The Good Life

My buddy and I were at Universal Studios in CA and were recruited to go be in the audience of a TV show. They told us the title of the show was "The Bowmans." They put us in a bus and took us to the studio and then dropped us off back at the park about 3 hours later. It was pretty cool.

What I remember most is Drew Carey. I knew who he was from his stand-up. The warm-up comedian was really stupid and no one was laughing. He had his girlfriend there and seemed to be trying to impress her. So after a bit, Drew Carey took over doing the comedy between takes and was hilarious!! I thought it was a shame the show got canceled.

This show, while only on for a few months with 13 episodes, was one of the funniest sitcoms that I can remember. I was surprised when it was taken off the air. If anyone has any information on how I may be able to get a hold of tapes of this show, please email me (note: those "00" are zeros)

Absolutely hilarious sitcom! It had a fresh, distinctive comic tone, unlike anything else on the air before or since. The acting was great, the writing was crisp, and the situations and characters were unique. And above all, it wasn't just another sex-sex-sex sitcom, like every OTHER show on TV. So naturally, it was misinterpreted by critics, ignored by audiences, and only lasted a few months.

Caponera and Carey had a fantastic chemistry. If the show had lasted, we'd be talking about them as one of TV's great teams. Eve Gordon was hot(and funny) as Caponera's wife. The whole cast was good. They had a fantastic rapport.

"The Good Life" ran two or three months, tops. It's just another example of NBC squandering a good show while they keep garbage on the air for years. "The Good Life" and a wonderful Al Franken sitcom called "Lateline" got the shaft while junk like "Suddenly Susan" ran for years. What a way to run a railroad!

One fast anecdote: in one episode, Monty Hoffman's character Tommy is playing ping-pong when the boss walks through the office. Instead of scrambling to get back to work, Tommy just shrugs and says "Good thing I'm union!" I still use that line.

Where can we get this gem on tape? I'd buy every episode offered without hesitation.

We absolutely loved this show when it was aired and we were highly disappointed when the show was canceled. It was canceled right before it hit it's prime. I don't think the networks know what they are doing when they cancel shows such as this, even today. You just get used to something and wham! It's gone. The networks need to keep listening to the viewers as we the viewers ultimately make the choices, I believe. It is the viewers who keep the ratings. The Good Life was one of the most hilarious shows around, I never saw my husband laugh so hard in his life. I hope this comes out on DVD/VHS soon as we'd buy without hesitation.

Thanks.

This truly was a worthy (and, most important, funny) series that was cut down before it ever reached its prime. In hindsight, it had sort of the feel of "The Drew Carey Show" (duh, Drew Carey was in it) meets "Everybody Loves Raymond."

Funny, engaging, a tiny bit risqué in one episode, but mostly just good, clean family fun. A real winner that somehow lost. And now we've made the prime-time transition from warm, witty sitcoms to "reality" television that has nothing at all to do with reality -- unless you've ever been shipwrecked and had to live 30 days on an island populated in part by cameramen and TV hosts.

"The Good Life" deserved better, and we as television viewers deserved and continue to deserve better.