looking for the title of an obscure 90's sitcom

[dougie1]

Me and a friend were thinking back to the 90's tv shows we used to watch and remembered one where nither of us could figure out the name of the show.

so here goes....

the show was set around two guys (20 somethings) that worked in a mail room of a newspaper or magizine or something of that nature....

the eposode we remember the most is when the two of them got a promotion out of the mail room and they went to thier boss and denied the promotion. they denied the promotion because it would get in the way of what they really wanted to do when they got older. one mention something about that is what happened to our parents and they became the boring people that raised us.

another thing that we remembered about the show is that they would do something everytime they seen, heard or did something cool. they would say, "high five!" and then high five each other...then they would say, "self high five!" and would clap thier hands over their heads....

what was the name of this show....i do not recall many episodes of it....is there a way i can figure it out, or does this sound familiar to anyone else besies me and my friend?

[AKA]

Too Something, which was later retitled New York Daze.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Something

[dougie1]

YES!!! that is it!! Thank you!!!

[Big3sCompanyFan]

Originally Posted by Brad

Too Something, which was later retitled New York Daze.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Something

LOL...have any of those cast gone on to do anything significant?

You guys remember another obscure series called "Condo"?

[TMC]

"Too Something' may be down to just one

Published Dec. 10, 1995|Updated Oct. 4, 2005

The soon-to-be-retitled Fox sitcom Too Something may become One Something after star Eric Schaeffer walked off the show, sources reported late Wednesday. The show's writers have temporarily written in a new character to replace Schaeffer's for this week's shooting on the buddy comedy series. Schaeffer walked off the show Monday after arguing about lines at a Monday morning table reading, sources said. The Fox show was loosely based on the characters created by Schaeffer and Donal Lardner Ward in their low-budget feature, My Life's in Turnaround, which the two co-wrote, co-directed and starred in.

Too Something

Bow intros Eric and Donny, roommates working as lackeys in an investment firm — a job they hate — so they can do the things they love: Eric wants to be a writer, while Donny’s a budding photographer. But Eric has yet to put pen to paper and Donny is afraid to show anyone his stills — at least temporarily.

And in a twist to the pursuit-of-the-corner-office syndrome, the pair reject a promotion to junior executive status and demand to be returned to the mail room to avoid any obstacles to their dreams.

Schaeffer and Ward are smooth and amiable together, which makes palatable their characters’ sometimes dopey behavior, and their timing is show’s saving grace.

They’re aided by the smiling sarcasm and impeccable comedic chops of Charlie Schlatter (who last shined, despite the weak material offered, in the TV version of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”).

Director Andrew D. Weyman steers a sitcom-friendly cast — with several top-notch supporting players, such as Portia de Rossi as Maria, a love interest for Eric — into familiar, albeit enjoyable territory.

Send in the clones

On Fox, Too Something (Sundays, Canadian independents) is hard-core fodder for the Gen-X set. Eric and Donny (Eric Schaeffer and Donal Lardner Ward) are roommates in New York who both work in the mail room of a demonic investment firm. The underachieving pair’s schtick quickly becomes tiresome, and it is hard not to conclude that the “something” in the title can be reduced to one word: dumb.

Two "misses' and a "maybe'

Fox's "Too Something" is a full-180 from the stale, assembly-line comedy of "Home Court." "Too Something" is one of the few truly original sitcoms this season, not because the buddy-buddy premise is so different (it isn't) but because writers / stars Eric Schaeffer and Donal Lardner Ward are such comedic diamonds in the rough.

Schaeffer and Ward play Eric McDougal and Donny Reeves, best friends who share a New York City apartment and fancy themselves as Artists. Eric is a novelist who has yet to progress beyond the "germinating stage . . . the attaining, the hoarding, the experiencing." Donny is a photographer who has never attempted to publish or exhibit a single work. In the pilot, Eric and Donny grapple with the scourge of all self-respecting slackers - being promoted from their jobs in the mail room to be corporate cogs.

Schaeffer and Ward have one indie feature film to their credit, "My Life's in Turnaround," about two aspiring filmmakers who have no clue how to make a movie or what they want to make one about, only that they want to make one. And in "Too Something," Schaeffer and Ward exhibit a similar quirky semi-professionalism that makes their characters simultaneously foolish and endearing in a scraggly underdog sort of way.

It's enough to make you want to give "Too Something" the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it'll get funnier, maybe it'll lose the borrowed sitcom elements (like the Elaine-ish platonic girl pal) and just let Schaeffer and Ward riff, like Beavis and Butt-head with college degrees.

[TMC]

ONE SEASON WONDERS: Too Something

TOO SOMETHING (also known as NEW YORK DAZE)

Programming Details:

• October 1, 1995 - June 23, 1996
• 9 episodes
• FOX

Starring: Donal Lardner Ward, Eric Schaeffer, Lisa Gerstein, Portia de Rossi, Mindy Seeger

Created by: Eric Schaeffer, Donal Lardner Ward & Efrem Seeger

Plot: Aspiring photographer Donny Reeves (Ward) and aspiring author Eric McDougal (Schaeffer) are roommates in Manhattan who also work together in a mailroom for a large firm. The rest of the cast is friend Evelyn (Gerstein), dog walker Daisy (Seeger) and new co-worker Maria (Rossi).

Brief Pilot Review:

This was obviously a passion project from Donal Lardner Ward and Eric Schaeffer considering they created the show in addition to starring in it. But it's not very inspired and plays about as bland of a 90s buddy comedy as you can imagine. There are elements of Perfect Strangers with the two male roommates who live and work together but neither character is nearly as defined or unique as Balki. There was also a horrible offensive question posed to a female co-worker in the pilot. Not that these things don't still happen but seeing it played off completely for laughs without any recognition of the troubling aspect of the line is a little jarring.

Ward and Schaeffer do play off each other well and you can tell they were longtime friends. Obviously the biggest name to come from this show was Portia De Rossi. She wasn't given too much to do in the pilot but does a nice job with what she's given. Charlie Schlatter is a much bigger problem in a role that seemed to be important to the pilot but was not a series regular so maybe they recognized he wasn't working in the show. Schlatter went on to Diagnosis: Murder shortly after this and ended up being a regular for many seasons.

What Went Wrong:

Too Something premiered as part of a FOX comedy lineup in a season where a lot of networks were trying comedies on Sundays. It created somewhat of a logjam in the 8pm as Too Something was up against fellow freshmen Almost Perfect on CBS and Simon on the WB along with second year sitcom Hope & Gloria on NBC. None of the comedy lineups really worked but FOX was not patient at all because Too Something was nestled between The Simpsons and Married With Children so it was failing as part of an established comedy block.

It aired just five weeks, the entire month of October, before being pulled from the lineup (along with fellow 9:30pm newbie Misery Loves Company). Too Something was not outright cancelled though and FOX promised to bring the show back under a new title. They held a contest to rename the show and the winner got to introduce the show, newly re-titled New York Daze, when it returned. Despite the promotion for its return with a new title, it didn't return until late May after the season ended. FOX may have had hope it could do well enough to get a renewal for midseason but it only managed to run another month before it was gone for good. The two actor/creators have continued to work but never really had a breakthrough project.