Pepper Dennis

Network: WB; Genre: Comedy, Guilty Pleasure; Content Rating: TV-PG (for some sexual content); Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);

Seasons Reviewed: Complete Series (1 season)

In "Pepper Dennis" one of the most beautiful women in the world shows that she needs to be doing more comedy. Rebecca Romijn (now free from the shackles of the Stamos) plays the title character, an ambitious news reporter for a local Chicago affiliate who lives somewhere between our contemporary world and "His Girl Friday".

"Pepper" takes a shallow and rather simplistic approach to local news as a subject of ridicule. It is a target just dripping with sweet nectar just begging to be bitten into and show after show has gone a softer direction. You won't find anything more biting here than wooden anchors with white teeth and weaselly news directors that implement wacky stunts to get the ratings up. The show's treatment of journalism as a noble endeavor in which Pepper crusades to uncover the truth and bring it to the public is from a time long past.

I didn't like "Pepper" at first, but it grew on me. There is a delightful old fashioned screwball whimsy to the show that we just don't have enough of on TV today. So for that, I'm going to forgive it for some truly lame and predictable slapstick. This is a guilty pleasure with enough cutely funny moments to make it work and a willingness to go deeper into the gags than I'd expect from a fluffy WB show. It isn't unusual to do bit where an anchor is causing a viewer to have seizures, but not very many series will go as far as to show us the seizure and play it for laughs. Whoa, I like it.

The stories pull themselves along with one improbable leap in logic after another in a fantastic contortion to get where it wants to go. But thanks to some fast and witty dialog, the show pulls it out. Witness the "ACoRNs" episode in which local news awards become a red-carpet spectacle so we can have Pepper rent out designer earrings, save the day with an impromptu crisis news stand-up and reconcile with her neglecting father. There is a gag involving an automatic flush toilet I've just been waiting for someone to go for.

Dropped like an anvil in the middle of this old-fashioned screwball romantic comedy are snappy real-world one liners (Pepper gets a "Today Show" style wedding). The shows light jabs at contemporary media figures are much appreciated, but awkwardly fit. "Pepper" wants to have its cake and eat it too.

At the center of this silliness is the 6-foot Romijn who melds with the cartoonish beats of the show and throws herself headlong into Pepper like a comic natural and forces everyone else to keep up. That includes Brooke Burns as her virginal, recently divorced sister, Lindsey Price (the US "Coupling") as her experienced best friend/make-up artist and Rider Strong who has apparently given up on breaking away from his "Boy Meets World" persona and settles in the thankless role of Pepper's unrequited love.

The show gets better as it goes, like many, but it still never fully gels together. If "Pepper" could have developed all of the relationships just a little bit more, and it wasn't canceled, it could have been something great. What is a screwball comedy without a romance, and "Pepper" delivers us a couple right off the bat with Pepper and Charlie Babcock (Josh Hopkins), the new anchor who took the job Pepper felt was rightfully hers. While we don't necessarily root for them (the unrequited love from Chip could have been a compelling story, but the show's heart isn't in that), everybody tries to give us the feeling that there is sharp banter going back and forth - even if Romijn and Hopkins don't have the greatest chemistry. The show also sets up Pepper as an independent single women, but only so we can root for her to find romance, mellow out and join the flock.

"Pepper" could easily be self-indulgent - easily. So easily that it deserves real credit for not going that direction. By God, you wouldn't know it to hear about it, but Romijn sells this wackiness. "Pepper Dennis" tries to do a lot that is admirable, and the show is an entertaining guilty pleasure even if none of the parts really quite come together, and its grasp on journalism as a target is flimsy at best. What it suffers from are typical first season kinks that would have easily been ironed out and made the show recommendable.

* * ½ / 4

Starring supermodel and funny woman Rebecca Romijn in the title role, Pepper Dennis is a headstrong and dedicated news journalist who takes her work very seriously. But when she inadvertently has a one-night stand with the handsome Charli Babcock (Josh Hopkins) who she later discovers is her co-worker, she soon finds that her career and her heart begin to unravel.

It was a great show that was gone too soon. Romijn is excellent in the lead role, despite her character being cold and serious, she brings such a warmth and relatability to the role and knows just when it's time to bring the funny but also embrace the sad nuance of the character. Her on-screen chemistry is of course flawless with Hopkins, and they deservedly become the central focus.

Lindsay Price is great as hilarious best friend and makeup artist, Kimmy Kim while Brooke Burns gives a wholesome portrayal (with wonderful development) as Pepper's needy sister Kathy. Brett Cullen is a scene stealer on the show, as recurring character Jack Bell, the hilariously angry station manage.

Pepper Dennis has beautiful touching moments, with laugh out loud comedy scenes which fit perfectly together without becoming a distraction. Each episode has wonderful story development and plenty of heart.

