The Class aired from September 2006 until March 2007 on CBS.
Ethan ( Jason Ritter) was a doctor in Philadelphia, who threw a reunion party for members of his third grade class from 1986, most of whom hadn't seen each other in years. They proved to be a motley group. Clean-cut Ethan's fiance dumped him at the party and the one person there who helped him get over his loss was Kat ( Lizzy Caplan), a sexy but cynical professional photographer whose advice was laced with sarcasm. Her fraternal twin sister Lina ( Heather Goldenhersh) was a man-hungry romantic with a history of failed romances. Others who showed up were Duncan ( Jon Bernthal), a building contractor still living with his bossy mother Tina ( Julie Halston); Kyle ( Sean McGuire), a first-grade teacher at a private school who had been very popular with the girls in high school before he came out of the closet; Richie ( Jesse Tyler Ferguson), a perpetual loser who had contemplated suicide; Holly ( Lucy Punch), a reporter for News 9 Philadelphia whose interior decorating husband Perry ( Sam Harris) , was decidedly effeminate; and Nicole ( Andrea Anders), Duncan's gorgeous high school flame who was now the trophy wife of retired pro football star Yonk Allen ( David Keith).
Relationships developed amid one disaster after another. Lina and suicidal Richie hit it off at the party and went out for coffee afterward but he accidentally backed his car into her, breaking both her legs and 52 bones, which left her in a wheelchair for 4 months. Their relationship hit another snag when she found out he was married to Fern ( Sara Gilbert), the emasculating shrew he finally left, who was a cleaning lady in the office building where Lina was a secretary. Duncan slept with Nicole on the night of the party, but was in an awkward situation because Yonk hired him to remodel his house. Ethan dated perky Palmer ( Jaime King), another of Kat's former classmates, but they had an amicable breakup and she told him that he and Kat were right for each other. At the end of the series Nicole was going to leave her husband for Duncan but Yonk had a heart attack and she couldn't go, Richie proposed to Lina and, in a surprise, Kat and Duncan were in a passionate embrace.
A Review from Variety
The Class
(Series -- CBS, Mon. Sept. 18, 8 P.M.)
By BRIAN LOWRY
Filmed in Los Angeles by craneklarik prods. in association with Warner Bros. Television. Executive producers, David Crane, Jeffrey Klarik, James Burrows; producer, Lisa Helfrich Jackson; director, Burrows; writers, Crane, Klarik.
Nicole Allen - Andrea Anders
Duncan Carmello - Jon Bernthal
Kat Warbler - Lizzy Caplan
Richie Velch - Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Lina Warbler - Heather Goldenhersh
Kyle Lendo - Sean Maguire
Holly Ellenbogen - Lucy Punch
Ethan Haas - Jason Ritter
Tiny Carmello - Julie Halston
Perry Pearl - Sam Harris
Yonk Allen - David Keith
Given TV's dearth of hit comedies, CBS has enjoyed more than its share of success by slightly tweaking the traditional format. It scores again with "The Class," a dead-on companion to one of last season's most pleasant surprises, "How I Met Your Mother." Graced by a general sense of warmth, a few very funny moments and a semi-serialized plot, this bright half-hour has "Friends" co-creator David Crane and partner Jeffrey Klarik as its creative guiding lights and a promising assortment of characters. In the mostly undistinguished roll call of new comedies, it goes to the head of the class.
If nothing else, there's a stroke of sheer demographic genius in the premise, creating a built-in excuse for crafting a series around a group of 28-year-olds. The fact they all happen to be white is another "Friends"-like matter, though one that will be easy enough to rectify by adding faces should the show endure.
Set up involves Ethan (Jason Ritter) trying to surprise his fiancee by assembling members of their third-grade class, which was where the two met 20 years earlier. Not surprisingly, the assorted kids have followed a divergent set of paths, with one, Richie (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), prepping to commit suicide when, almost on a whim, he opts to answer the phone instead.
