Watching Ellie

The concept of this show was brilliant in it's originality. Okay, I know 24 was pretty new and doing the same sort of thing, but this was a "sitcom". It was more of a melodrama. It was met with similar criticism as Seinfeld was. Truth was the concept was well executed, but it was like being around people who have their own inside jokes and you are on the outside. You might laugh not because it's funny, but because it looks silly or is uncomfortable. It's not straight ahead humor. To all of you people cheering on this Seinfeld curse crap that's exactly what it is. They were saying that after The Michael Richards Show went off the air because The Tick suffered a similar fate. The Tick! Patrick Warburton who played Elaine's boyfriend in no more than 30 episodes (and that is being generous) is credited for starting the curse. His character on Seinfeld made him look like an easy target I guess. After the Michael Richards Show, Jason Alexander's show came on and they had it on several different time slots in the few weeks it was on. Before that show came on it was already being unfairly denounced. If you're going to attribute some curse that was started by a non-regular character then I want to point out that a character that was on a lot more frequently than Warburton was in a very successful show in the latter days of Seinfeld and beyond. Anyone hear of Wayne Knight? That's right, it's not something you want to hear. You all just want to hear the bad stuff and try to take away a great show's credibility. Watching Ellie was not a great show. Seinfeld was not a great show at first, but it got the chance because it was the right time for it. In another time the concepts attempted in Ellie will be used and develop a very solid sophisticated sit com. The only curse is that people let the media create some "curse" and like sheep say "I won't watch that somebody from Seinfeld is on." You all need to realize the Entertainment Tonight and shows of that kind are shown when people are having dinner for a reason and it ain't ratings my friend.

Julia Louis-Dreyfuss pulls off the impossible. She stars in a sitcom where the character she portrays is about as far away as possible as she can get from the one she portrayed in "SEINFELD". The only similarities here is that surprisingly, she chose to name herself 'Ellie' in this sitcom where her name in Seinfeld was 'Elaine'. A coincidence perhaps?

Nonetheless, this sitcom had me thinking prior that I was only going to witness another poor offering starring a Seinfeld allum portraying the same character as before (ie. Kramer - "THE MICHAEL RICHARDS SHOW", George - "THE BOB PATTERSON SHOW"). I decided to give "WATCHING ELLIE" a shot and I was pleasantly surprised!

Julia Louis-Dreyfuss is Ellie. From what the pilot offered, Ellie is a jazz singer at a local club. Her life is full of comical mishaps and characters that she must interact with on a daily basis and she appears to have a sister of a somewhat flighty-nature. Ellie's lifestyle is amusing. She is sort of like 'Ally McBeal' without the dancing babies and dramatization of events that play out to the sound-track of Barry White.

"WATCHING ELLIE" supposedly plays out in real-time. There is a time counter in the corner of the television screen that counts down from '22:00' minutes. In the pilot, Ellie scrambles to ready herself for her jazz gig while the toilet in her bathroom is over-flowing, unbeknownst to her. Her sister has stolen her favorite dress that she wants to wear and now her apartment is becoming flooded with water! Enter surprise number two, Peter Stormare (ie. "FARGO", "O' BROTHER WHERE ART THOU", "DANCER IN THE DARK")!! An actor who I never thought I'd see starring in a generic sitcom, he portrays a pathetic handy-man with an un-placeable accent (Swedish perhaps?) who can't help but ogle over Ellie as she calls on him to try and fix her broken toilet. When he slips and knocks himself out, Ellie dashes a few floors down to seek advice from a Doctor who assists in the situation while completely nude.

Ellie herself has several character flaws. While not completely naive to the current events that shape her lifestyle, she has a male neighbor who has an issue with her by advising her constantly that the elevator is 'out of order' when it is in fact working (therefore forcing her to take the stairs every time) and she is also having an affair with a member of her jazz outfit who is (surprise, surprise) married!

Unlike the character of 'Elaine' that she portrayed on "SEINFELD", Ellie is a character that you can sympathize with. She does come off as a loser of sorts, but there is also a lot of 'human' in her character that some people will be able to identify with.

I really enjoyed the pilot, but will "WATCHING ELLIE" be able to keep its head above water with smart writing and not curse itself with repetitive jokes and turn into puerile trash (ie. "JUST SHOOT ME", "ALLY MCBEAL")? Only time will tell.

In the meantime - well done Julia Louis-Dreyfuss!

My Rating - 8 out of 10

Sorry, let me rephrase that: it was the best of shows, THEN it was the worst of shows. After its brilliant initial run proved it too sophisticated for a mass network audience, the lovely and genuinely charming Watching Ellie disappeared. Now it's back, in a grotesque, dumbed-down version with the same actors playing characters who have the same names and I guess are supposed to be the same characters. The only problem with this is that there is no character consistency; and indeed in the new version there are no characters at all, only are sit-com stereotypes. The 'humor', now that it can't be rooted in the characters (as, again, there are none) is reduced to the utterly predictable and insultingly stupid. (The man Ellie gave the finger to could have been her big break - what a shock! Her boyfriend isn't cheating on her, he's trying to further her career - who could have guessed?!) In lieu of the laughter that will no longer be forthcoming from the audience, the producers have kindly supplied the canned variety.

The original Ellie, as fans will fondly recall, allowed amusing events to happen naturally, preferring a handful of genuinely funny moments in a half-hour to five lousy punch-lines per minute. They didn't even require that each episode end with a joke. Audiences, confused and perplexed by the lack of formula (duh, what am I supposed to laugh at? duh, this sure isn't Will and Grace!) stayed away in droves.

Rather than making 'Ellie for Dummies,' why couldn't the show have been transferred to, say, HBO, where intelligent, laugh-track-free comedies seem to flourish? (Dare I point out that even Fox network, which airs Bernie Mac and Malcolm in the Middle, has recognized the value of the laugh-track-free, single camera, half-hour comedy?) Watching the 2003 version of Ellie is like having dinner with a former best friend who has since been lobotomized. And the food and the service are lousy too.

It's too bad this show got cancelled so quickly, because personnally, I liked it a lot. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a remarkable actress and the supporting cast is just as awesome, especially Steve Carell who played Ellie's arrogant, annoying but hilarious ex-boyfriend Edgar (lucky for us, we got to see him play an equally arrogant guy in Bruce Almighty) . I'm afraid the pilot, which was just OK, dissuaded many from keeping watching "Ellie": during the first episodes, the show was trying to find itself, trying to be original but it still had that Seinfeld feel at the same time (the fact that Ellie would sing at the end of the first few episodes was quite reminiscent of Jerry's opening and closing monologues), and I have to admit that at first, it was hard to tell Ellie and Elaine apart. But eventually, the show slightly changed its concept and got better and funnier, and I'm told it was a whole lot more watchable than the Micheal Richards show and Bob Peterson, Jason Alexander's sitcom. Seinfeld Curse? Not in Julia's case, who has the talent to be an even better headliner than Jerry ever was. Too bad, just too bad...

JL-D is the sexiest comedienne to come along in a blue moon, and her timing is extraordinary. Her new sitcom does some amazing things with real-time narrative, and features an affable bunch of oddball neighbors and cohorts. I really think this show has the potential to become the righteous heir to SEINFELD which, as we all know, is a hell of an act to follow. Very urbane and witty, with astute character comedy juggling well with absurd physical schtick. And I LOVE those freeze frames which showcase Julia's gorgeous mouth! Ouch! More please!