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American Morning

Julia Louise-Dreyfus' New Sitcom Premiers Tonight

Aired February 26, 2002 - 07:40   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: She is back in prime time, and do not call her Elaine. Julia Louise-Dreyfus' new sitcom "Watching Ellie" premiers tonight on NBC. The critics will be watching Julia to see if she can succeed where her fellow "Seinfeld" alumni, Michael Richards and Jason Alexander, have failed.

Joining us now, "Entertainment Weekly" critic Ken Tucker. Thanks a lot for being with us this morning.

KEN TUCKER, "ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY": Thank you.

COOPER: Is this show going to work?

TUCKER: I think it can. I mean, I think it works artistically. I mean -- you know, it almost couldn't help but be better than the other two shows that Michael Richards and Jason Alexander did. I think this is pretty clever. It's -- the gimmick is that it's 22 minutes in the life of this character Ellie Riggs (ph), that Julia Louise-Dreyfus plays. And so you just see exactly 22 minutes out of her life like the first...

COOPER: So it's all real time?

TUCKER: It's all real time. It's kind of like, you know, that Keifer Sutherland show, "24," this is the sitcom version of that.

COOPER: And there's actually a digital clock on the side of the screen.

TUCKER: Yeah, in the lower left corner of the screen ticking off the minutes. So if you get bored you say, "Well, at least I've only got 15 more minutes of this to watch.

COOPER: And is someone likely to get bored during this?

TUCKER: I don't think so, because it's really well done. I mean it's kind of like action-packed. You'd think it would be kind of tedious, but actually it build suspense to see that time ticking down. And in the pilot, for example, she has to get to her nightclub to sing her act and her toilet overflows. It's a typical sitcom kind of situation, but it adds a kind of suspense of whether she's going to get across the street to this nightclub in time to do this.

COOPER: It has had very mixed reviews, though. I mean... TUCKER: It has.

COOPER: ... the "New York Post" called it painful to watch, I think.

TUCKER: Yeah. I mean, I think if you -- it's -- you know, it's that old comedian's line: If you buy the premise, you buy the joke. If you understand the premise and you like the idea of watching her in these 22 minutes, I think you're going to like this kind of character. I think she distinguishes between the old character she had on "Seinfeld" in that this character Ellie is a little bit smarter, a little bit more jaded. She's had bad luck with men but isn't kind of wacky about it the way Elaine was.

COOPER: But is there -- is there some of the old Elaine there?

TUCKER: There's -- I think there's a kind of charm that Julia Louise-Dreyfus kind of inherently brings to the show. I mean, she -- for one thing, she plays a nightclub singer. She has a very good voice, and you hear her sing, which is kind of pleasant.

COOPER: That's how each show ends, with her singing, right?

TUCKER: Yeah, most of them do. And I think that there is that kind of Elaine sort of slight wacky around the edges charm.

COOPER: But it's not -- it's not a straightforward sitcom. I mean it's not a laugh -- one-line laugh -- you know, the traditional formula.

TUCKER: Exactly. I think what -- in a way, what it's trying to do is bring that kind of "Sex in the City," HBO sensibility to network television without, you know, having -- it can't quite cross those boundaries that HBO can, but it can bring a kind of more adult sensibility to it.

COOPER: But all the other -- I mean all the networks passed on this, including HBO. NBC was the only one that really went for it. Was that because the demands that Ms. Dreyfus and her husband were making were so outrageous?

TUCKER: Yeah. I mean, she's doing the show with Brad Hall, who's her husband, who's worked on other shows in the past.

COOPER: Right. And he doesn't have a great track record.

TUCKER: Right. And -- but -- and they only wanted to do 15 shows. They had very...

COOPER: Usually they're 22.

TUCKER: Right. And so there were all these kinds of demands they were making. But I think that Jeff Zucker at NBC thought, you know, the third times the charm. This is somebody we have a relationship with at the network at NBC; this is where "Seinfeld" was. We can -- we can make this work. COOPER: NBC is paying a lot of money for this. I think it's like $1.5 million per episode. Usually a sitcom like this is $900,000.

TUCKER: And it looks it. I mean it has this kind of very smooth glow to it. It's usually set at night because it's a nightclub. It's got this kind of warm glow to it. I think it's very inviting in the fact that it leads into "Frasier." I think it has a good chance of succeeding in that sense.

COOPER: You would think just from the outside that they would put this on Thursday night. You know, must see TV, Thursday night's the big night. But not, it's Tuesday night. Is that because they wanted less pressure on the show?

TUCKER: I think they wanted less pressure. I think that time period after "Friends" has become such a jinxed period. You know, between 8:30 and 9:00 it's -- all those shows have just come and gone, including Brad Hall's -- her husband's previous show -- "Single Guy,"...

COOPER: "Single Guy."

TUCKER: ... which just didn't last very long.

COOPER: And Tuesday night has done very well for "Scrubs," the other NBC show.

TUCKER: Exactly. So it's a good place to launch a show. And I think people who like "Frasier" might be willing to tune in a little bit ahead of time and watch, you know, her for 22 minutes.

COOPER: All right. You've seen tonight's episode?

TUCKER: I've seen tonight's and another -- and next week's episode. I think they're...

COOPER: So it's worth seeing?

TUCKER: I think it's funny.

COOPER: All right. Ken Tucker, "Entertainment Weekly," thanks very much.

TUCKER: Thank you.

COOPER: All right -- Paula.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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