Who payed the critics

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

The Ellen Show was an obscure show which premiered in September 2001, when few people were interested in laughing, and quickly failed. I watched the show for the first time, years after its cancellation, for no other reason than that it was co-created by Mitchell Hurwitz, the brains behind Arrested Development, and partially written by Hurwitz and Chuck Martin, who also wrote for AD. Besides Ellen DeGeneres, the show stars Martin Mull, who appeared on AD. The Ellen Show had some promise with Hurwitz on board, but it never fully realizes its potential and stays an average sitcom with mostly uninteresting characters, sometimes predictable humour, sometimes mediocre acting and no deep meaning. Not to mention an annoying laugh track.The two best episodes are the Pilot, co-written by Hurwitz, and "Joe", the seventh episode which is also written by Hurwitz. These have Hurwitz playing with awkward situations, double meanings, wit, occasional physical humour, and the basic idea of losing a fortune- all of which became bigger on AD. But the rest of The Ellen Show's episodes barely feel Hurwitz's presence, even when he's a credited writer, and Martin's episodes don't achieve much either with such two-dimensional characters.In short, I had hoped I found a gem no one knew about but discovered the show is obscure for a reason, and it probably deserved to go.

I had not laughed as hard at each episode since MASH and CHEERS. After I saw this taken off the air, and previously the US version of Men Behaving Badly, I realized that network upper management was seriously clueless about what the people want, and in some cases, are really only looking at the numbers. It's a precedent in business now that alleviates risk, but has been done so many times that risk is not even considered and everyone is now looking at ratings and in correlation, the final line item. It's a hem-and-haw America now. The Edisons and Graham Bells are gone. I'm in the electronic engineering industry and I see the same thing here. I believe it's why the internet bubble popped and now why it will take us FOREVER to move ahead. Just like this show, we have no vision. And even if we do, we're not willing to take the risk.

If you could manage to catch the Ellen Show on TV it was really funny. Ellen always makes us laugh and Cloris Leachman is still a hoot decades after Mary Tyler Moore.The reason this show failed is because A) the networks never promoted it and B) they could never decide on a day and time to broadcast it.It was so damn annoying to try and figure out what day and time it was on! All my friends and family love Ellen and WANTED to watch this show but someone much more powerful obviously had other ideas. Sometimes it was aired twice a week on different days at different times and then it would disappear for a few weeks and magically reappear for 30 minutes and then just fade away again. If I were Ellen I'd be pretty darn angry about how my talent was treated...I hope this comes out on DVD soon. I know several buyers. I noticed on Ebay that someone in England is selling all 18 eps on video. But I don't want video. Of course, what I really want is to know if her Mom really did have a cat... :)

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!