The fondly remembered series starring Jaime Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis finally comes to DVD thanks to Fox it even gets some nice supplemental features.
Jaime Lee Curtis makes her first foray into a television series with Anything but Love (she had only did guest shots on TV shows before). Her love interest is Richard Lewis and is not exactly whom you’d think would be the perfect interest for her, but the combination works. This chemistry works and is he main reason that I think that there are fond memories of this particular series.
Hannah and Marty meet cute
Episode 1: Fear of Flying: Hannah (Jaime Lee Curtis) decides to quit teaching, leave her boyfriend, return home to Chicago, and become a writer. On her flight she meets Marty Gold (Richard Lewis) and helps him deal with his fear of flying. In return he tells her about an open position at Chicago Monthly, the magazine where he works. She applies, but faces the challenge of writing a 2000 word article on “The Tortilla Wars – corn or flour?” Can she face the challenge and land herself the job? (I guess if she fails there’ll be no series). Episode 2: Deadline: Hannah faces her first deadline at the magazine, but accidentally deletes Marty’s story (which he didn’t backup). So they have to pull an all-nighter to rewrite his story and are helped in this task by Anthony Amore (Taylor Negron). Episode 3: Burning the Toad (aka the Jack Story): Hannah’s old boyfriend and Marty’s old college roommate turn out to be the same person. Jack (Robin Thomas) tries to convince Hannah that he’s mended his awful ways.
Episode 4: Love and Death: Marty gets a badge of honor at the magazine, his first death threat, and doesn’t want anyone else to know that he’s scared stiff. Episode 5: Dorothy Dearest: Marty’s mom comes for a visit and Hannah convinces him to face his angst filled relationship with mom. Episode 6: This is not a Date: Hannah is depressed and Marty is dumped by his girlfriend, so the go out on a “not date” to cheer themselves up. Episode 7: Ch-Ch-Changes: Hannah returns from her vacation to find that the magazine has been sold, a newsroom full of new faces, and a hip new editor named Catherine (Ann Magnuson). Episode 8: Those Lips, Those Thais: Marty’s foster daughter (Tia Carrere) from Thailand shows up to stay with him while she’s attending college and he finds that he’s attracted to her.
Episode 9: It’s My Party and I’ll Schvitz if I Want To: Hannah throws a party for Catherine so that she can connect with her, but a heat wave and blackout threatens to melt them all. Episode 10: Scared Straight: Hannah thinks that Catherine doesn’t like her stories, so she and Marty switch names on their articles. Marty then has to go to jail since he won’t reveal the source of “his” article. Episode 11: Mr. Mom: Hannah finds out that her mother was an organ donor and her heart went to someone. When she tracks the man (Austin Pendleton) down she thinks he isn’t using her mother’s heart in the way that she thinks he should. Episode 12: Just the Facts, Ma’am: Hannah sweet-talks Bradley (Richard Kind), a fact checker, into leaving a libelous quotation in her article and the results aren’t very kind.
Episode 13: Bang, You’re Dead: Hannah is dating Marty’s psychiatrist (Corbin Bernsen), much to his neurosis. He’s ever more neurotic when Hannah “loves” the shrink to death. Episode 14: Truth or Consequences: Catharine makes the staff take lie detector tests when someone on the staff is leaking dirt about her to a gossip rag. Episode 15: It’s Better to have Loved and Flossed: Marty goes to the dentist but ends up asking Robin out on a date. When Marty kisses her, they both have different ideas as to what it means. Episode 16: Hearts and Bones: Marty has a new girlfriend and Hannah insists she’s not jealous. But when they’re at dinner and Hannah breaks the new girlfriend’s rib performing the Heimlich maneuver, Marty begins to wonder how jealous she really is. Episode 17: Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown: Catharine is not mentioned in some recently published diaries of a pop-culture legend so she puts Marty in charge of the magazine.
If you wanna play a drinking game, take a slug everytime Marty touches his head
Episode 18: Breast of Friends: Marty blows his appearance on a television talk show and Hannah is making a hero out of a woman who was thrown out of a restaurant for breast feeding. When they both appear on the show they find that they have differing opinions on the topic. Episode 19: Hotel of the Damned: Marty and Hannah are sequestered in a hotel room to meet the deadline for a story in the magazine, but Hannah is more interested in trying out the hotel’s bed – with Marty! Episode 20: All About Allison: Hannah gets Allison (Courtney Thorne-Smith) a job at the magazine, but Allison is not the nice girl that she appears to be and has sights on Marty. Episode 21: Proof it All Night: The staff has to pull an all-nighter when the big election is too close to call, but Marty is caught off guard when the story that he’s written is for the wrong candidate – the losing one. Episode 22: Three Men on a Match: Marty and Hannah take Robin out on what would’ve been her anniversary. When her ex is at the restaurant and it mysteriously burns to the ground – everyone has a different story as to how it happened.
Episode 23: Partying is Such Sweet Sorrow: Marty’s girlfriend throws him a surprise birthday party, but the surprise is on her when he breaks up with her as they enter the party. Surprise! Episode 24: The Ice Woman Cometh: Catharine faces losing her job as editor when a cold corporate consultant comes to evaluate the magazine. However, Marty finds that she’s not so cold after all – in the bedroom! Episode 25: Hooray for Hollywood: Marty’s buddy is a Hollywood producer and wants to make one of Hannah’s articles into a movie, until the stubborn Marty finally agrees to let him make one of his stories and Hannah’s fame is put on the back burner. Episode 26: Robin Q. Public: Catharine thinks the magazine has become too highbrow and wants the average person’s opinion. She chooses Robin to be their consultant, but can this gig last? Episode 27: The Days of Whine and Haroses: Brian’s life is disrupted by a stalker and Hannah attends Marty family’s Seder and his old fiancé is there and their flame may not have gone out completely. Episode 28: Thirty…Something: Hannah celebrates her 30th birthday and wonders if what she needs is Marty as her birthday present.
The show is built upon the chemistry of Curtis and Lewis and boy do they have it. They play well off of one another and you really want these two to get together. The show does have a jarring moment when the creator (Wendy Kout) decided to leave and they rebooted the show with Ch-Ch-Changes, every one of the other characters got canned except for Jules Bennett (Richard Frank) and a new cast of characters showed up.
This was a bit strange for me, but it was Curtis and Lewis’ show and they kept my interest. I thought it was interesting that Curtis and Lewis only do commentary on one episode and it wasn’t one with the new characters, made me wonder if they really didn’t like the reboot either. They really don’t mention it (to my memory) in the documentary or commentary (though they do praise the original actors that were the cast up till Ch-Ch-Changes).
New cast, new editor
Anything but Love is presented in fullscreen as it was originally shown on television. Special features include an audio commentary on the pilot by Jaime Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis and yes the chemistry is still there. There’s also another audio commentary by director Robert Berlinger on Hotel of the Damned.
“All about Anything but Love” runs 26 minutes and interviews Jaime Lee Curtis, creator/executive producer Wendy Kout, Richard Lewis, executive producer Robert Myman, show runner Peter Noah, writer James Hirsch, Ann Magnuson, director Michael Lessac, and director Robert Berlinger. “Stories from the Set” runs 5 minutes and features stories by the above participants about the production.
Anything but Love is well loved and fans will be delighted to have the show on DVD and will be pleased that it got some special features to boot. I just hope that they’re planning some more for the next set. I get worried when they talk about things that happen in another season on the first set (like John Ritter’s role, which doesn’t happen till the next set).
It makes me wonder if special features are for the whole show and not just the particular season. Well, I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Whatever the case, the show is great and nice to watch.
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Anything but Love – Season 1 is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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