A Fine Romance

This t.v. show was one of the best. (The casting was excellent, with Margaret Whitten as the wise cracking New Yorker, Christopher Cazenove as the quiet Cambridge history professor, Ernie Sabella as the self aggrandizing producer, Dinah Lenny as the good natured girl Friday, and Kevin Moore as the sweet though simple British writer) This show never actually cannibalized, although some may have accused them of doing so. The original pilot was filmed with Anthony Andrews playing Michael Trent. He could not do the part when it was signed on as a weekly show. (This pilot was never shown in the U.S.) But when they signed on Christopher Cazenove to play Michael (a happy circumstance), they re-filmed the original pilot, nearly word for word, using Paris instead of Rome as the background city. For everyone in the U.S., this was the first show to be aired, and no one even knew about the Anthony Andrews part. Those in Europe probably did see both, but it was more a necessity to re-film the pilot with all the players than an attempt to cannibalize it. This television show was like a mini-movie every week, beautifully filmed on location, (2 in France, 2 in Ireland, 2 in Malta, 2 in Budapest, 2 in England, 2 in the U.S., and the original pilot in Rome made 13 episodes) with puns and quotes from old movies abounding. Louisa always seemed to be in the middle of a predicament, and often she had no idea how she got into it. Michael usually had to rescue her. There always seemed to be several story lines going on at once, and at the end of the show they would all converge-accompanied by classical pieces such as the "Flight of the Bumblebee" or the "William Tell Overture" playing gaily as the characters were running around trying to sort out whatever problem was going on. This show made me laugh, even when I was watching my video tapes for the tenth or twelfth time. I looked forward to it every week. When it was canceled I was devastated. It was funny, intelligent, and entertaining, although towards the end the story lines did lose some of their edge. Still, it remained professional to the end.

Seeking to recapture the feel of the screwball comedies of the thirties, Christopher Cazenove had just departed Dynasty as John Forsythe's brother, and Margaret Whitten had been in the critically acclaimed but hardly watched Hometime. They were brought together here as Micheal and Louisa, bickering, flirting and involved in crimes. Shows would be spoofed, mad-cap, wild chases would occur, campiness abounded. Was it Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd on Moonlighting? One would think so, but Cazenove and Whitten gave it a Californian or even European feel. Cazenove could outdo all for timing, Whitten just rode along and set him up and sounded off of him. Ernie Sabella, who would do the voice of the warthog in Lion King, was a series regular, and Sarah Douglas and Tim Roth (even tho he seems to be uncredited) both would appear in episodes as killers; Roth having virtually no lines in his appearance. Airing in 1989, the show at best only had about six episodes. They were entertaining. It would be great to see them again sometime.

I saw a few episodes of this, I think more than 6 though (but it's been SO long). I really missed it when they stopped showing it! I was screwball funny and the leads played off each other well. Anyone know when I can find the episode on video or any other media??

I have two episodes on tape and I wish I could find the series in DVD. I loved the location shooting, the ensemble cast, the whole silliness of the thing.

One line I recall, and wish I could see the episode again, was when Michael and Louisa were trapped and she managed to find a way to get them out of it and when she told him her idea he remarked with very grudging admiration considering it was her fault as always that they were in that mess in the first place, that she had "a certain ratlike cunning." We used to get the best, the quirkiest, the most original late night TV from other countries in the States but trying to find them later, and for a decent price, is very improbable.

A watchable but non-essential comedy, this was about a formerly married couple (Christopher Cazenove and Margaret Whitton) who were brought back together as the dual hosts of a worldwide travel show called "Ticket To Ride" (which was also the title of "A Fine Romance" when it was shown in Britain, to avoid confusion with the sitcom of the same name - also produced by London Weekend, BTW). The series followed them and their assistants as they roamed the world, getting into mysteries and bickering all the way; all concerned were shooting for a "Hart to Hart"/"The Thin Man"/even "Remington Steele" feel, but the show only rarely achieved this.

Worse, as the show progressed the desperation became more and more evident; the leads certainly tried their best, but the scripts just didn't have it. (One episode was all too obviously designed to cannibalize footage from the pilot episode; it was painful - what worked for "Star Trek" and even for "Simon and Simon" didn't work here.) In the last episode "Ticket To Ride" was cancelled and our heroes found work on a morning show in Japan(!); the show never got recommissioned in real life either.

Incidentally, they found themselves in England and France an awful lot of the time, as I recall. Perhaps the credits give a clue: "The IndieProd Company for London Weekend Television and Television France 1 in association with Phoenix Entertainment Group." Happy trails...