The John Larroquette Show

I haven't seen this since it was first-run, but it made an impression on me. This was a great show, especially the first season. Very funny, very dark. The acerbic JL was a great match for the material, and given his personal difficulties in the 80's, he personally must have been able to relate to the character, a last-chance alcoholic working graveyard in a bus station. I remember the show as having a great, dark tone that you usually didn't see in sitcoms, more so than Night Court, which erred on the slapstick side. The first season of the show I remember as having no fear dealing with 'John Hemingway's dark side, and his alcoholism. The plots often portrayed a similar cast of midnight nutballs, loonies, the down-on-their-luck and some out-and-out losers. But, while redemption was a ways away, JL's character was on the upward path. It was good to see them deal with and not shy away from people's real problems. The teeth of the show got pulled later... Unfortunately after the show's first season of moderate success, the network (or somebody) decided that it needed to be a bit more family-friendly or something and added Alison La Placa as a love interest, and made the tone and lighting a bit brighter. Too bad, as there was plenty of patina in the station and among the great cast of characters including Dary' (no more 'chill'?) Mitchell as the put- upon Dexter, the reliable Chi McBride, Liz Torres, and especially Elizabeth Berridge as the too-cute-for-a-cop Officer Eggers. I wonder if she would have ended up as the love interest had they not brought in La Placa. Anyways, we really need season one on DVD.

I really liked this show during it's first season. It even had a local connection for me. The outside of the "bus station" was actually the historic railroad passenger terminal here in Sacramento.

The show was funniest in it's first year, because it showed him trying to balance recovering from alcoholism while managing this madhouse of a bus station on the graveyard shift. The alcoholism made for some very dark, (but very funny) humour.

A good example of the dark humour is when a robber is holding a gun on Larroquette and the black food counter owner (can't remember the character's name), the black guy says to the robber, "Shoot him (pointing at Larroquette) he's white." Larroquette responds "No. Shoot him (pointing at the black guy). You'll do less time." Edgy, but funny!

After the first season, they almost completely discarded the "recovering alcoholic theme" making it an OK show. But without the dark comedy of the alcoholism theme, it made it just another sitcom.

The show "held on" for one more year, and then pretty much floundered after that.

I have such fond memories of this show. I don't know if I would find it as funny now, but when it was out my brother and I never missed an episode. It's nice to see that just about all of the lead cast is still working today too. I would love to see at least the first season out on DVD sometime. I would recommend this show to everyone that likes John Larouquette. This role was made for him and it played very well with the occasional drama but mostly the great hearty laughs. My favorite characters were John of course and the two cops that barely ever worked. They ate lots of food and donut's and the two played off each other wonderfully. I don't even know if there are re-runs of this anywhere. It got the required four years but I have never seen it in syndication, which IMO is a total shame.

Season 1 was superb: gritty, realistic characters who behaved like they lived gritty, realistic lives...unapologetic hookers, transvestites, bums, and alcoholics who were hilarious. Almost like watching a play...like "Hot L Baltimore" in the 70s. As the sign on John Laroquette's wall said, "This (was) a Dark Ride." Weird, fun, occasionally disturbing because it was a lot more lifelike than the usual sitcom.

Season 2? Blatantly obvious that the network got nervous about all those hookers, transvestites, bums, and alcoholics not being apologetic...the fix was in, they cleaned it up, and the show became just another basic sitcom about a bus station. I was sad to watch it go.

From the start "The John Larroquette Show", was bright, literate, willing to touch on sensitive issues, and hilarious to boot. But its audience was marginal by network standards, and each year it received a makeover in hopes of boosting the ratings. Season launching episodes were not at all subtlety titled "Changes", "More Changes", and "Even More Changes" as fair warning to long time viewers. By the beginning of the fourth and final season "The John Larroquette Show" had in many ways become indistinguishable from the rest of prime time television. Still quite funny thanks to a very talented collection of actors and writers, but its rough edge was gone.