The party, of course, yields all kinds of unintended consequences, including Holly (Lucy Punch), still grappling with the fact her ex-boyfriend Kyle (Sean Maguire) turned out to be gay (she's married, but to someone who also seems to know the entire Liza Minelli songbook); Duncan (Jon Bernthal), the guy living at home who never got over his now unhappily married former girlfriend (Andrea Anders, seeking a measure of redemption post-"Joey," while David Keith has been added as her boisterous, much-older hubby).
All told, there are plenty of moving parts here, and Crane remains both deft with one-liners and capable of injecting romantic heart into these flawed characters who, once reunited, begin to have a major impact on lives that aren't turning out quite as envisioned.
The comedic chops also hold up in subsequent episodes, which not only showcase Ferguson's sad-sack character but also Holly's spouse, Perry (Sam Harris), whose wild antics -- he's even named their daughter Oprah -- exhibit real breakout potential.
Once again, CBS demonstrates the multicamera-and-couch template isn't so much broken as bent and sagging in the middle, waiting simply for solid writing, an engaging cast and the hook of continuing storylines to prop up the furniture. And while a freshman show asked to open the night likely won't be a major hit, it should fit seamlessly into a lineup that proves there's still room for an old-fashioned "Class" clown.
A Review from The New York Times
TV Review | 'The Class'
Love, Despair and Laugh Tracks on the Far Side of Third Grade
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: September 18, 2006
There are two kinds of alumni, those who want to share their happiness by talking about it and those who can’t get away from their happy classmates fast enough.
On CBS’s new sitcom “The Class,” Ethan Haas (Jason Ritter) decides to surprise his fiancée, Joanne, with a reunion of their third-grade classmates to mark the 20th anniversary of the day the two met, and starts cold-calling people he has not seen since then. He tells Kat (Lizzy Caplan) that he and his beloved are both pediatricians, both have golden retrievers and have birthdays one day apart.
“It is funny, I have no recollection of either you or Joanne,” Kat sweetly says, “but you really sound like people I would hate.”
Her sweeter, dizzier sister, Lina (Heather Goldenhersh), persuades Kat to go to the reunion with her, hoping to meet single men. She and all the other guests who barely remember one another are rewarded by the sight of Joanne dumping Ethan in front of everyone.
“This is the best party ever,” Kat exclaims.
“The Class,” which begins tonight on CBS, is an old-fashioned sitcom with one-two punch lines and a laugh track, but it holds more promise than that: it is a collaboration of David Crane, one of the creators of “Friends,” and Jeffrey Klarik, whose credits include “Mad About You” and “The Naked Truth.” James Burrows, the television director whose career spans “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Will & Grace,” is also on the team. Mr. Ritter is the son of John Ritter, who died in 2003, and has some of his father’s comic bent, though not his antic energy.
“The Class” has appealing characters and funny lines, but it has some problems. The jokes move along slowly, and at times the acting turns very broad and very loud, as if it were dinner theater and the performers had to make themselves heard over the din of scraping knives and sizzling platters.
The show is supposed to be a more misanthropic version of “Friends,” an ensemble of sad sacks and discontents in their late 20’s. Lina can’t find a nice boyfriend and her sexy, slinky sister Kat is too mean-spirited even to try. Another classmate, Duncan (Jon Bernthal), lives at home with his mother; his first love, Nicole (Andrea Anders) is unhappily married to an older former football star, Yonk Allen (David Keith).
None of the classmates have perfect lives, but Richie (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) is the most miserable: he is so depressed he keeps a bottle of pills at the ready for suicide. He is about to swallow them when Ethan invites him to the party.
Richie is one of the more endearing characters. When Duncan points out Yonk and says, “He used to play for the Eagles,” Richie mumbles, “I never followed music.”
CBS has had some success with conventional sitcoms. “The Class” is followed tonight by “How I Met Your Mother,” “Two and a Half Men” and “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” for which Julia Louis-Dreyfus just won an Emmy Award. “The Class” fits easily into that lineup but surprisingly, given its pedigree, it doesn’t really stand out.
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