Good Advice

I suspect that this series is not very well known because when ever you think of Shelley Long you think of Cheers. Having seen all the episodes overall this was a much better comedy sitcom than Cheers. The mini episodes that introduce the main episodes are really really good and the 1st 6 episodes are really good mainly because of the 4 central character Susan de Ruzza Jack Harold Artie and Ronny the female receptionist and they work together so well and are really very funny. However though still quite good it all changes. The receptionist has gone and has been replaced by Susans sister and there is also now a home help neither of which I found very funny. The screen time allotted to Jack and Artie is drastically reduced and quite honestly it became a girly thing. The people producing this sitcom lost an excellent opportunity to make a really good and long running sitcom by the changes they made. They blew it. But it is still well worth watching but not as good as it could have been

L.A. psychiatrist Susan DeRuzza (Shelley Long) returns home early from her cross-country book promotion tour to find her husband Joey cheating on her in her own bedroom. In the end, she decides to divorce the multiple-times cheater. Normally, she believes in keeping loving marriages together while in the same office complex, womanizing Jack Harold (Treat Williams) believes in divorces. Complex owner Artie Cohen works as a chiropractor on the same floor. Sean is a weirdo who started by riding on top of the elevator. There are a few receptionists including Artie's mother Ronnie in the first season and Susan's older sister Paige Turner (Teri Garr) in the second season.

During the first season, I got a couple of big laughs. Both were Susan trying to kill Joey in hold-me-back situations. Shelley Long is capable of big broad physical comedy. She should try for more Lucille Ball slapstick. She's good at it and it softens her snotty upper-crust personality. Then we get to Treat Williams' character who is obviously modeled after Sam Malone. It's trying too hard and they miss the mark. Quite frankly, I don't know why they don't use him as her divorce lawyer. The show tries to jam their coupling into the show and it doesn't really fit. They would be better to start as friends and only move to a relationship after gaining some more chemistry. This does collect a number of characters to form a good group by the end of the second season. Paige needs the public access TV show much earlier to give the sisters better depth to their relationship. Sean's weird start is a detriment. Artie's mother should have stayed. Estelle Harris is such a great actress that I assume the problem to be something else. This is Shelley Long's attempt at her own show after leaving Cheers. She could never find a better character than Diane.