Home Free

This short lived sitcom from 1993 was about a newly divorced woman in her mid 30s (Dana Canova) with 2 kids (the Mcphees) who moved back in with her mother (Mercer) and younger brother (Perry). The idea of the sitcom was basically about how the family got on under these new circumstances but it quickly became apparent that the star was Matthew Perry and most of the storylines revolved around his character. This was a really funny programme and didn't deserve to be cancelled so quickly, especially considering the drivel around nowadays :). The writing was sharp and the acting was always consistantly funny and real - even the dramatic parts were fantastic. It's easy to see why Matthew Perry became so famous eventually - his performance in this sitcom was a sort of "Chandler with Confidence" and he stood out from the rest of the cast in terms of comedic ability, timing and everything we associate with him through Friends and his movies - but he was occasionally also allowed to flex his dramatic muscles, again at which he is superb. He was also given excellent support in the guise of Mercer and Dan Schneider who played his best friend and work collegue Walter Peters. All in all, 10/10 :)

Someone in power should take 4 or 5 of these great "one season" sit-coms and put all 4 or 5 of them into syndication to fill up one slot !! These great short lived sit-coms are not even considered by any network as "sellable". They say that they won't buy less than 100 episodes (5 years of production) for syndication. BULL-HOCKEY !! They need to think of the consumer...Not their bank account. They could buy 5, 1-season sit-coms for very cheap (because no network is bold enough to give these sit-coms back to us in this format). "Free Spirit" was another good one (with Corine Borer & Allison Hanigan (?))...I'm lucky, I have them on VHS!! "Phenom" with William Devane, Ashley Johnson.... "Out Of This World" with Maureen Flanigan, Emmily Schullman.....THERE!!! That should be enough to get the 'big-wigs' going !!

I saw this show when I got it on Video from a friend and I have to say I got easily hooked. Its such a great show!! and I would recommend it to a friend :). My favorite part was a scene between Matt Bailey (played by the ever wonderful Matthew Perry - and wasn't he fantastic in the Friends Finale??) and Walter Peters (Dan Schneider) talking about Walter's relationship with his dad. It was so moving and I just wish Matthew could be allowed to do more dramatic stuff cos he's really good!! yeah as you can guess, I'm a huge fan :). But it really is great - I'm trying to make Universal bring it back - do you think its too late?? lol.