Working

Memories of this show prove to me that TV executives are idiots. Working was a fast furious and funny show with the speed and humor of the Mel Brooks and Airplane movies. So what happened ? Someone moved it from a great time slot to Monday nights. When the fans followed it, the execs found another way to kill it: they removed some of the best characters and replaced them with no talents. What happened: the series limped on with a bullet in its side and died. Execs win; viewing public of America ticked off. This show was a hit for Fred Savage and he deserved one after that "Wonder Years" fiasco refused to die after so long. This satire on corporate America had all the best actors with Maurice Godin as the swarmy boss Tim Deale, Seinfeld's Steve Hytner as the weasel John Delaney, stand-up genuis Dana Gould as childlike Jimmy Clarke and incredibly sexy Arden Myrin as prim and proper Abby Cosgrove. Rounded out with "She-Wolf" Kate Hodge and lovely Sarah Knowlton as Hal the working mother as the office sex symbols for Deale to drool over, the show was an instant hit, and we had less than a year of funny programming before the most evil and vile forces on earth took it away!

This is a prime example of an under appreciated show that was tinkered with too quickly and canceled far too soon. Networks cancel shows without giving them a fair shake!

This show was great, it reminded me of the silliness that goes on in the job market. It also reminded me of the bureaucratic garbage that employees have to go through sometimes. I worked for an "Upton Weber" type company and totally related to these characters.

I have to agree it all went to heck come season two. I can remember laughing so hard at the antics of season one, that reminded me of this software place I used to freelance at. But, season two came, and it couldn't live up to the first, so once again a show was cancelled long before it's time. But, I look at it comically, practically everyone that was in Little Monsters, got their show cancelled at the same season, (Buddy Faro, The Howie Mandel Show, and Dilbert.) Kind of ironic.

Working was great for the first season. But when season 2 came, a couple of great characters were gone and inexplicably replaced. I remember one of the replacements was very attractive and while this may be unfair, because she wasn't a good actress and her part added nothing to the series I felt like maybe she was some executives daughter or girlfriend and they just insisted she given a part. Because it just made no sense.

Of course, it may just have been incompetence. It may be that the series wasn't doing as well as they thought it should and some cocaine-fueled executive got put in charge and was like, we need to sex it up more, we need changes, make it all different, get me more coke!

It was seriously one of the most inexplicable retoolings in the history of television. I wish I knew the story behind it.

I think Working was one of the freshest and most clever new shows of the past several years. I agree, the cast changes in season 2 weren't the best idea, but change isn't always bad. If you have seen the pilot, Delaney and Jimmy were played by different actors than in the first complete season. That was a good change.

But even with the season 2 changes, the show was still very, very clever and completely entertaining. If it only had to compete with itself, season 2 wasn't as good as season one. However, competing with all of the shows on TV at the time, season 2 was still one of the best shows going. I have all 39 episodes taped, and rewatch them on a regular basis.

Working, we miss you.