Campus Ladies aired from January 2006 until February 2007 on the Oxygen Cable Network.
Two lusty middle-aged women , one a widow and the other in the process of getting a divorce ( her husband had cheated on her), decided to chuck their boring lives and enroll as college freshmen in this randy comedy. They weren't looking for education, they wanted sex and parties, which was apparently all that went on at the University of the Midwest. Barri ( Christen Sussin) was dark, chubby and liked to make out, while widow Joan ( Carrie Aizley) was her blond friend. Paige ( Miranda Kent) was their whiny, disdainful new roommate who couldn't understand why these two women who were, like, so old, wanted to drink and play spin the bottle. The guys thought they were cool-the old dames could buy them beer! Drew ( Derek Carter) was their tall, gawky dorm mate, Guy ( Jonah Hill) the helpful resident advisor and Abdul ( Amir Talai) the polite Iranian student.
Most of the cast were members of Los Angeles Groundlings comedy troupe, and the show's dialogue was largely improvised.
A Review from The New York Times
College Days and Nights of 2 Ladies
By ANITA GATES
Published: January 7, 2006
The first time I saw "Absolutely Fabulous," when Comedy Central imported it from Britain in 1994, I wondered what all the fuss was about. But the show grew on me, and today I am an ardent fan of Patsy Stone and Edina Monsoon, the dissolute, middle-aged Londoners whose enthusiastic substance abuse, rampant superficiality and desperate clinging to the values of their mod youth made that series so great.
If "Campus Ladies" is not America's answer to "Ab Fab," it comes close. The series, which has its premiere Sunday night on Oxygen, is often hilarious but it may be an acquired taste.
The two women whose adventures this show chronicles are 40-ish and American. When Joan (Carrie Aizley), a widow, and Barri (Christen Sussin) walk in on Barri's husband in bed with another woman, they head straight for a bar and some reassuring umbrella-in-the-glass drinks. Seeing a couple of pretty blond twins having a good time and toasting their sophomore year with friends, Joan and Barri are inspired. To spice up their boring lives, they'll go to college.
Their pal Gail (Jane Kaczmarek, the show's first guest star) thinks this is a terrible idea. "All they do in college is have sex over and over again," Ms. Kaczmarek says with the voice of authority that has made her the emotional center of Fox's long-running sitcom "Malcolm in the Middle."
Gail is wrong. They do a lot of other things, as Joan and Barri learn upon enrolling at the fictional University of the Midwest.
Their normal-college-age roommate, Paige (Miranda Kent), is horrified to meet them. "No offense to the elderly or whatever," she says in extreme distress, babbling apologies as she rushes off to the housing office to ask for a room switch. (Housing says no.)
The sorority sisters at Gamma Delta Rho are equally appalled when the relentlessly cheerful older women turn up hoping to join their group. Joan and Barri don't understand half the younger women's questions, like "Lacto-ovo or vegan?" and "Jude or Johnny?"
The boys down the hall at the dorm, Drew (Derek Carter) and Abdul (Amir Talai), are much more welcoming. They invite Joan and Barri to a party, where the ladies enjoy Jell-O shots (unaware of the liquor involved), play spin the bottle and do some spontaneous making out with very young men.
Guy (Jonah Hill), the young residence counselor, embraces and defends Joan and Barri too. "You know who else didn't like to party with old people?" he says to Paige. "Adolf Hitler!"
In next week's episode, both women are picked up at a poetry bar - Barri by another guest star, Anthony Anderson, and Joan by Will Forte of "Saturday Night Live," playing a poet who finds her intriguing.
One of the major characters has sex in that episode, but off screen, and the indications that this is going on are absurdly good-natured. The closest thing to bawdy or raunchy in the episode is an observation that Mr. Anderson's character shares with Barri: "They say when a woman hits 40, she's the most orgasmic that she'll ever be."
And what a lovely fantasy for any woman who knows what cellulite looks like! These boys show no revulsion at the idea of getting naked with women who may be wrinkly or more than a little overweight or just not as taut as they used to be. (Compare, for instance, Jack Nicholson's character's reaction to seeing Diane Keaton's character nude in the film "Something's Gotta Give.") In fact, in keeping with scientific estimates of the average 19-year-old male's sex drive, the young men are quite eager.
Cheryl Hines, who plays Larry David's wife on HBO's mostly improvised series, "Curb Your Enthusiasm," is an executive producer of "Campus Ladies." Ms. Hines, who was once in the Groundlings comedy troupe with Ms. Sussin and Ms. Aizley, has said that the new show is largely improvised too.
I'd love to know who came up with one particular line in the premiere episode. Abdul, who is from Iran, doesn't offer to help with the women's heavy luggage at first but quickly realizes his error. "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking," he says. "Back home, you would carry our bags."
Campus Ladies
Oxygen, Sunday nights at 10, Eastern and Pacific times; 9, Central time.
Created by Carrie Aizley and Christen Sussin; Paul Young, Peter Principato and Cheryl Hines, executive producers; Richard G. King, supervising producer; E. Brian Dobbins, co-executive producer. Directed by David Steinberg.
