View Full Version : Tim Curry sitcom 'Over the Top'


webuster
09-29-2003, 02:28 PM
Does anyone remember when Tim Curry had a sitcom- and have any of you got it on tape? It was called 'Over the Top' and was aired in 1997- only four episodes were ever aired. It doesn't say on imdb which network broadcast them but it was distributed by Columbia Tristar and now Sony Pictures (it says 2002- so sony must've got the rights).
It co-starred Annie potts, and I think they played ex-husband and wife that run a hotel. Some other episodes were filmed before the final pilot episode- with different supporting casts (including Debra Jo Rupp from That 70's show) but they weren't aired.
Tim Curry is a hilarious actor on film but I've never seen his tv sitcom works.

tvroxxers
09-30-2003, 10:35 AM
it was on ABC, if i recall correctly.

TMC
12-27-2022, 08:37 PM
Steve Carell in Over the Top (https://www.looper.com/1148176/the-biggest-flops-from-iconic-tv-stars/)

In "Watching Ellie," Julia Louis-Dreyfus wasn't the only major TV star to appear in the cast: one of Ellie's ex-boyfriends was played by Steve Carrell. While the series may have been Louis-Dreyfus' biggest flop, it wasn't his, which we have to go back a few years to find. No, we're not talking about "The Dana Carvey Show," (https://www.looper.com/352873/the-most-influential-tv-shows-youve-never-heard-of/) another notorious disaster — mostly because of what a cult hit it's become in the years since — but instead the forgotten 1997 (https://variety.com/1997/tv/reviews/over-the-top-2-1117339878/) 'series' (https://variety.com/1997/tv/reviews/over-the-top-2-1117339878/) titled (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/OverTheTop) "Over the Top." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_the_Top_(TV_series)) We put the word 'series' in quotes because only 12 episodes were produced and just three ever even made it to air (https://www.primetimer.com/barnhart/25-years-ago-steve-carell-earned-the-worst-most-hilarious-review-of-his-career).

Thankfully for Carell, he wasn't the star of this one (https://www.deseret.com/1997/10/20/19340756/abc-s-over-the-top-certainly-is?_amp=true). Instead, it's led by a pair of big-screen names, Tim Curry (https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/21/arts/television-review-tim-curry-returns-with-a-flourish.html) and Annie Potts. Curry plays a British soap opera star who loses his job and moves in to a posh Manhattan hotel run by his sympathetic ex-wife Hadley (Potts), where he is hired as staff manager. Wall-to-wall wacky antics that feel like a relic of the '70s or '80s left the series feeling incredibly stale, and the oddball characters like the hotel's Greek chef Yorgo (Carell) only made things worse.

Worse still however is that Carrell himself (https://www.primetimer.com/barnhart/25-years-ago-steve-carell-earned-the-worst-most-hilarious-review-of-his-career) was the target of ridicule, with his performance famously roasted by at least one reviewer (http://www.teevee.org/1997/10/heaping-gobs-of-curry.html). "Carell screeches, wheezes, his eyes bulge, and that's while he's standing still. Trust me when I say this is not a road you wish to travel."

TMC
06-02-2023, 02:41 AM
Steve Carell in Over the Top (https://www.looper.com/1148176/the-biggest-flops-from-iconic-tv-stars/)

Short-Lived Sitcom Potpourri (XVIII) (https://jacksonupperco.com/2023/05/31/short-lived-sitcom-potpourri-xviii/)

But this is not good (https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1997-10-21-9710200766-story.html) situation comedy (https://sites.google.com/site/cultoddities/home/television/over-the-top) — starting with (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-oct-21-ca-44924-story.html) a banal hotel setting (https://apnews.com/article/e11a19da924d4190fcebb972d2e8be10) and a clichéd (https://www.deseret.com/1997/9/13/19333804/troubled-abc-will-rely-on-reruns) divorced couple (http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/9711/07/hollywood.minute/index.html) as the central relationship (http://www.teevee.org/1997/10/heaping-gobs-of-curry.html), neither of which is applied well (https://www.mcall.com/1997/09/01/hit-or-miss-sitcoms-plentiful-but-few-promise-to-target-funny-bone/) in episodic story. Also, none of the hotel ideas (https://books.google.com/books?id=O6dQVvEY2fUC&pg=PT218&lpg=PT218&dq=%22over+the+top%22+1997+abc+tim+curry&source=bl&ots=M0NXioQxVR&sig=ACfU3U2Ij_uGIDWrMB8CaKAsZiHibsAlgQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwism8q9_6P_AhWzlWoFHYUVD444PBDoAXoECAMQAw) are new or themselves comic enough to reach the brilliant standards of, say, Fawlty Towers, and the (https://razs-midnight-macabre.com/2017/06/12/icon-of-the-month-tim-curry/) dynamic (https://variety.com/1997/tv/reviews/over-the-top-2-1117339878/) between (https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/10/21/cheery-over-the-top-check-in-check-it-out/8c4449f3-0880-4234-baec-a3dcf2049142/) Curry (https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/21/arts/television-review-tim-curry-returns-with-a-flourish.html) and (https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1997/10/24/over-the-top-with-annie-potts/) Potts (https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/entertainment/local/1997/10/21/potts-curry-click-but-new/50596221007/) is neither believable nor comedically well-defined.