Will anyone be watching "Watching Ellie"? (1 Viewer)

[Inspector Hammer!]

Bill, good point, in fact that's the best description of the show i've heard thus far. However concerning the laugh track, I don't look at it like that, what I meant was that a laugh track helps me get into the spirit a little more. But your argument is a valid one though.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

This show reminds me of "dramedy" a la The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd. (Anyone remember Blair Brown?) I suspect it isn't meant to be "fall-down funny".
No "Seinfeld" here.
As for the toilet water, what would Jerry Seinfeld do?
"Ooooh! Uh---Have a good life!" (as the door closes behind him).

 

[MickeS]

I suspect it isn't meant to be "fall-down funny".

Then they failed last night, because that was the funniest 22 minutes I've seen on TV in a long time. Edgar (the ex-boyfriend), Ingvar (the Swedish super, nice to see a Swedish character, even if he seems more than a little retarded ) and Ellie herself are just great characters, portrayed by really funny actors. The scenes with Edgar talking to the guitarist/Ellie's boyfriend were hilarious, as were the scenes with the car and the towtruck.
The first episode was good too, but this second one really made me want to see if they can maintain this quality.
A big !
/Mike

 

[Joel Mack]

Following your logic, it would be o.k. if I took a glass and scooped some water out of the toilet and drank it like tap water! It's teeming with bacteria and filth.

Do you think tap water and toilet water come out of two different pipes? Keep the bowl clean, and you could do exactly what you said...

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I just got around to watching the tape of tuesdays ep, and as Micke said, it was great!
I think what i'm loving about the charactor of Ellie is her manic energy, Julia really infuses her with likability, and with each passing ep, I find myself falling in love with both Ellie and Julia(all over again).
I also rewatched the first ep and I found that I enjoyed it more this time, I guess it's because I just watched the second ep, and I kinda got what the show was about this time, I knew what direction it was taking and it allowed me to enjoy the first one more this time around. I think it has the potential to be like 'Curb your Enthusiasm', it's well on it's way right now.
Joel, you sound like George Costanza: "It's all pipes! What's the difference!?" Just tell me that you don't eat chocolate eclair's out of the trash because it was "above the rim", and your cool in my book.
Call me crazy, but I just assume not splash around in water that came from a place people pee, crap, and puke in.

 

[Bill Catherall]

Last night's (3/12) episode was really good. I'm still amazed at how refreshing this show is. Well written and well acted. I found myself watching "the clock" a little less than I did the first time. Only this time I'd glance and say "Only 5 minutes left?...I want another 50 minutes!"

Ellie's sister is a crack-up! I love it when she's on. Their interaction is very enjoyable.

And can I just say again, I love that there is no laugh track. Laugh tracks just screw up the timing and rhythm that this show heavily relies on. When shows are taped with a live audience the actors have to pause to wait for the audience to be quiet for some of their lines and it leaves things feeling unatural. It may work for sitcoms, but this is no sitcom.

 

[MickeS]

Bill, I agree with you about the clock. It's only good for "damn, only 5 minutes left" reactions. I think they should skip it, actually.
This was another good episode, and I like how the story about her married boyfriend is progressing a little every time.
The one thing I missed was Edgar! That guy is hilarious. Of course, since the episode was set entirely in her apartment, it would have been hard to squeeze him in...
/Mike

 

[Don Black]

I thought the brownie ending was a good gag...

Sister: "When will the brownies be done?"

Ellie: "In about a minute." (1 minute left on the clock)

Sister: "I can't wait that long."

talk..talk..minute runs out.

 

[MickeS]

So, is this show being cancelled or not?
Dreyfus was on "The Tonight Show" last night promoting it, and they showed a clip. If it's already cancelled, that doesn't make much sense.
She was a great guest by the way, her "dirty joke" was funny, and she was cute.
/Mike

 

[MickeS]

Well, I guess I'm the only one still watching this show, and loving it, but in case not, did you notice that they had changed the format slightly in last night's episode?
They had gotten rid of the clock, except for right before the commercial breaks, and they had commercial breaks , at T+12 minutes and T+6 minutes, instead of one at T+10 minutes like they had before.
Great show, I loved it when Ingvar kept taking out his little note to Ellie every time she said she loved him. The penguin guy at the end was great too.
/Mike

 

[Bill Catherall]

Well I love the show too...but forgot to watch last night. DOH!

 

[MickeS]

For those interested, "Watching Ellie" will be back for 9 episodes in March of 2003. They've dropped the real-time single-camera format though, and instead are going with a traditional sit-com approach with studio audience and four cameras. Too bad, because while the real-time thing felt mostly like a gimmick I really liked that they went for the single-camera style, like on "Hidden Hills", rather than the conventional sit-com pacing.
Either way, I'm looking forward to it very much, it should still be worth watching. I hope all the main characters are coming back too.
Here's EW's article about it: http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,397133~3~~,00.html
/Mike

 

[Andrew Chong]

traditional sit-com approach with studio audience

To me, that's a shame. Apart from the humour and characters, what I enjoyed about "Watching Ellie" was its freedom to often break outside of studio settings and roam unconstrained to the sidewalks and streets, etc. A breath of fresh air, literally.

I thought that the absence of studio audiences and laughtracks was a different sitcom animal that seems more prevalent these days (Malcolm in the Middle, Scrubs, et al) and is more effective. Surely, we the home audience don't need cues to highlight the funny bits of a show.

Forgiving Frasier and Seinfeld, hearing a laugh track or cued laughs after every single sentence uttered by sitcom characters often gets on my nerves. They aren't that funny or clever, are they?

(edited for spelling)

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

That's good news, I really doubted that it would be back. I like the new changes, although I liked the way the show was before, it seemed kind of flat to me.

 

[Andrew Chong]

I thought I'd fish this thread out to mention that NBC has scheduled six new episodes of Watching Ellie on Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. starting April 15.
(reference)

 

[Bill Catherall]

Oh no! Up against 24 and Smallville. I only have one VCR people!

I guess they really want this show to fail, don't they.

I liked the original format though. So with the new studio audience and multicamera format, it just won't be the same thing.

I don't think I'll tune back in anyway. I'll just continue to mourn the loss of a once great show. I'm glad I got to see it when it was something different.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

I thought this was cancelled months ago.

 

[MickeS]

It was never cancelled, just put on hold. It didn't do too well the first time around, which I thought was surprising since it was a very good show. We'll see how it does not, even though the stuff that made it different is now gone. That could be a good thing though, I guess.

/Mike