Wikis
| Ellen | |
|---|---|
 Ellen season 1 logo |
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| Format | Sitcom |
| Starring | Ellen DeGeneres Joely Fisher Jeremy Piven David Anthony Higgins Clea Lewis Arye Gross Holly Fulger Maggie Wheeler |
| Opening theme | So Called Friend |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 109 |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | Approximately 22 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | March 29, 1994 – July 22, 1998 |
Ellen (originally titled These Friends of Mine for season one) is a U.S. television sitcom that ran on the ABC network from March 29, 1994 to July 22, 1998, producing 109 episodes.
The theme song, "So-Called Friend" is by Scottish band Texas. An ongoing gag was that each episode had a distinct opening credits sequence, resulting from Ellen's ongoing search for the perfect opening credits.
The title role of Ellen Morgan, played by stand-up comedian Ellen DeGeneres, was a neurotic bookstore owner in her thirties. The series centered on Ellen's dealing with her quirky friends, her family and the problems of daily life.
The show was not connected to The Ellen Show, DeGeneres' second sitcom which ran from 2001–2002.
Reruns of the show first started airing on Lifetime in the fall of 1998, and stopped in 2001. Starting October 4, 2003, during DeGeneres' surge in popularity through her role in Finding Nemo and her new daytime talk show, Lifetime began airing reruns again, on 1AM-2AM ET Sunday mornings, starting with the second season. Before long, it went into the 1:30AM-2AM ET time slot Monday-Friday. The reruns stopped two episodes into the controversial final season. Oxygen then picked up the entire series to air starting October 4, 2004, daily at midnight and noon ET. As of June 18, 2007, the show continues to air 8AM-11AM ET Monday mornings in the US. Reruns of the show in the UK were until recently on ABC1 until the channel closed in September 2007. These were shown only on weekend mornings, along with other Touchstone Pictures productions. No other UK channels are currently airing the show.
In Australia episodes air on 111 HITS weekdays in a daytime timeslot. New Zealand is currently airing double episode reruns on TVNZ TV2 every Monday night.
In Canada, it is currently being aired by TVtropolis
In 1997, Ellen made television history when the title character came out as a lesbian in the famous "Puppy Episode." (DeGeneres herself had come out earlier that year on The Oprah Winfrey Show and in TIME.) To ensure a memorable moment, the coming out scene was made into a gag where, at an airport, Ellen turns and tells Laura Dern "I'm gay!" – only to realize that she had turned right into the intercom microphone, announcing her sexuality to the entire terminal. Ellen DeGeneres' mother Betty can briefly be seen as one of the people in the terminal with a shocked reaction to the announcement.
The revelation ignited a storm of controversy, prompting ABC to place a parental advisory at the beginning of each episode.
Ellen was successful enough in its early seasons to warrant annual renewal, due largely to DeGeneres' perceived appeal and comic ability, but only with Ellen's coming out did the show make its way into the wide public consciousness and hit a critical plateau. However, after the initial coming out frenzy the show's ratings declined and ABC began feeling the pain of an organized backlash from religious conservative groups regarding the "gay content" being exhibited. The final episodes of Ellen were criticized for focusing too much on gay issues[1],a criticism begun in anti-gay circles but which spread to the mainstream media. Eventually, even some members of the gay community, such as GLAAD media director Chas Bono, began to criticize the show's serious new tone as well.[2] Soon after, ABC pulled the show from the air in May 1998 after five seasons.
Note – Between seasons one and two, there was not only a title change from These Friends of Mine to Ellen, but several characters disappeared without explanation.
Ellen Inez Morgan is the main character of the sitcom. In season one, Ellen works in a Los Angeles bookstore called "Buy the Book." In the second season, she purchases the bookstore from her boss and becomes its owner. Throughout season four, hints were made to her sexuality and near the end of season 4 in "The Puppy Episode," Ellen announced she was a lesbian. For the first one and a half seasons, Ellen lived in an apartment with roommate Adam. She lived alone after Adam moved out and then with her cousin Spence. Towards the end of season four, she bought her own house.
