The Art of Being Nick

Nick Moore (Scott Valentine) moves in with his sister Marlene (Kristine Sutherland) and her son in the East Village in NYC. She tries to get him a job at a local bookstore run by snooty Rachel (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).

I don't remember seeing this back in 1987. This comes a year before the start of the last season of Family Ties. As a spinoff from that show, this really needs Mallory. It doesn't make sense to have Nick without Mallory. I do understand the fear of splitting up the family but the obvious move is for Mallory to go off to NYC to follow her fashion dreams. In many ways, it should be her show with him tagging along if it's made a year later. As it stands, this is an one-time pilot for a show that never had a chance. They did luck into a couple of great actresses. At the time, Julia Louis-Dreyfus was still a struggling actress 3 years away from Seinfeld. She's great as the sarcastic mean side character. This show has a few funny moments with her looking down at Nick and it has heart with Nick and his nephew. Nick is always great with kids.

Nick (Scott Valentine) was a recurring character on "Family Ties". On that show, he was a rather one dimensional character who was dopey, looked a bit frumpy and said 'hey' a lot. How they thought they could flesh him out enough to make a TV series, I have no idea...there just wasn't much to Nick.

The show begins with Nick saying 'hey, hey'...no big surprise. Then you learn that Nick has moved in with his older sister and her young son. He needs a job and is soon hired to work at a bookstore by a very frisky lady (Julie Louis-Dreyfus) whose interest in him is purely physical. But this isn't where the show goes. Soon the sister announces she's going to get married...and soon her son begins acting out. Amazingly, it didn't occur to anyone but Nick that the child was worried about mom marrying and forgetting about him. Nick manages to gently set everything straight.

This wasn't a bad show. While Nick sure seemed one dimensional most of the show, he showed more depth and the overall program wasn't bad. Not a great show...but pleasant family stuff.



If you do watch, be forewarned that the sound quality sure isn't very good. Perhaps you can find a better copy somewhere.