Fall '99: "Love and Money"

No, not for its writing or acting. But because of what it does for me on a far more personal level. I picked it to go second in this year's TeeVee Dead Pool and Love and Money is such a godawful mess, with ratings that are sinking fast, that it could very well give me a triumphant 1-2 sweep in this year's Pool.

That means of course the coveted Chair at the Head of the Table for our twice-weekly TeeVee staff meetings here at the Central Office plus first dibs on the danish plate each and every morning.

So I'm rooting for Love and Money to keep doing what it does best: turning viewers away in shock and horror.

The plot revolves around a very rich family headed by father David Odgen Stiers and mother Swoosie Kurtz. They have three kids, the eldest of whom is a daughter who was supposed to get married to a similarly blue-blooded fiance in the show's premiere. But instead she meets the building superintendent, falls in love with him, and calls off the wedding.

Now there's zaniness aplenty as the blue-collar super and his hoity-toity girlfriend try and convince her parents he's not such a Neanderthal after all. The super lives with his father, played by Brian Doyle-Murray, who also happens to be the building's doorman. Apparently the show's creators were very impressed with the enduring comic legacy left by Ernest Borgnine's days on The Single Guy.

A sage and sarcastic doorman, a rich mother who drinks like a fish and a guy named Eamon. It's a recipe for sitcom disaster -- but sweet, sweet Dead Pool success.

I'm pulling for you, Love and Money. Now get back out there and keep stinking up the joint!