Ellen's personality was likeable and cheerful, but also somewhat clumsy and awkward, and with a persistent need to be liked. Her trademark behavior (and the main object of her comedy) was that she would digress in a rambling and babbling fashion, especially when nervous or embarrassed. An example of both her clumsiness and her need to please is found in the episode where she had Martha Stewart over for a dinner party and Ellen became highly stressed trying to organize the perfect dinner.
Appearing in seasons two through five, Paige is Ellen's somewhat neurotic, vain and promiscuous best friend who works for a movie studio. Paige planned to tie the knot with her boyfriend Matt, but dumped him at the altar after beginning an affair with Ellen's cousin Spence. When Ellen comes out of the closet, Paige has the hardest time dealing with it (even harder than Ellen's parents). In the fifth season, Paige finally comes to terms with it.
Appearing only in the first season, including the two delayed episodes that aired during season three, Holly is Ellen's friend. Shy and self-conscious, she tries to avoid any trouble and is desperate to get along with the people around her. She actually would love to be in the center of attention, though she doesn't dare to overcome her shyness.
Appearing in seasons one to three, Adam is Ellen's roommate and they have been friends since college. A photographer, he is completely unsuccessful with women and is frequently dumped. In the middle of the third season, Adam moves to England to work as a photographer for The Sun Times, but upon his departure, he reveals that he was harboring a crush on Ellen.
Appearing in all five seasons, Joe is a dour, sarcastic Canadian who works as the barista at the coffee shop inside Ellen's bookstore. His personal life is rarely explored, and he instead appears usually for comic relief in scenes in Ellen's workplace.
Audrey is Ellen's squeaky-voiced and exceedingly perky neighbor and later co-worker, seen usually in the color pink and whose catchphrase was the enthuasistic greeting "Hi, Ellen!". Ellen has somewhat of a love-hate relationship with Audrey, often annoyed at her overly upbeat demeanour. But after Ellen comes out, Audrey is extremely supportive (and excited, saying that she thinks "it's SUPER!"), and she throws herself into the LGBT culture, ironically with more reverence than Ellen did. In season one, Ellen refers to Audrey's husband, but he never appears and Audrey later dates several people, including Adam and Ron Palillo, who played himself over several episodes. It is revealed that she comes from a very well-off family, though she rejected her inheritance so that she could continue being an assistant at the bookstore.
Ellen's cousin from New York, he joined the cast in the third season. His arrival into Ellen's life coincides with the aftermath of a Los Angeles earthquake. Spence was training as a doctor, but was fired from his job and continued to be negative and hard on himself. He would later train as a lawyer. He and Paige had a love-hate relationship that started as constant fighting but later they became lovers.
One of Ellen's friends who works in a department store. She appears in a total of five episodes throughout the first season, and in two episodes in season three, although the latter episodes were made for the first season.
Ellen's father. He is often somewhat clueless about what is going on around him. At one point, he and Ellen's mother Lois announce that they want to divorce, much to Ellen's dismay. They later reconcile.
Ellen's mother, Lois spends much of her time nosing and interfering in Ellen's life. Before Ellen comes out of the closet, Lois is obsessed with finding Ellen a husband. At one point, she wants to divorce her husband, but they later reoncile.
Ed appeared in season four only as the new manager of Ellen's bookstore. He was a strict business type who frequently butted heads with Ellen over their management styles.
Ellen's girlfriend. Laurie appears in eight episodes in the fifth and final season of Ellen. She and her daughter Holly (Kayla Murphy) become an increasingly important part of Ellen's life.
| Season | Ratings |
| 1) 1994 | #13 |
| 2) 1994–1995 | #33 |
| 3) 1995–1996 | #39 (tie) |
| 4) 1996–1997 | #29 |
| 5) 1997–1998 | #42 |
A&E Home Video has released the entire series on DVD in Region 1.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Region 1 | Region 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Complete Season One | 13 | September 28, 2004 | N/A |
| The Complete Season Two | 24 | February 22, 2005 | N/A |
| The Complete Season Three | 25 | February 28, 2006 | N/A |
| The Complete Season Four | 25 | September 26, 2006 | N/A |
| The Complete Season Five | 22 | November 28, 2006 | N/A |
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