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| Dharma & Greg | |
|---|---|
 Dharma & Greg title card |
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| Format | Sitcom |
| Created by | Dottie Dartland Chuck Lorre |
| Starring | Jenna Elfman Thomas Gibson Joel Murray Mimi Kennedy Alan Rachins Mitch Ryan Susan Sullivan Shae D'Lyn (1997–2001) Susan Chuang (2001–2002) Helen Greenberg (2001–2002) |
| Opening theme | "Dharma & Greg" by Dennis C. Brown |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 119 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | est. 22 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | September 24, 1997 – April 30, 2002 |
Dharma & Greg is an American television situation comedy co-produced by Chuck Lorre Productions, More-Medavoy Productions and 4 to 6 Foot Productions in association with 20th Century Fox Television for ABC. It first aired from September 24, 1997, to April 30, 2002, and starred Jenna Elfman and Thomas Gibson as Dharma and Greg Montgomery, a couple who married instantly on their first date despite being complete opposites. The show's theme song was written and performed by composer Dennis C. Brown.
Created and executive-produced by Dottie Dartland and Chuck Lorre, the comedy incorporated in Dharma & Greg took much of its inspiration from so-called culture-clash "fish out of water" situations.[1] The show earned Elfman a Golden Globe for Best Actress, out of a total of eight nominations, and moreover garnered six Emmy and Satellite Awards nominations respectively.[1]
Contents |
Jenna Elfman as Dharma Freedom Montgomery, née Finkelstein, Greg's wife and a flower child. She is extremely peppy and ditzy, but she also seems to be more compassionate and forgiving than most people. Dharma encourages Greg to seek happiness, rather than fret about practical issues like money. Due to being homeschooled by her parents, she has a limited understanding of Western culture and is very naïve when it comes to trusting strangers. She is named after the concept of dharma in Indian philosophy. Once, a Native American friend of her father's gave her the name "Crazy Man's Daughter."
According to Chuck Lorre's eleventh vanity card (see below), he and Dottie Dartland originally conceived Dharma & Greg as "a series revolving around a woman whose personality is not a neurotic product of societal and parental conditioning, but of her own free-flowing, compassionate mind."
Thomas Gibson as lawyer Gregory "Greg" Clifford Montgomery, Dharma's husband. He is an upright, uptight, decent, though sometimes surprisingly open-minded, man. Greg's life was hopelessly banal before he met Dharma and married her on their first date. Since then, he has played straight man to the antics of his eccentric wife. Though his and Dharma's relationship has been rocky at times, Greg has never been shown to regret their marriage. He is an alumnus of the famous Phillips Exeter Academy, Harvard University, and Stanford Law School.
Susan Sullivan as Katherine "Kitty" Montgomery, Greg's extravagant mother. In the beginning of the first season Kitty was generally represented as a manipulative, controlling woman who only had higher aspirations for her son. As an elite socialite, Kitty was initially quite displeased to have Dharma and her parents join the family, but over the course of the series, Kitty broadens her limited country club world to becoming part of a larger family and becomes a major part of Dharma's life while remaining lovingly manipulating.
Mitch Ryan as Edward Montgomery, Greg's eccentric father. His philosophy for dealing with his wife, Kitty, involves remaining as uninvolved as possible. Head of Montgomery Industries (though he keeps going to work only because he can see little tugboats out the window) and at odds with Dharma's father, who calls him "Ed" and whom he calls "Finkelstein." Ed is often seen drinking martinis and Scotch.
Mimi Kennedy as Abigail Kathleen "Abby" O'Neil, Dharma's free spirited, caring mother, who encourages her daughter and son-in-law to produce children; "Feel free to have sex anywhere." Although they have a grown daughter and later a son, she and Dharma's father are not married. She and Larry were engaged and held the wedding ceremony but still did not marry to "stay under the radar". Unlike her "lifemate" Larry, she immediately accepted Greg, though she still constantly annoys and conflicts with his parents. She is a militant vegan, which is a never-ending source of trouble.
Alan Rachins as Myron Lawrence "Larry" Finkelstein, Dharma's "hippie" father. He is a stereotypical sixties radical who frequently rants about various conspiracies. He also thinks he's wanted by the FBI, but when Greg discovers he's not, his family goes to great lengths to prove to him that he still is because, oddly, this is a source of great pride to him. Despite this, he manages to get along with Edward, often when both are sick of dealing with their wives. It is often alluded to that Larry is a chronic user of marijuana, though never shown. In the pilot episode Abby introduces his usual cluelessness with "he blew out his short term memory back in 1972".
