Pint-size ( 4'11") dynamo Kristin ( Kristin Chenoweth) arrived in New York from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, full of spunk and optimism, looking for her big break on Broadway, but after a couple of disastrous auditions decided to find some paying work to tide her over. Her spiritual advisor , The Reverend Thornhill ( Christopher Durang) of a small Lower East Side chapel, got her a job with Tommy Ballantine ( Jon Tenney), a powerful and handsome real estate developer who was having some image problems. Her clean-cut, superhonest, midwestern morality might be just the thing to " reform" this morally bankrupt, self-centered tycoon. It turned out that Tommy wasn't such a bad guy underneath, but the clash of their styles was the centerpiece of this comedy. Everytime he tried to slip some underhanded deal by her , he discovered she was not as naive as he thought. Others in the swank offices of Ballantine Enterprises included Aldo ( Larry Romano), his slick, Brooklyn-accented right-hand man; Tyrique ( Dale Godboldo), the hip, dreadlocked messenger who could get anything done; and Santa Clemente ( Ana' Ortiz), the Latin sexpot who was Tommy's director of sales, and jealous of Kristin's new influence over him.
All these city slickers learned a little from the newly arrived hick. As Tommy remarked, " You are one savvy Christian.
A Review from Variety
Kristin
(Series -- NBC, Tues. June 5, 8:30 p.m.)
By MICHAEL SPEIER
Filmed in Los Angeles by Markusfarms Prods. in association with Paramount TV. Executive producers, John Markus, Earl Pomerantz; producers, Teri Schaffer, Jessie Ward; director, James Widdoes; writer, Markus.
Kristin Yancey - Kristin Chenoweth
Tommy Ballantine - Jon Tenney
Aldo - Larry Romano
Kristin is cute as a button, but "Kristin" is a dud all around. NBC's fish-out-of-water laffer showcases Tony winner Kristin Chenoweth's perky charisma to a point, but it's way over the top and exists amid incredibly stale one-liners, on-the-cheap production values and boring supporting players. It's rather unfortunate that mainstream America will be introduced to a boffo talent via this dreck; thankfully, Chenoweth is already prepping another comedy for CBS ("Seven Roses"). She had to have known this one would go nowhere.
In "Kristin," Chenoweth sings a little here and there, just enough to make sure people know she isn't your average pretty face. The rest of the pilot has none of her charm or wit and a host of conventions (sex-crazed boss, double entendres) taken from umpteen other sitcoms.
Oklahoma-bred Chenoweth is Kristin Yancey, an Oklahoma-bred dancer-actress looking for her big break in the big city. Riffing on her size -- she's taut and tiny -- helmer James Widdoes and writer John Markus place her in an audition among taller, more agile dancers. When she flubs her cues and doesn't get the part, she goes off on the director, reminding him how badly she needs the job.
Cut to Ballantine Enterprises, where womanizing socialite Tommy Ballantine (Jon Tenney) has made the New York gossip columns yet again for sleeping with another one of his assistants. In order to appease the shareholders and spin his name into good standing with Manhattan's elite, he decides to right his libido ship with his newest assistant, who happens to be -- bingo! -- Ms. Yancey.
Another TV odd couple is born: He's a crude macho man, and she's a Bible-Belter who won't lie or cheat for her new boss. Somehow, some way, they're gonna make it after all.
Having conquered the boards in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," Chenoweth is certainly a vibrant and gifted thesp whose teeny package hides an enormous vocal ability. But while she gives everything she can to be the bright light here -- she tries really hard -- her bouncy, bubbly execution is almost uncomfortable; nobody would really behave the way Ms. Yancey does, especially in corporate America.
Even with a narrative leap of faith, the show never takes off on its own. Markus' dialogue is hardly inspired, and the situations in which he puts his characters exist only in TV land to be sure (do colleagues really call the police when they find out one of their own is smoking illegal Cuban cigars?).
Apart from Chenoweth, Tenney is completely derivative as her piggish boss, adding nothing to a crude role that could have been nasty fun. As for the supporting cast, Ana Ortiz (Kristin's sassy Latina friend with a heart of gold) and Larry Romano (Tommy's goombah right-hand man with a heart of gold) are caricatures without much to do.
Things don't get better with the tech credits; the set design's lack of style stands out -- everything looks like a soundstage -- and little effort is made to make viewers feel like they are visiting the Big Apple.
