Stressed Eric

I have never seen the U.S. version with Hank Azaria, but the original is pure genius, very much like The Simpsons, but with that irreverent twist of British humor. I have rarely laughed so hard! I am sorry that American viewers missed most of that thru the Americanization of the show. (What's next -- Monty Python dubbed into American English?) I am sure that American viewers are perfectly capably of understanding British humor, as there have been numerous successful British comedies shown on U.S. television that were understood without translation. Hopefully there will be a DVD edition of this show one day -- maybe they will let viewers choose languages between "British" and "American"!

One London critic asked "Is there anybody who finds this programme in the least amusing?" Shockingly, the answer's yes. Then again, there are people who think Macy Gray is prettier than Cindy Crawford.

This painful series debuted in 1998 on BBC2 in prime time with hype on the scale of that given to the Millennium Dome and with much the same results - the British answer to "The Simpsons"? Yes, if "The Simpsons" was stuffed with mono-dimensional characters (including the title character), had such non-clever ideas as calling an all-around wonder man Peter Perfect (the Perfect Family, geddit?), sported pretty poor animation, and was tedious and unfunny to boot. I made it through two full episodes of the first series before giving up, and I was amazed that the BBC commissioned a second series two years later.

The first series was a blot on the otherwise spotless record of Klasky/Csupo, and I was glad to see they had nothing to do with the new series - but it hadn't advanced a jot. We still had the useless Eric stumbling through life without arousing any sympathy, we still had the lineup of unappealing characters, we still had the slow-as-molasses stories...

That American guy was right. BORING.

Unfortunately, this BBC-2 show was picked up by NBC who, like most networks, have a tendency to take a show from abroad and tweak it into useless American drivel. NBC felt that Americans had no desire to see a British guy getting upset. Hank Azaria was brought in to perform the voice of Eric. The opening sequence was changed from the original British version. Music and all. The new opening shows a montage of Eric (the American) moving to England, marrying, and having kids. In addition to dramatically changing the lead character NBC also dropped 4-5 minutes from each episode to accommodate for its commercial spots. The show was by no means brilliant, but it did contain some good gags, and occasionally exceedingly clever dialog. Eric's home life consisted of a psychotic ex-wife fighting for everyone/things rights, a hyper-allergenic daughter, a son who puts everything in his mouth, a sex-crazed (and often missing) nanny, a constantly enraged boss, and his aptly named next door neighbors the Perfects. The show is worth watching, but it's placement in NBC's "Must See TV" prime-time line-up was a bit misguided. This show would be better placed in the Fox Sunday night line-up. It would likely have found a home.

There was a big hubbub about Clerks being cancelled after 2 episodes. The same fate befell this show and nobody cared. This was an absolute gem of a show and I was the only American guy who watched it. The Perfects are so damn funny. A lot of the humor is so stupid that you can't help but laugh. The funniest is when the donkey explodes for no reason at all. PUT THIS ON DVD!!!!!!!!!!

This is a class program. It was all everyone talked about when it was on, but I am dismayed to hear that Eric's wonderful London/middle class accent was dubbed for the American version! Plum, forgotten plum, but a plum never the less!!!