While undeservedly short-lived, this show has a solid 13 episodes that manages to (mostly) wrap things up despite an abrupt cancellation.

PEPPER DENNIS!..What a gem! and I've seen the show almost 4yrs after it aired!

I was watching Life Time's "12 Men of Christmas" recently and thought Josh Hopkins a real looker so I trawled the web looking for more eye candy on the fella :) So lo & behold I came upon some scenes from PEPPER DENNIS and fell line, hook & sinker for this GREAT show! It was well written, well acted, the cast had great chemistry and it was pure fun & entertaining to watch the protagonists Charlie & Pepper's path to the final amazing scene. Rebecca & Josh played off each well in both charm, looks (& height) dept and was ably supported by Brooke Burns, Ryder Strong etc.

I grew up watching Mary Tyler Moore and Pepper Dennis had the same type of feel to it. Light, not too serious and very funny to watch. It was classic TV entertainment and one could sit through a 50min episode without losing interest...very rare with all the angst on TV nowadays. I think too in a way the show's timing was a bit off by a season or two and had stiff competition when reality TV ruled the airways.

Despite it only having 13 episodes, I liked that the show was wrapped up decently, unlike others where fans who invest so much emo & time, is so often left in the cold with unresolved story lines & endings.

What a GREAT show and although I'm sad that it ended after 1 season it probably would not have had drawn the same "fan power" as some other mindless drivel on telly. At least as a pay-off the cast got other TV shows to shine in, more so Rebecca in Eastwick & Josh as the laconic Grayson in the quirky Cougar Town.

So long live PEPPER DENNIS in lala-land and in our TV memories! So fingers x to get the whole series on DVD some day.

Pepper Dennis is a very good show. I mean when I first started watching it I was surprised because I thought that it would be just another show copying the great ones. This show however is not copying anyone and is extremely hilarious. I watched the first episode and I cried because I was laughing so much. The chemistry between the actors is extremely strong and I don't think that anyone will break it in a long while. Dennis and Babcock hate each other while loving each other at the same time and I think that the show has made the classic love/hate relationship and turned it into a great comedy everyone will love. I watch the show every time it is on and I share it with my family and we laugh our eyes out. The comedy we know and love, made better.

Everybody knows about the eternal clash between TV and cinema. I even believe that nudity, for instance, became some effective weapon in that war during the 1990s and the 2000s. So it's about how any team of those would make you stay at home, or leave it. However, when it comes to (Pepper Dennis), I definitely will stay home, or even go speedily to it whenever it's on.

This show is so cute and comic. It centers on a very attractive character, almost the entire cast is hilarious, and every episode is an assured merriment of pure fun. It happens that the cinematic romantic comedies in the 2000s aren't that good, so when I watch (Pepper Dennis), I feel impressed out of this effort, in writing mainly, which's not available for a lot of movies out there. The hot witty conflicts, the sarcastic ironies, the fast pace, and the soft mood are already here. It even has a yummy colorful look, like a tasty tart more than a show. I always recall the first episode as a proof of being excellent to rare ideal extent. And so every episode managed cleverly to leave the feel of being a fine 45 minutes movie, like elegant one of the 1950s or 1960s, or maybe better.

(Rebecca Romijn) is another surprise that confirms the loss of cinema in this battle. This show illustrates how she has charisma, talent, and a special flavor as a comedienne. This is totally different from cinematic movies that she was in, like (Femme Fatale - 2002) which was nothing but utter nonsense where she has been displayed as a sex toy only. Even (Brooke Burns) shows, for the first time, a talent else being a girl in a swimsuit. Actually the show itself says a lot about women who succeed without relying on their sexuality, so this show talked about something, and achieved it as well. It was just (Josh Hopkins) as (Charlie Babcock) who wasn't the right choice at all. He lacked the equal presence, or the spontaneous joviality, compared to the lead. And although his character was well written, but (Hopkins) wasn't convincing as a ladies' man, or the most beloved anchor in TV.

In any case, this is one of the most enjoyable TV shows of the 2000s, I'm so mad that it didn't get the attention it deserved, or the time period to continue for more, to end up like a mini-series, with 13 episodes, and sort of forced ending. I'm dying to know what "poor ratings" that led it to get cancelled (read: slaughtered)?! What kind of fools who watched it, and didn't love it? Or what kind of fools who didn't watch it in the first place?!

All in all, not many shows, or movies, could reach to this level of sweetness. This time, the TV smartly WINS. But sorry, this show's makers were unlucky, just like us; since we missed the joy, which they dazzled us with, through all what we're suffering of ugly shows, movies, and life! So, whenever I see a hasty, unfunny, bad romantic comedy, I'll salute (Pepper Dennis) for being the right thing, the real deal, and a brilliant short memory. For anyone who didn't experience it yet: Watch, learn, and enjoy.