Ellen

I loved the first season when it still was called "These Friends Of Mine". Maggie Wheeler (Anita) and Holly Fulger (Holly) were marvellous and played with perfect timing. I think it was a really bad decision to drop them though Clea Lewis and Joely Fisher were quite funny too. With the changes made after the first episodes Ellen's character started to dominate everything and everybody but at least the scripts were still on top. Though I like Ellen DeGeneres a lot in my opinion soon it all got worse and worse. First, I totally dislike Jeremy Piven, so I was sorry to see Arye Gross leave the show. A gay person myself I got really annoyed when finally everything was built around Ellen's sexuality. I didn't watch it until the end since I'm not a fan of sitcoms without jokes.

"Ellen" started out as a pleasant comedy made watchable by the funny and talented Ellen DeGeneres. It ended up a groundbreaking show with tons of humor and probably the best finale in TV history.

The first season of "Ellen," as stated above, was cute. The show was reworked so that in the second season, Ellen had a new group of friends, all of whom could hold their own with her (Joley Fisher, David Anthony Higgins, Jeremy Piven, and Clea Lewis' role was expanded). The show became much funnier and snappier. And in the fourth season, Ellen "came out" to a therapist (Oprah Winfrey) and admitted that the man she had fallen for was named Susan.

The hate mail was unbelievable -- even Winfrey received a ton of hate mail and was verbally attacked on her TV show for even appearing on this pivotal episode. There were also boycotts by groups including, as often mentioned on the show's jokes, the Baptists.

The network didn't laugh and canceled the show. When you think about series such as "Will & Grace," and "Modern Family" on the networks, and all the gay characters on shows like "Six Feet Under" on cable - wow, a lot of doors were opened by Ellen Morgan coming out.

Ellen DeGeneres is a unique talent, with deadpan delivery and a habit of talking nervously and trailing off mid-sentence which is very, very funny. She also has a decent knack for physical comedy. Surrounding herself with a great cast, well-developed characters and scriptwriters, the show was delightful.

In the finale, Ellen Morgan is interviewed as a living legend, and her life is shown going back to the 1920s and takes her up to the "big reveal" on her sitcom - which isn't what you think it's going to be. Hilarious, and so well done.

I don't know what kind of person Ellen is, except that she's an animal lover and has family support -- but everything she does, including her talk show, has an aura of warmth and high spirits. "Ellen" the sitcom was no exception, and if you didn't watch it when it was on the air, check it out. It's still very fresh.

Ellen was one of the most retooled series ever made, I think, and every change made the show worse. It was very funny in its first year, when it was called These Friends of Mine. Then some perfectly good cast members were swapped out, the premise changed, it became less ensemble style and more star driven, and it was weaker. When Arye Gross was subsequently swapped out for a grating Jeremy Piven, the show started getting very bad.

When Ellen came out as gay, my mom complained that it ruined the show, but for me, the show was already bad, and her coming out was just more poorly conceived retooling that ultimately made it worse. Although the actual coming out show was brilliant, the best episode of the series, and made me briefly believe that the show had finally turned around. But it hadn't, it just kept declining.

Fortunately Ellen moved on to her talk show host role, which fits her like a glove, so it's a story with a happy ending. But I wish they'd kept doing These Friends of Mine; that was a really good show.

Ellen DeGeneres' "Ellen" showcased the versatility of one of the best comedians of the 90s. She exhibited the physical comedy of a modern day Lucille Ball, dry wit descended from Jack Benny, and jabbing one-liners like Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam were whispering in her ears.

The supporting cast (especially Piven and Fisher) and guest stars played well off DeGeneres. When the writers finally got a handle on the cast the writing was priceless. They weren't afraid to drop in wry insights among the "jokes."

"Ellen" was a groundbreaking sitcom, and like most pioneering shows, it wasn't supported by a fearful network. It's unfortunate that Ellen's sexuality became the focus of the press and the show. Maybe if the show wasn't constantly trying to break free of network restrictions and fear the writers and actors could have taken "Ellen" into a strong finish. Instead it petered out. Nevertheless, catch any episodes you can on cable.

Together with Seinfeld and Friends, it's another top American comedy show that we are viewing frequently in the U.K. recently. When I say "top", I mean "top notch". In the 70's and 80's I was used to switching off American comedies, but these 3 shows have made me reconsider my bias! I particularly like the way Ellen introduces so many irrelevancies into her dialogue, she kind of says what other people would only think but not dare say for fear of being boring. At some point in the series she declares herself to be gay, and while it obviously changes the direction of the show a little, it doesn't get heavy going about it and is still as funny as ever no matter what your tendencies. I love all the other characters too; the show was better for the entry of Audrey, Paige and cousin Adam - they each have their own very identifiable traits that enrich the plot. The cousin is particularly funny, especially in scenes together with Paige.