Complete series cast summary: | |||
Ellen DeGeneres | ... | Ellen Morgan 108 episodes, 1994-1998 | |
David Anthony Higgins | ... | Joe Farrell 101 episodes, 1994-1998 | |
Joely Fisher | ... | Paige Clark 95 episodes, 1994-1998 | |
Clea Lewis | ... | Audrey Penney 79 episodes, 1994-1998 | |
Jeremy Piven | ... | Spence Kovak 71 episodes, 1995-1998 | |
Ellen Morgan (Ellen DeGeneres) is a neurotic, thirty-something, bookstore employee who tries to get by life in dealing with her various friends who include the outgoing redhead Paige Clark (Joely Fisher), insecure photographer Adam Green (Arye Gross), her unsure-of-himself cousin Spence Novak (Jeremy Piven), coffee shop guy Joe Farrell (David Anthony Higgins), the critical and obnoxious Audrey Penney (Clea Lewis), and most challenging of all, Ellen also has to contend being around her annoying and overbearing parents Lois (Alice Hirson) and Harold (Steve Gilborn).
I didn't rate it because I have no idea how to rate this series.
Season 1 was pretty solid, and my personal favorite. The style was close to Friends', and it was pretty fun. Anita and Holly and Adam were all fun and ordinary nice people. They're like your best friends - fun and nice and when you're together you just have these sort of silly funny moments. It wasn't as good as Friends, and also a bit inferior to the first few seasons of How I met your mother, but it was quite good. A 7 or an 8.
The following seasons had a different gang, and it really seemed that they tried to be funny simply by giving all the characters some rare and annoying qualities. After a few episodes, it really gets boring watching Audrey's weirdness and Spence's bipolar disorder. But they did this for the entire length of the show's existence, which gradually dropped the show from 7 to 4. I think 7 was when Adam was still on the show, and 4 was towards the end of season 4.
Season 5 was a complete disaster. I have nothing against gay people. And I'm okay with Ellen DeGeneres' decision, even though it was a bit inconsistent since her character was perfectly straight in the first few seasons. But the show just became super boring and annoying when everything had to revolve around Ellen's sexuality. I get it that LGBT equality is important to you, but nobody's watching a comedy to get educated about civil rights. Seriously, Ellen, your show did not get cancelled because you came out. It got cancelled because it was boring and annoying. I hate to be mean but it really became a 1 or a 2 at the end of the show.