Buddy Fox (Leslie Nielsen) is the aging, narcissistic owner of an L. A. gym. Ben (Michael Fontaine) is the manager and surrogate son to the eclectic owner, and there are three aerobics instructors: Shannon (Jennifer Tilly), who's trying to be an actress, Melissa (Shawn Weatherly), a wholesome country girl who's adjusting to city life, and Zoya (Cathie Shirriff), a strange Russian immigrant. Jerry (Jake Steinfeld) is a dimwitted gym rat.
I saw a few episodes of this when it aired and hadn't given it much thought in over 40 years, when copies surfaced online. It's really stupid, but it's also pretty funny. After Airplane!, Nielsen got typecast as 'the old guy who says outrageous things,' and this was certainly no different. It's a shame that it didn't run longer, because something about having a live audience there seemed to have boosted his energy level. Critics at the time complained that the show wasn't funny, and Nielsen got all the best lines, but I wholeheartedly disagree. An unknown Jennifer Tilly got the best lines and plotlines equal to (sometimes bigger than) Nielsen's. I'm sure that was no coincidence - she married creator Sam Simon later the same year. Shannon was bitchy, constantly put down Melissa for being a hick, and could have been really unlikable, but Tilly's charisma shined through, and the writers gave the character depth.
The creators were veterans of Taxi and Cheers, and they were trying to do the same thing here, an ensemble show with a group of very different people who became unlikely friends due to the place they worked. There was definitely potential for the show to have grown into something special, but 5 weeks just wasn't enough time.