WITH: Carrie Aizley (Joan), Christen Sussin (Barri), Derek Carter (Drew), Amir Talai (Abdul), Miranda Kent (Paige) and Jonah Hill (Guy).
A Review of Campus Ladies
"Campus Ladies" Review
By Shawn McKenzie 01/08/2006
As I viewed my review copy of the pilot episode of the new Oxygen original sitcom “Campus Ladies,” I watched it in horror. How could this show be so bad? The acting was dreadful, the setup made no sense, and it was just awful. I am so glad that it came with a second episode, because it changed my original opinion of the show.
Joan (Carrie Aizley) and Barri (Christen Sussin) are a couple of 40-something middle-aged housewives (who have no kids that I have seen so far, though Joan apparently has a daughter named Stephanie that we have yet to see.) After catching Barri’s husband Roger (Jerry Lambert) in bed with another woman, a quickly divorced Barri and her widowed friend Joan drown their sorrows in a few drinks at a bar. The women spot a couple of sophomore college girls having fun being college girls, and they decide to enroll in college to experience the college life they missed the first time around. They enroll in the fictional University of the Midwest (UMW, which apparently isn’t that hard to get into) and move into their dorm room. Their friend Gail (“Malcolm in the Middle’s” Jane Kaczmarek) thinks that it is a terrible idea, but they want to spice up their lives with parties and studying (though I haven’t seen them go to any classes yet.) As they arrive in their co-ed dorm, Joan and Barri meet their down-the-hall neighbors Drew (Derek Carter) and Iran-born Abdul (Amir Talai), who are very receptive to them. They then meet their normal-college-age roommate, Paige (Miranda Kent), who originally mistakes them for the parents of the roommates she thought that she was going to get. Finally, they meet the R.A. of the dorm, Guy (Jonah Hill), who is also accommodating to them. They think that this is a mistake at first, but they eventually warm up to the idea and start to have some fun.
In the pilot episode, Joan and Barri rush a sorority house called Gamma Delta Rho. They arrive early and are barraged by a bunch of questions by the sorority sisters, but they have a good time. Later, they go to a party hosted by Drew and Abdul, where they try Jell-O shots for the first time and play spin the bottle. They horrify an upset Paige, who has been rushing the same sorority.
In the second episode, which premieres the same night as the pilot episode, Joan and Barri strike up a bet with Drew and Abdul over who can meet better potential romantic partners. The ladies go to a poetry bar called The Station, suggested by UMW’s cafeteria lady Virginia (Doris Bowman), where they see a guy on stage named Stuart (“Saturday Night Live’s” Will Forte) delivering a poem. Joan is attracted to him, while Barri meets a “molten yummy brownie” of a black man named James (Anthony Anderson), who is a buddy and roommate of Stuart, and he invites them back to their place. Meanwhile, Drew and Abdul go to a keg party and strike out right and left with the women.
Cheryl Hines, the Emmy-nominated actress of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (who plays Larry David’s wife on that show), is the co-executive producer (along with Billy Grundfest and Comedy Central’s “Reno 911” producers Peter Principato and Paul Young) of this show. Aizley and Sussin created the show, and they were in the Los Angeles improv comedy troupe The Groundlings with Hines. Along with Kaczmarek, Forte, and Anderson, there will be many guest stars on the ten half-hour series. Fred Willard, “Saturday Night Live’s” Maya Rudolph, Paul Reubens, “The Simpsons’” Dan Castellenetta, and “Ed’s” Justin Long are among them.
I can appreciate the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” style of improv-type sitcoms, which this show obviously is like, but the pilot just wasn’t that funny to me. I thought that Aizley and Sussin were trying too hard to be “funny,” and it just wasn’t smooth. From what I figure, they filmed it and sold the pilot to Oxygen, who surprisingly thought it was funny enough to pick up and produce. They must have done a lot of smoothing out when they filmed the second episode…and it helped that they had one of my favorites, Anderson, guest starring in it. Watching the previews for the third episode looked funny, so I’m so glad that I didn’t base this review on the pilot alone.
While I don’t understand aspects of it (like where the heck their children went), “Campus Ladies” is a funny show. It’s no different than almost any college frat or sorority movie where you never see anyone go to class, so I enjoyed the comedy in general. It’s not as good as Oxygen’s original stab at an original sitcom, 2004’s short-lived “Good Girls Don’t” (a show I absolutely loved), but it’s worth checking out.
1/2
An Article from The New York Daily News
'Inappropriate humor' equates to success for 'Campus Ladies'
December 5th, 2006
(MCT) To say Oxygen's "Campus Ladies" is ribald would be putting it mildly.
In its second season, the improvisational comedy series created by and starring Christen Sussin and Carrie Aizley skewers mental retardation, physical handicaps, race relations, religion and the virtues (or vices) of the thong.
"It's in bad taste across the board," concedes Sussin. "But inappropriate humor really makes us laugh, I think. It's like the delight of being naughty in church. It's that impulse to act out."