Shae D'Lyn as Jane Deaux, Dharma's friend. She considers all men more or less evil; over the course of the show, her hair went from black, to red, to blonde. She married Pete Cavanaugh in Season 2, and divorced him after 6 weeks. She and Dharma met when Dharma dialed a wrong number. D'Lyn left at the end of the fourth season, though she had one "guest appearance" in season five.
Joel Murray as Peter James "Pete" Cavanaugh, Greg's friend and colleague at the Justice Department. He's a particularly bad, lazy lawyer and was married to Jane for a time. His entire life can be summed up by the interior of his apartment: a massage chair surrounded by empty take-out containers, next to this is a small refrigerator and a stack of porno tapes. A high-class entertainment center is in front of this. It is said he wears adult diapers to football games. Greg once said of his friend: "Pete went to law school in Barbados; he failed the Bar seven times. The last time because he threw up on the exam." Pete marries Jane in the second season because neither of them wants to be alone on Valentine's Day
Susan Chuang as Susan Wong, One of Dharma's friends from the Co-Op, she is seen as Marcie's counterpart. Susan also pulls a "Dharma & Greg" with a lawyer hired by Kitty in a community garden spat (her wedding, along with Dharma's accident, was the Season 4 finale). Chaung joined the main cast in season five, she also played a different character in the episode "Looking for the Goodbars".
Helen Greenberg as Marcie, One of Dharma's Co-Op friends; nasal-voiced receptionist, whose vocabulary primarily consists of the words "I'm sorry." Greenberg joined the main cast in season five, she also played a different character in the episode "Drop Dead Gorgeous".
The series was a top-20 fixture in the US during its first three seasons, first airing Wednesday at 8:30 p.m., then at 8:00. It was moved to Tuesdays at 9pm during its third season where it experienced a dramatic ratings lift thanks to a lead-in of the then red-hot Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. As ratings for that series waned in 2000/2001, Dharma & Greg suffered a similar fate, compounded by NBC moving Frasier into the same time slot. As Millionaire fell even further and was moved off the night in the fall of 2001, ABC tried to rebuild a Tuesday night comedy block consisting of Dharma & Greg, What About Joan?, Bob Patterson and Spin City. The move was ill-fated, however, with Joan lasting just two seasons and Patterson lasting five episodes. Dharma & Greg and Spin City shared the 8pm timeslot for the rest of the season, despite ever-declining ratings. The final episode aired on April 30, 2002 to just 6.8 million viewers, compared to the 20 million the series had peaked at just two years previously.
| Season | Season Premiere | Season Finale | TV Season | Ranking | Viewers (in millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | September 24, 1997 | May 20, 1998 | 1997–98 | #25[2] | 13.9[2] |
| 2nd | September 23, 1998 | May 26, 1999 | 1998–99 | #25[3] | 13.5[3] |
| 3rd | September 21, 1999 | May 16, 2000 | 1999–00 | #14[4] | 15.76[4] |
| 4th | October 10, 2000 | May 22, 2001 | 2000–01 | #38[5] | 12.3[5] |
| 5th | September 25, 2001 | April 30, 2002 | 2001–02 | #82[6] | 8.1[6] |
20th Century Fox has released the first season of Dharma & Greg on DVD in Region 1. Season 1 & 2 have been released in Region 2 and 4.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Complete 1st Season | 23 | June 13, 2006 | June 20, 2007 | January 11, 2007 |
| The Complete 2nd Season | 24 | N/A | April 1, 2008 | January 22, 2008 |
Season 2 was released in Australia as a Region 4 PAL on January 22, 2008, with a picture of Dharma and Greg dancing on the cover.[7] It is available in Japan as a Region 2 NTSC format with a picture of them sitting down for the cover art.[8] In the spring of 2008, the second season was released in Europe (Netherlands) as a Region 2 PAL as well. All countries have different covers, and all are using the "dance shot".[9][10]
At the end of each episode, a message appeared on the screen for a brief moment, so that it is readable only to those who record the program (using a VCR or DVR, for example) and pause it. These "vanity cards" were written by producer and show co-creator Chuck Lorre, and express his personal views on a variety of subjects. These vanity cards are also seen at the end of episodes of CBS' Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory, also Chuck Lorre productions.
Dharma & Greg (1997-2002) was an American sitcom about a mismatched married couple. It starred Jenna Elfman and Thomas Gibson in the title roles.
   | Vanity card archive - Chuck Lorre Productions - Vanity Cards |
| | Official site - Error - ABC.com |
| | ''Dharma & Greg'' trivia - "Dharma & Greg" (1997) - Trivia |
| | ''Dharma & Greg'' awards - "Dharma & Greg" (1997) - Awards |
| | Dharma & Greg - "Dharma & Greg" at TV.com |
| | IMDb entry - "Dharma & Greg" (1997) |
| | ''Meet the Fockers'' - Meet The Fockers Review |
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