"Mister Ed"
Can This Nice Guy Finish First?
By Matt Roush
TV Guide
October 7, 2000
Charm is a rare commodity on network TV these days; so rare, in fact, you find yourself wondering if just being adorable is enough to attract an audience. Let's hope so. Ed Stevens would thank you for it. And while he's probably too self-effacing ever to say so out loud, he could really use your help.
Ed (Tom Cavanagh) is the eponymous hero of Ed (NBC, Sundays, 8 P.M./ET), one of the few bright spots in a largely forgettable crop of fall newcomers. And when I say bright, I mean delightful.
Ed is funnier, fresher, and certainly sweeter than most traditional comedies now on the air. Describing it as a Midwestern Northen Exposure is accurate enough but unfairly pegs this whimsical romantic comedt as a clone instead of a ture original.
Rob Burnett, former executive producer Late Show With David Letterman, co-created this refreshingly, uncynical, underdog fable about a guy who rebuilds his life and returns to his roots after his big-city law career and marriage collapse on the same day.
Back he goes to his hometown of Stuckeybille, where he falls hard for the lovely girl (Julie Bowen) he was afriad to talk to in high school, who now teaches there. On a romantic impulse, he buys a struggling bowling alley, and from there he plots his uphill courtship and starts the unlikeliest of law practices.
In the second episode, he represents a cornball magician who trademark phrase is "the wonderful world of possibility." makes sense, because Ed stands for possibility: the hope for second chances, the idea of making a fool of yourself for love and maybe even getting away with it.
Cavanagh is a wry leading man with an endearing goofy grin, and his chemistry with the equality Bowen gives this quirky show a real heart. I also like his supportive friends and his misfit employees at the bowling alley. The only thing I don't like like is Ed's tough time period and the fear that NBC will treat this delicate property as badly as it did last year's Freaks and Geeks
Try to make Ed'saccquaintance as soon as you can. You won't be sorry.