Pepper Dennis

Network: WB; Genre: Comedy, Guilty Pleasure; Content Rating: TV-PG (for some sexual content); Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);

Seasons Reviewed: Complete Series (1 season)

In "Pepper Dennis" one of the most beautiful women in the world shows that she needs to be doing more comedy. Rebecca Romijn (now free from the shackles of the Stamos) plays the title character, an ambitious news reporter for a local Chicago affiliate who lives somewhere between our contemporary world and "His Girl Friday".

"Pepper" takes a shallow and rather simplistic approach to local news as a subject of ridicule. It is a target just dripping with sweet nectar just begging to be bitten into and show after show has gone a softer direction. You won't find anything more biting here than wooden anchors with white teeth and weaselly news directors that implement wacky stunts to get the ratings up. The show's treatment of journalism as a noble endeavor in which Pepper crusades to uncover the truth and bring it to the public is from a time long past.

I didn't like "Pepper" at first, but it grew on me. There is a delightful old fashioned screwball whimsy to the show that we just don't have enough of on TV today. So for that, I'm going to forgive it for some truly lame and predictable slapstick. This is a guilty pleasure with enough cutely funny moments to make it work and a willingness to go deeper into the gags than I'd expect from a fluffy WB show. It isn't unusual to do bit where an anchor is causing a viewer to have seizures, but not very many series will go as far as to show us the seizure and play it for laughs. Whoa, I like it.

The stories pull themselves along with one improbable leap in logic after another in a fantastic contortion to get where it wants to go. But thanks to some fast and witty dialog, the show pulls it out. Witness the "ACoRNs" episode in which local news awards become a red-carpet spectacle so we can have Pepper rent out designer earrings, save the day with an impromptu crisis news stand-up and reconcile with her neglecting father. There is a gag involving an automatic flush toilet I've just been waiting for someone to go for.

Dropped like an anvil in the middle of this old-fashioned screwball romantic comedy are snappy real-world one liners (Pepper gets a "Today Show" style wedding). The shows light jabs at contemporary media figures are much appreciated, but awkwardly fit. "Pepper" wants to have its cake and eat it too.

At the center of this silliness is the 6-foot Romijn who melds with the cartoonish beats of the show and throws herself headlong into Pepper like a comic natural and forces everyone else to keep up. That includes Brooke Burns as her virginal, recently divorced sister, Lindsey Price (the US "Coupling") as her experienced best friend/make-up artist and Rider Strong who has apparently given up on breaking away from his "Boy Meets World" persona and settles in the thankless role of Pepper's unrequited love.

The show gets better as it goes, like many, but it still never fully gels together. If "Pepper" could have developed all of the relationships just a little bit more, and it wasn't canceled, it could have been something great. What is a screwball comedy without a romance, and "Pepper" delivers us a couple right off the bat with Pepper and Charlie Babcock (Josh Hopkins), the new anchor who took the job Pepper felt was rightfully hers. While we don't necessarily root for them (the unrequited love from Chip could have been a compelling story, but the show's heart isn't in that), everybody tries to give us the feeling that there is sharp banter going back and forth - even if Romijn and Hopkins don't have the greatest chemistry. The show also sets up Pepper as an independent single women, but only so we can root for her to find romance, mellow out and join the flock.

"Pepper" could easily be self-indulgent - easily. So easily that it deserves real credit for not going that direction. By God, you wouldn't know it to hear about it, but Romijn sells this wackiness. "Pepper Dennis" tries to do a lot that is admirable, and the show is an entertaining guilty pleasure even if none of the parts really quite come together, and its grasp on journalism as a target is flimsy at best. What it suffers from are typical first season kinks that would have easily been ironed out and made the show recommendable.

* * ½ / 4

PEPPER DENNIS!..What a gem! and I've seen the show almost 4yrs after it aired!

I was watching Life Time's "12 Men of Christmas" recently and thought Josh Hopkins a real looker so I trawled the web looking for more eye candy on the fella :) So lo & behold I came upon some scenes from PEPPER DENNIS and fell line, hook & sinker for this GREAT show! It was well written, well acted, the cast had great chemistry and it was pure fun & entertaining to watch the protagonists Charlie & Pepper's path to the final amazing scene. Rebecca & Josh played off each well in both charm, looks (& height) dept and was ably supported by Brooke Burns, Ryder Strong etc.

I grew up watching Mary Tyler Moore and Pepper Dennis had the same type of feel to it. Light, not too serious and very funny to watch. It was classic TV entertainment and one could sit through a 50min episode without losing interest...very rare with all the angst on TV nowadays. I think too in a way the show's timing was a bit off by a season or two and had stiff competition when reality TV ruled the airways.

Despite it only having 13 episodes, I liked that the show was wrapped up decently, unlike others where fans who invest so much emo & time, is so often left in the cold with unresolved story lines & endings.

What a GREAT show and although I'm sad that it ended after 1 season it probably would not have had drawn the same "fan power" as some other mindless drivel on telly. At least as a pay-off the cast got other TV shows to shine in, more so Rebecca in Eastwick & Josh as the laconic Grayson in the quirky Cougar Town.

So long live PEPPER DENNIS in lala-land and in our TV memories! So fingers x to get the whole series on DVD some day.

Rebecca Romijn is great in Pepper Dennis! Although the acting from her (which is really surprising) and a few others is a little choppy, they haven't exactly settled into the characters yet, so it is to be expected. Other than that, I don't find much wrong with the show.

It is refreshing to see a show that isn't centered around seriousness, because even though Pepper Dennis is a drama, there is so much comedy that after watching it you don't necessarily feel depressed for the characters. And, as a devoted Charmed watcher, it has a big comfort for me and my mom, who is obsessed with the show Gilmore Girls, when the characters in those shows are distressed.

Pepper Dennis is great, and, as I said, Romijn is great in it. Along with her co-stars Burns who play her sister Kathy, Hopkins who plays her um...I don't know what to call him...Charlie, and Price as her best friend Kimmy. These are great supporting actors and actresses. I enjoy Pepper Dennis, and hope it will have a long run.

I think this series is very clever and smart. Rebecca is carries off her part beautifully. I really didn't even care for her that much before I saw this show. Now she is one of my favorites. I did prefer the original news director, but the nephew does a pretty good job. Charlie Babcock is a real looker and the chemistry between the two is very believable. Although I did enjoy her little tangle with the Mayor. I understand Charlie and Pepper can never really get together, which would be the death of the show, but it is fun thinking they will. I think the plot has real substance and has always kept me entertained. The entire cast works well, especially Pepper Dennis' sister and makeup artist. I can't wait for next season, I hope there will be one.

Pepper Dennis is the best show I've seen in years!

The characters are great! And the chance meeting of Pepper and Charlie in the first show is a switch from usual story lines. You have to wait for the 3rd season to see the main characters together!

I just can't say enough good things about this show. I love every character except the new station manager. He's too much of a goof, but I guess he blends in more for the comedy of the show than the old station manager.

Pepper Dennis the serious reporter that always seems to run in to a snag. The cast of her sister, cameraman, make-up woman and the rest of her family all work very well together. Not to mention Charlie!

I hope this show is renewed and is on for a very, very long time!