CHEERS SEASON 1 AND PILOT EPISODE

Season 1 of Cheers relies on more than  what wound up making the show a legendary fan-favorite series... when it first started gaining high ratings and opened up beyond a small handful of critics who hoped it would go beyond the initial season, which by now, everyone has seen, but mostly in reruns... When it first aired, Cheers was the kind of show only few knew about... Having been a fan of Taxi, produced and written by many of the same people, I was tuned in from the very beginning... Going back, I had forgotten that much of what drove this season is Sam and Diane, but not the neurotic (and yes, sometimes annoying) sexual relationship that begins in Season 2...

Rather, Diane seems to be on the sidelines, constantly reminding Sam that he's not so wonderful while she, at the same time, is more flawed than anyone... In a way, this first season is a lot like Laverne & Shirley... You have a confident, sexually-active leader who makes many mistakes while being constantly checked by a nervous counterpart who's afraid to really live, and both need each other to basically survive... Also different in the first season, Norm and Cliff aren't yet Norm and Cliff, or even Cliff and Norm... Like Happy Days took a little while before Potsie and Ralph became a team, Norm's more on his own here while Cliff shows up sporadically, not yet the full-blown equal-share character, and he isn't even billed in the opening credits... And to narrow it down, this pilot is one of the great openings of TV history... Everything is shaped from within the first fifteen minutes, the only difference is that Diane is the newcomer white-rabbit leading us into her accidentally newfound wonderland, soon becoming our own... Being dumped by her fiance, she winds up where we'd be for 11 seasons, six of those without the very person who brought us here...

Sure, Cheers would improve in many ways, when it became an almost equal ensemble instead of a romantic-situation-comedy with the barflies on the side, but, then again, there's nothing like these early Coach episodes (the first two seasons especially, before he got noticeably ill in season 3)... And best yet, there's nothing quite like Season 1, before everybody knew their name. Year: 1982 Rating: ****1/2

THREE MEN AND A LITTLE LADY

years: 1990

cast: Tom Selleck, Nancy Travis,  Steve Guttenberg, Ted Danson

rating: ***

THREE MEN AND A LITTLE LADY has our bachelors are now full fledged fathers living with the woman (the British actress who was impregnated by Danson), and the "little lady": the child from the first film now five years old. The sequel is mostly centered on Selleck's character (who's hairdo looks like a toupee-Frisbee) secretly in love with Nancy Travis, the baby's mom... and all the stuff he and Guttenberg (Danson is out of country but joins them eventually) go through to stop her from marrying the wrong guy in England... a conceited director who's phony and not nice to the little lady. The sequel is almost as good as the original in its own way, although things are reversed: the first film is best during the first half, and the second film is best during the second half (in England). Selleck finally wins Nancy Travis and they marry... a good thing because no child should be raised by three men who paint their images in a penthouse lobby.

MADE IN AMERICA

title: MADE IN AMERICA

year: 1993

cast: Ted Danson, Whoopie Goldberg, Will Smith, Jennifer Tilly

rating: *1/2

A truly bizarre and downright impossible to believe real-life love affair between then married Ted Danson and Whoopie Goldberg was the prelude to this romantic comedy about a young black girl who wants to find her real father, a sperm donor, and it turns out to be white obnoxious car salesman Ted Danson. Whoopie, as the girl's mother, spends half the film enraged that she was given a white man's sperm.The actors, including Will "I haven't become a big star yet but give me time" Smith, try WAY TOO HARD to make every moment hilarious, memorable and endearing. This is a convoluted mess that can be entertaining if you don't expect anything but mediocrity, or less.

LOCH NESS

year: 1996

cast: Ted Danson

rating: **1/2

A scientist who spent many failed years trying to find Bigfoot (thus ruining his career like "McGee" in "The Incredible Hulk") is sent to Loch Ness, Scotland to find "Nessie", aka The Loch Ness Monster. But he's really there to PROVE the monster DOESN'T exist so he can put all monster-chasing behind him forever. Tension builds decently during the "hunt" - boat on lake trolling for the "beastie", much to the chagrin of Ian Holm, who is basically the Sheriff - and in the "Jaws" fashion the monster is IMPLIED, not shown. The characters within the little town are very likeable and the chemistry between wary American Danson, tough yet pretty Joely Richardson (as a pub owner) and her cute daughter is sweet without being corny. Then when Danson finally SEES what he's been after (following the little girl into a cavern) it's a let-down because the TWO "beasties" (that's right, two "Nessies") are CGI just like ANY "Jurrassic Park" dino, which we've seen a hundred times already. Gone is the "awwww" factor as we now enter into the last strech of the film, which is a big letdown. But for the most part this is a decent ride.

A FINE MESS

year: 1986

cast: Ted Danson, Howie Mandel, Paul Sorvino

director: Blake Edwards

rating: **

For a bad movie this wasn't THAT awful. A lot of running around and hijinks and pratfalls and all things Blake Edwards. Ted Danson and Howie Mandel make an odd team - sometimes it's not apparent which one is the straight man in the pair. It would seem Mandel would play the goofy sidekick but he's about as smooth with the ladies as Danson, only Danson gets more of them. Ted's basically playing "Sam Malone" on speed. The plot involves... oh who cares about the plot - it's just a screwball comedy sendup of the Laurel and Hardy films and overall is a fairly decent time waster.