The show follows the extreme misadventures of Joan (Aizley) and Barri (Sussin), middle-aged housewives (one widowed, one divorced) who try to recapture their youth by going to college. They live in a dorm and act like freshmen on a bender.
The series grew out of characters that Sussin and Aizley created during their stint at the Chicago improv troupe The Groundlings. That's also where they met Cheryl Hines ("Curb Your Enthusiasm"), the show's executive producer.
The second season opens Tuesday at 11 p.m. with back-to-back episodes. "The Dare," the first, puts Barri and Joan in a randy game of truth-or-dare, in which they try to woo boys into a threesome.
In "A Very Special Episode," at 11:30 p.m., Sean Hayes guest-stars as Barri's new boyfriend, Marshall. Everyone but Barri realizes he functions at about a third-grade level. Jeff Garlin (Larry David's manager on "Curb") turns in a hilarious cameo as Marshall's boss at the campus store.
"We try to keep the ladies so innocent and naive," says Aizley. "I think that's what helps them get away with being so inappropriate."
The comedy, adds Sussin, "is never mean-spirited. Joan and Barri are just totally ignorant."
So when two dormmates get a load of Barri's granny panties ("It's like a freakin' car cover," exclaims one) and tell them that college girls wear thongs, Joan and Barrie go right out and stock up on butt floss. (Joan is dubious, though: "It's as if someone rolled a beach towel and kept it up there all day long," she says.)
"We write these things, and then it comes to shooting and we're like, `What were we possibly thinking?' as we're standing there half-naked with fake pubic hair coming out of our underwear," says Aizley. "But we're willing to do it all."
Few actresses are willing to let so much hang.
"You've got Christen Sussin in her pantyhose and mom's bra from 1950 next to this cute little 19-year-old boy, who is horrified and mystified about what's going on," says Hines of the threesome scene. "By the way, millions of American women are wearing those pantyhose right now, but you don't see that on TV. You see the cute girl with the perfect body in the cute underwear. But that's not really a representation of who we are."
Such a say-what-you're-really-thinking attitude is the hallmark of "Campus Ladies" and, of course, "Curb Your Enthusiasm." (Hines is now filming the sixth season of "Curb," but is mum on any advance scuttle. "I want to keep my job," she laughs.)
Upcoming episodes of "Campus Ladies" have Joan and Barri rushing a black sorority, joining a Christian group just for the home-cooked food and pretending to be physically handicapped to fill a sociology assignment. Additional guest stars this season include Mo'Nique, Janeane Garofalo, Penny Marshall, Beverly D'Angelo and Chris Kattan.
While Hines would love to perform with old friends Sussin and Aizley again, her HBO contract precludes her from appearing on camera in "Campus Ladies."
"I will give hats off to Christen and Carrie. They are fearless comedians," says Hines. "They will do anything, and we don't really see that from women. We'll see Will Ferrell running down the street in his underwear and it's funny. But in a movie, if a woman is running down the street in her underwear, she's a size 2 and it's not funny. So these women are putting it out there, and it's hilarious."
An article from The Boston Globe
'Campus Ladies' has 'Curb' appeal
By Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff |
January 28, 2007
I never expected to find TV's edgiest comedy on a "women's network," but I obviously hadn't been giving women enough credit. Oxygen's "Campus Ladies," now in its second season, might well be the most uncomfortable half-hour going on TV. It's also one of the funniest.
What is it? For starters, imagine "Absolutely Fabulous," that equally edgy old British import, on a college campus. The show tracks a pair of middle-aged former housewives who leave suburban life to enroll in college and live in a freshman dorm. It's not that Joan and Barri, our loud-dressing protagonists, are boozers along the lines of Edina and Patsy. But they're unapologetically self-centered, and equally unaware of how ridiculous they look as they pledge a black sorority, explore the wonders of thong underwear, and set up a secret webcam ("3hotslutsinadormroom.com").
"Campus Ladies" owes the biggest debt to HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and not just because one of the HBO show's costars, Cheryl Hines, is the executive producer. The scenes are largely improvised, so they have that same raw, unrehearsed feeling. And they share an abundance of cringe - worthy moments. This is Larry David's TV legacy: He proved that there's a niche audience, at least, for watching people put their feet into their mouth.
But Joan and Barri, created and played by Groundlings alumnae Carrie Aizley and Christen Sussin , are far more likable than David could ever be. They're crass and decidedly un-P.C., but they're well-meaning, too; their sin is being hopelessly sheltered. They've come to college to learn, no matter how clumsily. Isn't that the point of education?
Stunned reactions and decent set up lines come from a strong young supporting cast and from a treasure-trove of guest stars, from Penny Marshall to Jason Alexander. (My favorite might be "Curb" co star Jeff Garlin, as a cheerful college employee who, for reasons too complex to explain here, thinks Joan and Barri are mentally deficient. "I"m fine," Joan tells him pointedly. "You are fine!" he beams back.)
New episodes air Tuesdays at 11, and they definitely deserve to be late-night TV; this is not for the faint of heart. But more TV comedy deserves to be this fearless, and this good.
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