Let's be realistic.

Good movie but grossly overrated

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Everyone should've gave this show a chance. I think if the networks kept it on for another season it might've took off. When 'Ellen' ended it was because in her last season she focused far too much about her opinions and of being a lesbian than anything else. Now there's hardly a mention, people probably wanted a tiny bit more of it, after all 4 years (from the time 'Ellen was cancelled) means things have changed, Will and Grace is out and everyone wants more of that humour. The networks probably cancelled it because the show was trying to become a Mary Tyler Moore reunion show, it was ok Mary playing her aunt, and Cloris her mum, but Betty White and Ed Asner, I think the show would've went right through Mary Tyler Moores cast list. But still, this show was very funny with a good cast, the next time ellen gets a show, keep it!

...Although from seeing some of the posts here, those unfamiliar with it might end up thinking otherwise. After reading the other comments, I felt compelled to add one of my own. Apparently there is a heterosexist double-standard going on here. When a hetero actor portrays consecutive roles in which hetero dating or intimate relations are involved, (which is most of the time,) whether in movies or on TV, people don't roll their eyes and say "oh brother, they're playing a straight person again." And the comparison between Ellen's character also being gay in this show (after all, she's gay in real life) and Bill Cosby playing another character who is the "upper middle class father of two or three kids" is a specious one. Now if Bill Cosby had another show where his new character was heterosexual (which he is in real life), people..... wouldn't bat an eyelash! Every time something gay related is involved, some people seem to take it as though Ellen is throwing her big gay ways in their faces. She mentions an ex girlfriend. "Oh, please spare us!" She has female/(lesbian!)-oriented posters in her bedroom--and an abstract painting which, one reviewer speculates, "appears" to be a vagina. That's the funny thing about abstract paintings. They "appear" to be different things to different individuals.Apparently, because Ellen's character is gay, then in some people's minds the show must have a "cause," that because her character is gay, she must be trying to cram lesbianism down Americans' throats. Like an abstract painting, I think that attitude reveals more about the individual who holds it than it does about the subject. The "argument" in favor of this show is that it's funny. But the argument against it shouldn't be that her character is gay.Aside from the gay issue, I think the quality of the show is improving. The writing seems to be getting better. As for the comment about the laugh track, I hadn't found it distracting, myself. For the record, though, the show is filmed before a live studio audience.

I have watched the show and think is is quite funny. Who cares if she is gay in it. Will and Grace seems to get a lot of laughs on that premise. In fact it is one of the things the show is based on. No one seems to complain about the fact that the men in it are gay, and talk about it a lot! It's one of the best showns on tv. Now back to Ellen. I like it, I hope it finds an audience.

Yep, Ellen is gay again in this mediocre sitcom which is not a continuation of "Ellen", but in fact a brand new show centering around her return to her home-town to settle down after her dot.com company folds. Ellen moves back in with her mother and her sister, who keeps dating pathetic losers.Cloris Leachman plays her mother, quite a step down from her usual array of whacko characters including Phyllis from the long-running Mary Tyler Moore show. Martin Mull also makes an appearance as the principal of the high school that Ellen used to attend.While Ellen promises to tone down the 'gay' issue in this new series, the premiere episode would have you think otherwise. She mentions to her mother that she has broken up with her girlfriend. She comes out to the faculty of the high school and even has a brief encounter with the lesbian gym teacher (ha-ha). Her bedroom sports posters of Billie Jean King, Charlie's Angels and an abstract painting of what appears to be a vagina. But it certainly isn't half as busy as the last season of "Ellen" was.Like most comedians, Ellen can be funny sometimes. Other times, her jokes hit the wall and slide down it like a rotten egg. The premiere episode was sorta funny, but I only watched it because it was on after the hilarious EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND.CBS is making a dangerous move in transferring THE ELLEN SHOW show to a Friday slot where it is sure to lose more than half of its audience. All in all, this isn't such a bad show, but then again, I certainly won't be pushing aside plans to stay home on Friday nights to watch this either.