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Ellen (originally titled These Friends of Mine for the first season) was a U.S. television sitcom which ran on the ABC network from March of 1994 to July of 1998. The theme song is by Scottish band Texas and is called "So called friend".
| Ellen | |
|---|---|
| File:Ellen3dvd.jpg Ellen season 3 DVD cover | |
| Starring | Ellen DeGeneres Joely Fisher Jeremy Piven David Anthony Higgins Clea Lewis Arye Gross Holly Fulger Maggie Wheeler |
| Opening theme | So Called Friend |
| Country of origin | USA |
| No. of episodes | 109 |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | Approximately 22 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | March 1994 – July 1998 |
The title role of Ellen Morgan, played by stand-up comedian Ellen DeGeneres, was a neurotic bookstore owner in her thirties. The series centered around Ellen dealing with her quirky friends, her family and the problems of daily life.
In 1997, Ellen made television history when Ellen the character came out as a lesbian in the famous "Puppy Episode." (DeGeneres herself had come out earlier that year on The Oprah Winfrey Show and in TIME.) To ensure a memorable moment, the coming out scene was made into a gag where, at an airport, Ellen turns and tells Laura Dern "I'm gay!" - only to realize that she had turned right into the intercom microphone, announcing her sexuality to the entire terminal.
The revelation ignited a storm of controversy, prompting ABC to place a parental advisory at the beginning of each episode, although the show was never salacious in nature.
Ellen was successful enough in its early seasons to warrant annual renewal, due largely to DeGeneres' perceived appeal and comic ability, but it was never a huge critical or ratings success. Only with Ellen's coming out did the show make its way into the wide public conciousness and hit a critical plateau. However after the initial coming out frenzy the show's ratings declined somewhat and ABC began feeling the pain of an organized backlash from religious conservative groups regarding the "gay content" being exhibited. While the final episodes of "Ellen" continued breaking new ground and winning awards, they were also widely criticized for focusing primarily on gay issues -- a criticism begun in anti-gay circles but which spread very quickly to the mainstream media. The brass at ABC found the justification they needed to finally pull the show from the air in May of 1998 after five seasons.
Starting October 4, 2003, during DeGeneres's surge in popularity through her role in Finding Nemo and her new daytime talk show, Lifetime began airing reruns 1:00-2:00 on Sunday mornings, starting with the second season. Before long, it went into the 1:30-2:00 time slot Monday-Friday. The reruns stopped two episodes into the controversial final season. Oxygen then picked up the entire series to air starting October 4, 2004, daily at midnight and noon. As of February 2, 2006, the show continues to air 9:00-10:00 Tuesday-Thursday mornings. Reruns of the show in the UK are currently on ABC1. These are shown everyday, throughout the day, along with other Touchstone Pictures productions.
Episodes
Characters
Note - The first episode of the show featured several characters that disappeared without explanation.
Ellen Morgan (Ellen DeGeneres)
Ellen Morgan is the main character of the sitcom. In season one, Ellen works in a bookstore called "Buy the Book". In the second season, she purchases the bookstore from her boss and becomes its owner. Throughout season four, hints were made to her sexuality. Near the end of the season in "The Puppy Episodes" Ellen announced she was a lesbian.
Paige Clark (Joely Fisher)
Appearing only in seasons two through five, Paige is Ellen's somewhat neurotic and promiscuous lifelong best friend. She works in the film industry. Paige planned to tie the knot with her boyfriend Matt, however decided not to, in favour of Spence. When Ellen comes out of the closet, Paige has the hardest time dealing with it, even harder than Ellen's parents. In the fifth season, Paige finally comes to terms with it.
Holly (Holly Fulger)
Appearing only in the first eleven episodes and in two in season five, Holly is Ellen's friend. She's somewhat bashful.
Adam Green (Arye Gross)
Adam is Ellen's roommate and later neighbor. He and Ellen were roommates in college and are best friends. Adam is a constantly between jobs photographer. In season three Adam moves to England to work as a photographer for The Sun Times. He appears in episodes one through 40 and two in season five.
Joe Farrell (David Anthony Higgins)
Joe is a Canadian hired in season one to run the coffee counter in the bookstore. He's somewhat sarcastic and mischievous. Joe appears in several episodes in season one and then as a main character from season two onwards.
Audrey Penney (Clea Lewis)
Audrey is Ellen's annoying friend with whom she has a love-hate relationship. Initially, Audrey was known for being negative about everything in an irritatingly nice and positive way. In the latter seasons of the show, she was portrayed as excessively perky and positive, much to Ellen's annoyance. She comes from a well-off family, though she rejected her inheritance so that she could continue being an assistant at Buy The Book. In season one, Ellen refers to Audrey's husband, but he never appears and Audrey later dates several people, including Adam.
Spence Kovak (Jeremy Piven)
Ellen's cousin. He appears from 1995 to 1998. His arrival into Ellen's life coincides with the aftermath of a Los Angeles earthquake. Spence was training as a Doctor, but was sacked from his job. During the series he trains as a lawyer. He and Paige fall in love, even though it borders on a love/hate relationship.
Anita (Maggie Wheeler)
One of Ellen's friends who works in a department store. She appears in season one and then disappears without explanation.
Harold Morgan (Steven Gilborn)
Ellen's father. He is often somewhat clueless about what is going on around him. In the latest seasons, he and his relationship with Lois changes. They were to divorce, but they kept putting it off, until Ellen made them. Harold and Lois then fell back in love and didn't divorce at all.
Lois Morgan (Alice Hirson)
Ellen's mother. She and Ellen have a relationship similar to that of Ellen and Audrey. Ellen goes out of her way to avoid her mother but tries to avoid hurting her feelings at the same time.
DVD releases
On June 14 2006, TVShowsOnDVD.com [1] announced that A&E would be releasing Ellen Season 4 on Region 1 DVD on August 29 2006. Then announced a delay for the DVD, to be release on September 26 2006.
The week before that planned release they announced the release date for the fifth and final season as November 28, 2006.[2]
| DVD Name | Ep # | Region 1 | Region 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Complete First Season | 13 | September 28 2004 | N/A |
| The Complete Second Season | 24 | February 22 2005 | N/A |
| The Complete Third Season | 25 | February 28 2006 | N/A |
| The Complete Fourth Season | 25 | September 26 2006 | N/A |
| The Complete Fifth Season | 22 | November 28 2006 | N/A |