UNHAPPILY EVER AFTER (1995-99), on the surface, appeared to obviously be inspired by the longer-running, in-your-face comedy classic MARRIED WITH CHILDREN, but in some ways it had it's own identity, at least in the first couple of seasons. Similar to MWC, UEA was about an approaching middle-aged, put-upon man that is married with kids. The man is Jack Malloy (played wonderfully by the well-cast Geoff Pierson). Jack's ball-and-chain Jenny was played by comedienne Stephanie Hodge (giving a solid performance herself as a repressed, frustrated, long-suffering wife). Jack's kids were Tiffany (sultry Nikki Cox), Ryan (nerdy Kevin Connolly), and Ross (cute Justin Berfield, playing the youngest here before he got to play the oldest on MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE). Also, unlike on MWC where the mother-in-law was spoken of but never seen, for the first couple seasons, Jack's VERY MUCH SEEN mother-in-law Maureen was played in terrific scene-stealing fashion by Joyce Van Patten.
While it was on the surface a family sitcom, the big pull/gimmick on UEA was that Jack was schizophrenic and expressed his innermost thoughts through conversations with his youngest son's old stuffed bunny Mr. Floppy (voiced brilliantly by comic Bobcat Goldthwait). The Jack/Floppy convos are what really made the first couple of seasons (esp. Season 1) of the show sing, as the focus was more on Jack's personal frustrations, failures, and demons and him trying to resolve them to become a better parent and husband. Season 1 actually starts with Jack and Jenny separating and Jack living in his own apartment. Then Season 2 starts with Jack moving back with Jenny and the kids (and mother-in-law!), but staying in the basement most of the time still convo-ing with Floppy.
As Jack and Jenny, Pierson and Hodge have a believable chemistry of a long-time hubby-wife who have grown apart over the years, but still seem to have an unbreakable bond. I actually find their convos in Season 1 to be deeper than even Al/Peggy had on MWC in the early years (which were more down-to-earth and had elements of realism still) of that show. On this show, characters (esp. the adults) actually have long-drawn out convos the way real people do and, esp. in Season 1, they are pulled off with great aplomb and conviction. And many of the jokes in the early seasons were spot on and hilarious. Plus the kid characters (more on them later) actually seemed like real kids in the early seasons and they were thankfully used as only minor characters/distractions to the adults in the early years!
Even though I preferred Season 1 over 2 with Jack in his own place, the problems with the show really start in Season 3 with Maureen's character being killed off, then the same fate hitting Jenny at the start of Season 5, so Jack is stuck raising the kids alone and the show really degenerates into a total farcical mess. My problem is that I never found any of the kids to be especially interesting on their own. On MWC, Kelly and Bud Bundy were exceptional well-defined characters who totally held their own with Al and Peggy (sometimes stealing the show from them) and also they had many eps where they were actually the stars and carried them superbly on their own. But on UEA, these kids were for the most part less defined ripoffs of the MWC kids, so they came off as very annoying, esp. when the focus would be on them. Tiffany was no Kelly Bundy and Ryan was no Bud Bundy! Nikki Cox as Tiffany was esp. shamefully exploited for her looks (which I actually think are overrated anyway!) and not nearly the caliber actress that Christina Applegate (who should have won Emmys for her role) was as Kelly Bundy.
But I definitely recommend the first couple seasons, if only for the timeless interactions between Jack and Floppy. I've seen a lot of human interactions that are far less interesting!
While it was on the surface a family sitcom, the big pull/gimmick on UEA was that Jack was schizophrenic and expressed his innermost thoughts through conversations with his youngest son's old stuffed bunny Mr. Floppy (voiced brilliantly by comic Bobcat Goldthwait). The Jack/Floppy convos are what really made the first couple of seasons (esp. Season 1) of the show sing, as the focus was more on Jack's personal frustrations, failures, and demons and him trying to resolve them to become a better parent and husband. Season 1 actually starts with Jack and Jenny separating and Jack living in his own apartment. Then Season 2 starts with Jack moving back with Jenny and the kids (and mother-in-law!), but staying in the basement most of the time still convo-ing with Floppy.
As Jack and Jenny, Pierson and Hodge have a believable chemistry of a long-time hubby-wife who have grown apart over the years, but still seem to have an unbreakable bond. I actually find their convos in Season 1 to be deeper than even Al/Peggy had on MWC in the early years (which were more down-to-earth and had elements of realism still) of that show. On this show, characters (esp. the adults) actually have long-drawn out convos the way real people do and, esp. in Season 1, they are pulled off with great aplomb and conviction. And many of the jokes in the early seasons were spot on and hilarious. Plus the kid characters (more on them later) actually seemed like real kids in the early seasons and they were thankfully used as only minor characters/distractions to the adults in the early years!
Even though I preferred Season 1 over 2 with Jack in his own place, the problems with the show really start in Season 3 with Maureen's character being killed off, then the same fate hitting Jenny at the start of Season 5, so Jack is stuck raising the kids alone and the show really degenerates into a total farcical mess. My problem is that I never found any of the kids to be especially interesting on their own. On MWC, Kelly and Bud Bundy were exceptional well-defined characters who totally held their own with Al and Peggy (sometimes stealing the show from them) and also they had many eps where they were actually the stars and carried them superbly on their own. But on UEA, these kids were for the most part less defined ripoffs of the MWC kids, so they came off as very annoying, esp. when the focus would be on them. Tiffany was no Kelly Bundy and Ryan was no Bud Bundy! Nikki Cox as Tiffany was esp. shamefully exploited for her looks (which I actually think are overrated anyway!) and not nearly the caliber actress that Christina Applegate (who should have won Emmys for her role) was as Kelly Bundy.
But I definitely recommend the first couple seasons, if only for the timeless interactions between Jack and Floppy. I've seen a lot of human interactions that are far less interesting!