The Good Life

I remember watching the show whenever I could. My NBC affiliate kept preempting it for garbage they were airing. I can remember the comment about the CFL teams. "What would you like to name yourselves?" "Rough Riders." "Nah... We've Already got a Rough Riders" "How about.... Rough Riders?" "C'mon, we need the teams..." Thank goodness Drew got his own vehicle, but what a shame that this dissolved away into nothing. The kids were cute, but I remember a guest appearance by one character later on Full House. I know that Drew even had him on his show as a guest once, too, but by then it was WAY too little, too late. It seemed like he was doing a dying man a favor. Or, how about the promo during the Olympics of the three-man Bobsled team. It didn't suffer from lack of promotion, just consistency, and local network support, along with LOW watching.

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)

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.

The summer of '94 saw three replacement shows - "The Boys," "The Building," and "The Good Life" - that beat the hell out of the majority of network sanctioned tripe. Of the three, "The Good Life was easily the best. When Drew Carey hit it big, I hoped it might spark some interest in this forgotten gem, like say a run on a certain cable comedy channel. Alas, "The Good Life" remains buried in the annals of TV history, with only Drew's show and Shay Astar's role on "3rd Rock" as pale reminders of what once was. I fondly recall the episode in which those two discovered a mutual love of the Grateful Dead. Drew's tie-dye was a sight to behold. And "Don't forget to Clark the door!" - that should have gone down as one of TV history's classic lines.

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.