I Married Dora

This was an otherwise forgettable exercise in inter-ethnic comedy. Just like in "The Nanny", the WASP is the well-off, supposedly in command male, which made mainstream America comfortable as the maid/nanny shows that her colorful Salvadorian/Jewish relatives are actually nicer than some of his grasping relatives or associates; before he gets around to noticing that the 'ethnic' hired help is hot stuff. (It helps, in this case, that they already have a paper marriage.)

Two things are worth mentioning about it, however; first, it was the introduction of Elizabeth Pena, she with the facially large nose, slightly closed eyes, and superbly sexy voice -- sort of a throaty drawl with a very slight Cuban undertone. Catch her in "Lone Star" or "Tortilla Soup" if you want to see her at her best. The second, as I recall, was the way the show acknowledged its poor ratings. At one point Dora made a virtual pistol shot at a TV Nintendo game, and stated that she wished she could zap "Beauty and the Beast" in the same manner. And at the end the someone in the cast announced that the series had been canned - and came out for a bow in front of the studio audience. A nice touch, when most canceled sitcoms just disappear into the ether without a by-your-leave.

"I Married Dora" was notable in many ways. The delightful Elizabeth Peña interacting with "Mester Peter" not only as the housekeeper but also dreaming of truly being Mr. Peters wife. And functioning as a true wife in many ways.

But daughter Kate was unforgettable with a mastery of sarcasm. From such a cute little girl with a amazing resemblance to future super star actress Juliette Lewis.

Most unforgettable episode was where Dora takes the kids to a Latino club. When Mr. Peter finds out where the kids are he has a wild fantasy of the evils of such a club. An absolutely hilarious episode making great use stereotypes!

This is a truly, truly worthless piece of junk starring daniel hugh kelly as a man who has to marry an illegal alien to keep her from being deported and all mayhem, this silly idiotic plot has no laughs, only a chuckle or two and the only reason this piece of trash is lower on my list of the very worst tv shows of all time is the finale itself, the finale is far more hilarious then ths piece of trashy junk, it's hard to believe that reeves entertainment the successor to the alan landsberg productions is the same company that did great stuff like bill, adam, gimme a break and kate and allie, reduced to garbage filth like this saddens me and the audience and daniel hugh kelly who was great in hardcastle and mccormick is wasted here, luckily brian keith was smart not to appear in this shlock, this is a real failure and a big disappointment for those involved and what are two days of our lives stars (peggy mcckay and allison sweeney) doing in this mess saddens me?

This is junk.

I still have a Betamax recording of "I Married Dora" from the night that Baby Jessica was rescued from that well. Right in the middle of the show they broke away to the rescue and I never did see the rest of that particular episode. Now while I can't recall chapter and verse of the series, I do remember that I did like the show enough to tune in every week. I liked it. Just a nice, quiet little show. If it were to show up on TV Land somehow, which I highly doubt, I'd gladly watch it again. And maybe this time I'll make it through that episode without Baby Jessica getting in on the act! I'll have to look through my collection, but I just might have the final episode as well. Not really the most ground breaking way for a show to end its run, but unique in its own way.

At a time when the Iran-Contra affair and atrocities coming from the Salvadoran civil war were constant news came this comedy about a beloved maid who happened to be an illegal alien. Elizabeth Peña capitalized on the popularity of her previous character from "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" and "Dora" emerged as a wise, emotional, funny and HOT addition to the airwaves. The filming and overall pace was derivative of many commercials at the time (silent fade-to-black narration of the scene). Yet the humor was actually very funny for its time; laughing at topical events, white vs Latin culture, cut-throat 80's business and family dynamics in general. This is definitely an underrated and extremely short-lived series which deserves a lot more attention. Sadly, it could never be made in the current climate, so it's a time-capsule in itself.