Veronica’s Closet, The Single Guy, And Other Sitcoms That Time Forgot

Unless you’re a comedy nerd or the sort of person who spends hours poring over pop culture blogs each week, you probably haven’t given much thought to US network NBC’s Thursday night lineup. However, this programming block, otherwise known as ‘Must See TV’, has produced a huge number of comedy hits over the past three decades. Its ranks include commercial successes like Seinfeld, Friends, Cheers, Frasier, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Will & Grace and The Office, as well as critically-adored shows like Parks And Recreation, 30 Rock and Community.

At the beginning of the current TV season, however, things aren’t looking very good for NBC. Of the network’s three new Thursday night comedies — Welcome To The Family, The Michael J. Fox Show and Sean Saves The World — one has already been cancelled, while the other two are struggling in the ratings. As if things couldn’t get any worse, the announcement came earlier this week that the beloved Parks & Recreation, NBC‘s only carry-over from last season, has been placed on hiatus until November.

It’s worth remembering, though, that NBC’s Thursday night lineup has produced its share of flops over the years. For every Friends and Seinfeld, there’s a Madman Of The People, a comedy series that failed to find an audience and vanished into the ether about as quickly as it arrived. As we wait for word on the future of Leslie Knope and the rest of the Parks And Rec gang, we thought we’d take a look back at some of the forgotten shows of NBC’s ‘Must See TV’.

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Veronica’s Closet (1997-2000)

I don’t mean to disparage Veronica’s Closet by including it in this list — it ran for a respectable three seasons, and still has its fans — but you seldom hear it mentioned in the same breath as the classic comedies of the ‘90s. The show starred Kirstie Alley in her signature role as a neurotic career woman trying to have it all — in this case, running a Victoria’s Secret-like lingerie empire. The show was built around sitcom clichés, but featured a strong central performance from its very capable and funny star.

The first two seasons of Veronica’s Closet were big hits, but after various characters were killed off and written out without explanation, ratings slowed down in the third and it was cancelled along with Brooke Shields’ comedy Suddenly Susan in 2000.

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The Single Guy (1995-1997)

After the smashing success of Friends, NBC handed out quirky New York-based sitcoms like party favours; even the guy from Weekend At Bernie’s managed to get one. In The Single Guy, Jonathan Silverman played a struggling New York writer who hung out at a quirky bagel place with his quirky friends. Veteran actor Ernest Borgnine played a doorman in the show, and David Schwimmer even made a cameo as his Friends character Ross Geller, but that wasn’t enough to save The Single Guy from cancellation after just two seasons.

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Madman Of The People (1994-1995)

If having really huge ‘90s hair and mugging for the camera was all it took for sitcom success, then chances are Madman Of The People would still be on the air today. The series starred ol’ timer Dabney Coleman as a curmudgeonly magazine columnist struggling to fit in with the politically correct Clinton era. The show ran before the fledgling drama ER, and NBC, worried that it would drag the subsequent show’s ratings down, dropped the hammer after just 16 episodes.

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Stark Raving Mad (1999-2000)

Stark Raving Mad concerned the antics of an eccentric horror novelist and his reluctant editor. It lasted just one season, and is only memorable today thanks to the people involved. The show starred a pre-Monk Tony Shalhoub and a post-Doogie Howser/pre-How I Met Your Mother Neil Patrick Harris, which is a weird combination of actors if ever there was one. Creator Steven Levitan would also go on to score a hit with Modern Family.

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Inside Schwartz (2001-2002)

Inside Schwartz starred Breckin Meyer of Clueless fame, and told the story of a newly-single man who lived out his dating life as a series of sports-related fantasies in which various pro-athletes and referees appeared to offer their opinions and commentary. It’s difficult to find online clips or even any commentary on the show at all, besides this hilariously bitchy ESPN editorial. In spite of its inventive concept, Inside Schwartz failed to catch on and was cancelled partway through its first season.

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Good Morning, Miami (2002-2004)

Good Morning, Miami is not very fondly remembered. Not even the show’s own Wikipedia article has anything nice to say about it, noting that though it was “unsuccessful and unacclaimed”, it somehow managed to last an entire season in NBC’s Thursday lineup. It starred Mark Feuerstein — otherwise known as the guy that Miranda faked her orgasm with in Sex & The City — as the producer of a low-rated morning talk show, and featured a theme song by the Goo Goo Dolls.

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Joey (2004-2006)

Poor, handsome Matt Le Blanc. Friends finished its landmark run in 2004, but NBC, feeling that they hadn’t quite milked their cash cow dry, sent breakout character Joey Tribbiani to Los Angeles to try and make it as an actor. I’ve seen Joey in full, and it’s not as mind-warpingly horrible as everyone says. Still, it was never going to be as successful as Friends, and these days its name is shorthand for terrible sitcom spin-offs. Drea de Matteo must’ve been pissed that she left The Sopranos and wound up here.

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Kath & Kim (2008-2009)

There are bad ideas, and then there’s the US remake of Kath & Kim. The attempt to translate the distinctively Australian show to an American setting resulted in a display that was garish, tone-deaf, and frequently painful to watch. How a series as terrible as the American Kath & Kim attracted a cast as talented as Molly Shannon, Selma Blair and John Michael Higgins is a mystery for the ages, but not even they could save it. Thankfully, it was put out of its misery after nine episodes.

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Perfect Couples (2010-2011)

NBC Thursdays were already experiencing a ratings downturn by the time Perfect Couples arrived in 2010. It was a romantic comedy series that followed the Friends template of three guys and three girls: in this case, three couples at different stages of their relationships, who — spoiler alert — were not as perfect as the title suggested. Perfect Couples starred Olivia Munn and Mary Elizabeth Ellis, who at least has her place in comedy history secure thanks to her role as The Waitress on It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

When Perfect Couples was cancelled after 11 episodes, it was replaced in its time slot by The Paul Reiser Show, another ratings disaster that was yanked after only two.

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Up All Night (2011-2012)

This short-lived show about a couple dealing with the demands of work and parenthood had a lot of potential and an incredible cast in Will Arnett, Christina Applegate and Maya Rudolph, but never managed to find its feet. It was re-tooled several times, and in a last desperate bid to save it, NBC even considered switching the show from a single-camera format to a multi-camera sitcom taped in front of a studio audience. However, when Applegate announced that she was leaving, they pulled the plug on the whole thing.

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Alasdair Duncan is an author, freelance writer and video game-lover who has had work published in Crikey, The Drum, The Brag, Beat, Rip It Up, The Music Network, Rave Magazine, AXN Cult and Star Observer.