Camera, Ken Lamkin; production designer, Roy Christopher; editor, Andrew Chulack; music, Matt Morse; casting, Susan Vash, Emily Des Hotel. 30 MIN.
With: Ana Ortiz, Dale Godboldo, Desmond Askew.
A Review from Entertainment Weekly
TV Review
C+ By Ken Tucker
If you watch Kristin, you'll be hard pressed to figure out why this show -- scheduled for a limited summer run, or as it's so kindly called in the biz, burnoff -- failed to make the cut as fall TV fare. Not that it's a classic or anything: ''Kristin'' has a charming star but too few laughs. Still, what makes it worse than 80 percent of the rest of the stuff that gets -- and stays -- on the air? Compared with, say, ''Yes, Dear'' or ''Just Shoot Me,'' I'd watch ''Kristin'' any old time -- in fact, I watched four episodes without experiencing any significant pain,unless you count the time a Native American character set up a punchline about ''firewater'' that's about as funny as it is politically correct.
The sitcom stars Tony award winning fireball Kristin Chenoweth (''You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown'') as a personal assistant to a Manhattan real estate developer played by Jon Tenney (''Brooklyn South''). That concept is as old as the recently deceased Ann Sothern's 1950s comedy ''Private Secretary'' -- smart underling woman always saves the dim male boss' bacon -- but Chenoweth, working with writer - creator John Markus (''Cosby''), delivers lines both snappy and sappy with pinpoint timing. But the element that makes ''Kristin'' unique -- the singular sparkle of Chenoweth as an Oklahoma naíf, a church raised gal who won't stand for big city lyin' and cheatin' -- does not extend to the rest of the cast. Beyond Tenney (who's paid to do a Donald Trump knockoff), the show is filled with Italian and Latino ethnic stereotypes. Loading up on cheap shot jokes is often a sign that a show doesn't know what to do with either its star or its premise.
At its best, though, you can see ''Kristin'' straining to burst the bounds of its genre; it fails, but it's an intriguing failure.
A Review from The New York Daily News
'KRISTIN' DEPRESSIN' Chenoweth deserves a better series
BY DAVID BIANCULLI
Tuesday, June 5th 2001, 2:21AM
KRISTIN. Tonight, 8:30, NBC. 1 Star.
A few seasons ago, NBC snared a hot talent from the Broadway musical stage and concocted a sitcom as a prime-time showcase. The star was Nathan Lane, and the sitcom was the awful "Encore! Encore!"
You probably don't recall the series. Lane, on the other hand, may have grabbed your attention as the Tony-winning star of a little Mel Brooks concoction called "The Producers."
Well, Kristin Chenoweth, if she's lucky, will suffer the same TV-rags-to-Broadway-riches fate.
She's talented enough to deserve stardom - and her NBC sitcom, which begins tonight after a long wait on the NBC surplus shelf, is horrendous enough to qualify as an instant trivia question.
"Kristin" (at 8:30) has the good timing to open with Kristin Yancey, a Broadway baby wanna-be from Oklahoma, tapping to the tune of "42nd Street" (which also just won a Tony, as best musical revival) in a dance audition. She's rejected for her short stature, but she refuses to give up. As her show's theme song advises, "Hold on to who you are."
Who is Chenoweth? The young actress who won a Tony for playing Sally in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown."
Who is Kristin Yancey, the character Chenoweth plays? She's part Ann Marie in "That Girl," an aspiring actress trying to make it in New York City. She's part Mary Richards, because she has spunk. And, as described by another character, she's "Bible Belt Barbie" - a highly ethical, religious and virtuous young woman.
So what does she do in the pilot? She accepts a job as receptionist for a real-estate mogul (Jon Tenney) whose character seems equal parts Donald Trump and Joey Buttafuoco.
John Markus, who clocked time on "The Cosby Show" and "The Larry Sanders Show," created "Kristin" with what seems a deliberate attempt to make every character one step from repugnant - or one step past it. Larry Romano plays a streetwise Italian assistant named Aldo Bonnadonna (if anti-defamation groups truly were more interested in stereotypes than headlines, they'd complain about this instead of "The Sopranos"). Ana Ortiz and Dale Godboldo give other minorities stereotypes to consider, while Chenoweth does anything asked of her by the script.
She shouldn't.
Three episodes of "Kristin" were provided for preview - and each one made me like the show, and its central character, even less. I came to the series with plenty of good will toward Chenoweth; I left it hoping she will return to the stage soon, perhaps as one of the characters if Brooks mounts a musical version of "Young Frankenstein."
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