Ellen

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.

"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.

This was a pretty good show. Kind of like an updated I Love Lucy. It wasn't one of the best, but I can say that it's four year run, and was funny in a Just Shoot Me kind of way. The show started mediocre in it's first season. The second season was probably it's best, and the third was almost as good. The last season wasn't very good only because they sacrificed humor for the sake of sending their message, but I think ABC should've let Ellen on for another season to see if it shaped back up into a funny show, although, if it had stayed on and continued to not be funny, it may have lost a lot of it's supporters. It's amazing what this show was able what this show was able to do, and Will & Grace, which is one of the best shows on the air now, would obviously never even exist if it wasn't for it.

This was one of the funniest shows I had ever seen until the last season. The characters were hilarious, the was an amazing chemistry between the whole cast, and the scripts were well written. In the last season, however, it went from being a show about Ellen and her friends, to a show about Ellen being gay, and *nothing* else! This not only took away from the show's dynamic, but it completely alienated almost all of her audience. I think it was a poor choice to focus only on her sexuality. I hope that her new CBS show is more like the first three years of her old one.

In my opinion, the show was a bit boring at the beginning. Just another comedy that tries to be funny. (this time with a book shop as setting)But after Ellen´s outing quite much has changed, the stories have become really intresting, and in general the show has turned to something special and unique now. The difficult (???) topic has been presented in a very sensitive way and besides the´ve tried to fight against all the silly prejudices which are in the heads of too many people.Furthermore I like that we can laugh with Ellen, not about her. (that´s quite unusual for gay characters on TV). I´m impressed of her honesty and strength to share a part of her private life with the public. ELLEN- YOU`RE GREAT!!! Of course,I love the rest of the cast as well (JOELY,CLEA,JEREMY,DAVID)They´re like everyone´s friends. They get on your nerves, tease you, know everything better - but nevertheless you can´t live without them. In the meantime, I must confess that I hardly can´t live without Ellen and fortunately, it´s back on German TV!