Madame et sa fille

The premise for the t.v. show "Phenom" was actually pretty original but the show was not particularly amazing. It was just ok. What I found myself tuning in to see was the older brother character played by Todd Louiso. He was neurotic and funny, not to mention much less gifted than the main character (played by Angela Goethals). He was a very original character for a sitcom. I was pleasantly surprised to see Louiso pop up recently in "High Fidelity" as one of John Cusack's record store employees. Louiso and Jack Black were great together! Check out "Phenom" if it's ever on t.v. for Todd Louiso.

The weirdest happened to me today. Out of nowhere, I had this image pop into my mind about some show I used to watch in college, where there was a tennis girl played by the crazy daughter of the CTU boss in Season 4 of 24, and her coach was played by the Secretary of Defense in that same season of 24... and that's all I could remember, and it was driving me nuts! Finally, I realized it was Phenom that I had watched many years ago. I'm so glad I had this freaky random flashback, otherwise I would have forgot all about this show. The first thing I did was go to TVshowsonDVD.com, and I was so disappointed it's not out there on DVD. It was an awesome show! The ABC Family channel has many back-to-back reruns they do for the same show everyday for other 90's sitcoms, like Family Matters, Full House, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch... they have more than enough room to squeeze Phenom in there.

Remember the episode where Mary Margaret (Ashley Johnson) was sitting on her bed in her room telling Brian (Todd Louiso)how much she her Cabbage Patch Doll reminded her of him? He asked why because it's warm and cuddly? NO. Because he makes you feel safe? NO. And Mary Margaret looks him straight in the eye while she is stroking her Cabbage Patch Doll's bald head and didn't say a word. It's been 10 years and every time I think of that scene it just cracks me up! When I saw Todd in Jerry McGuire as the nanny, that whole Cabbage Patch Doll scene popped in my head! Phenom was a great show that got canceled way too soon. I'd like to see it on TVLand!

I thought Phenom was great. It had snappy one liners, good scenes and characters and wasn't limited to 30 second clips of jokes to pad it out. I was at college at the time and around 25 and I still found it funny and fresh, and watchable on several levels. I've not seen it since either in repeats in the UK or on DVD or on satellite shows - which is a great sadness. We have Knight Rider and even Autocar (groan) which are played regularly and available on DVD. I've no idea ow many series were shown on TV but I'm sure they could fit on a single 2-disc release. Bring it back and bring it out on DVD. Todd Louiso is a hunk in it, too.

It still drives me nuts that they canceled this show after a year, just b/c it didn't keep all of Who's the Boss's audience. If I'm not mistaken, it was somewhere in the early 30s in the ratings. Earl and Office didn't get that high last year and they're both considered hits. Unreal. Brian Doolan remains one of my favorite television characters of all time, right up there with Alex P. Keaton and Detective Frank Pemblemton. Weird company, I know. But I'm glad to see that he's still getting work, he was the best part of SoaP. The most memorable episode I can think of is when Brian became the security guard at Angela's tennis camp. It was one of the few episodes that focused on him, and I found it hysterical. I still laugh just thinking of it. Please, oh please, put it out on DVD!