, too) hanging out and now the entire show is horrible. Change is not good - change it back or I'm out and I bet many more people are too.

When first released, 'Til Death was a show that had me in stitches. I cannot remember another sitcom that has made me laugh aloud so often with each episode. Having been divorced twice and single for more years than I can remember, this show takes a look at marriage that will make you roar. What makes it work is the fact that it compares a pair of crazy newlyweds to a couple married over twenty years - The Woodcocks and the Starks.

However, sadly, the show dispenses with the anchor of the show (the characters who play the Woodcocks), and the sitcom sinks to the bottom of ridiculous. Gone are the laughs and the beginning of the slow death that leads to cancellation.

I just felt like I went through another heartrending divorce that has left me convinced I'll never marry again.

Score: Definite 10 before the demise of the Woodcocks; 3 after they left the show.

Brad Garrett is the glue holding this together. Everybody else is playing off his character & he is doing fine, much the same way he did well on that Raymond series. In a way Garrett is the Raymond of this series. Fox has been giving this show a chance and is getting rewarded as the show is improving and the ratings are going up.

The scripts have had a wide range from somewhat funny to very funny. At first, it looked like these marriages between the two couples were totally different. The Woodcocks marriage was the eyes wide open smitten stage while Garretts union was the yes we've been together forever stage. The comedy was based upon laughing at how naive the Woodcocks were.

What has happened is that we are seeing the two marriages evolve. Woodcocks marriage is finding out it takes more than being smitten to make things work and they are learning to cope. Garretts marriage is finding out that even though they are comfortable they can still find heat and new things in their relationship. This is helping the show evolve into more than it was when it started.

The actress who is playing Garretts wife on this show is really evolving into a much better comedian as this show grows. Woodcocks wife who is supposed to be the young trophy one is still a bit up on the shelf so to speak. What is going to be interesting is to keep watching as the couples continue to change, in funny sort of ways each show.

There is some class warfare comedy undertones here as Garrett is the long time teacher & Woodcock is the young Administrator who is his boss. This helps the show along at times too.

I think this show seems kind of promising, especially since Brad Garrett from "Everybody Loves Raymond" is the star of the show. Brad Garrett plays a guy named Eddie Stamm who is one of those unhappy married guys who has been married for over 8,000 days to his wife, Joy Stamm (Joely Fisher). Then one day a newlywed couple (Eddie Kaye Thomas and Kat Foster) moves in next door and they try to teach the newlyweds on how marriage actually works. I liked the jokes where Brad Garrett is teaching Eddie Kaye Thomas about his marriage life and how everything else is pretty obvious in marriage. I hope this show lasts. This show premiered on FOX, September 2006.

BOTTOM LINE: IF YOU LIKE BRAD GARRETT ON "RAYMOND" THEN YOU WOULD LIKE HIM ON THIS SHOW

I read the first several messages on the board here, and people who don't like this show seem to be doing so for two main reasons - they think the longer-married couple is too bitter and unhappy, and they keep comparing the show to Everybody Loves Raymond. Well, I hope the show gets at least a few more episodes to reveal to those of you who aren't paying enough attention that Brad's character and his wife do really love each other and are trying to make their marriage better. A related idea the writers could emphasize is that the Woodcock's marriage will get stronger when the kids take off the rose-colored glasses and begin to love the people they married, not the idealized version of those people. And as for comparing to ELR, if you feel you absolutely must, this show is a lot kinder and more loving than that one.