It Only Looks Like a Ball

It Only Looks Like a Ball
TELEVISION
After three seasons, 'Two Guys and a Girl' still isn't a hit--or
a failure. Its frustrated young cast has been trying to make
the best of a mediocre situation.
January 07, 2001|CRAIG TOMASHOFF | Craig Tomashoff is a
freelance writer based in Los Angeles
It looks pretty much like a typical Monday morning at any office
anywhere. There's a sign posted to let everyone know that flu shots
will be available tomorrow afternoon. In the lunchroom, employees
drift over to sign up for the "Monday Night Football" pool. Out in
front, a few people have gathered for a quick smoke and a chat about
plans for the upcoming holidays. However, there's just one difference
between this setting and most offices around the country. It's a place
where the employees could be sent packing at any moment because
the product they produce each week doesn't seem to be in demand
anymore.
Welcome to the Land the Nielsen Families Forgot. Welcome to the set
of "Two Guys and a Girl." In the beginning, it was simply about Pete
and Berg, a pair of Boston twentysomething roommates (Ryan
Reynolds and Richard Ruccolo) who hung out at the local pizza place,
and their money-hungry friend, Sharon (Traylor Howard). The show,
which has been airing at 8 p.m. Fridays on ABC, hovers in the
southern half of the ratings. In its fourth season on the air, the Show
Formerly Known as "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place" has
occasionally been the lowest-rated returning sitcom on a major
network. It's also taken a continual beating from critics throughout its

history. So just imagine, for a minute, what it must be like to go to
work every day with the knowledge that you're being rejected on such
a large scale.
"It feels really personal," explains Ruccolo, who plays Pete, a neurotic
architect-turned-firefighter. "I know it's not. This is absolutely a
business, but it's hard not to take it personally. This is a business
where emotions are so intertwined that it does feel personal. But
there's no rhyme or reason on television. What will drive you crazy is
trying to figure it out."
"Two Guys" is getting some help from its move to 9 p.m., following
"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." Yet while that scheduling fix may
provide a bit of a ratings lift, from a perceptual standpoint the
damage has been done, and "Two Guys" still finds itself on Fridays--
the night when overall TV viewing levels are at their lowest.
It's not as if days on the set are filled with hand wringing and
complaining. Everyone explains that their days of obsessively waiting
for the ratings to come out each week have long since faded. In fact,
according to Suzanne Cryer, who plays Ashley, Berg's on-again, off-
again gal pal, "It's a kind of que sera sera attitude here. We're pretty
mellow about it at this point. We've kind of thrown up our hands and
said, 'We're going to do what we're going to do.' "
"It does sometimes feel like we're coming down here to do little plays
for ourselves," admits Howard, whose Sharon is a high-strung career
woman and now a high-strung newlywed. "With the routine of
coming here, of having a great time with everyone you work with, you
almost forget what it is you're really doing. I definitely have days
when I get frustrated, but I think everyone has moments like that in
their job."

Nestled in a studio surrounded by sets for the more headline-
grabbing likes of "Spin City" and "Will & Grace," the cast and crew
have come to accept the fact that network television is the oddest of
art forms. Filmmakers can max out their credit cards and come up
with a low-budget hit that makes them a festival sensation. Musicians
can record something in their basement and be content as a cult hit
on college radio. When you're in network television, however, it's all
or nothing. There are at least 100 different shows in any given week
on all six networks, and while those in the top 20 get the bulk of the
buzz, somebody has to fill in the other 80 time slots. That doesn't
mean they're necessarily lacking in quality. It just means that they
operate in a nationally televised limbo.
"There are more shows in our position than there are shows like
'Frasier' and 'Friends,' " adds the show's executive producer, Kevin
Abbott. "The feeling is sort of like having a terminal disease. You
know you're eventually going to die, and you go through all the stages
like depression and anger before coming to acceptance. I think that's
where we are now. We're in remission for a while, and that's not an
awful place. I'd rather be working and around creative people every
day than not, and that's what we have here."
He has seen the penthouse, working on "Roseanne" when it was one
of television's biggest shows, and he admits that life on the ground
floor takes some getting used to. "At first, the fight keeps you going,"
Abbott says. "I knew that the pieces were here to make a good show.
We have been at least a modest ratings hit. This year, I know that's
not happening, and that's a hard adjustment. It's hard to go from
feeling the passion that you can do classic television episodes to
feeling that this is a day-to-day job. It's nice to get a check, but that's
not why I got into this business." And certainly there isn't a soul on
the set who is just phoning it in. Spend just a little time on the set and

it's clear that everyone is working hard to get the show done each
week.
*
Still, life has never been easy on "Two Guys and a Girl." The series
was originally developed and then cut loose by the Fox Broadcasting
Co., and ABC picked it up as a midseason entry in the 1997-98 season
despite some objections by executives there. "In its infancy, there was
never a lot of enthusiasm here for the show, but [former
Entertainment President] Jamie Tarses and I liked the cast," explains
ABC Entertainment Chairman Stu Bloomberg. "It didn't have a
remarkable concept, but the cast was really appealing. We didn't have
a lot of shows for a younger demographic, so we decided to let it
grow." During its initial run following "The Drew Carey Show" on
Wednesday nights, "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place" regularly won
its time slot at 9:30 p.m. in the 18-to-49 demographic, pulling in 12.6
million viewers a week. However, the show's title and some less-than-
stellar episodes turned it into a favorite target for critics and turned
the cast into realists. "How we survived that time is beyond me," sighs
Reynolds, who plays womanizing medical student Berg. "The first 13
episodes were rough. They were not good shows."
Nonetheless, the ratings were good enough to earn a second season.
After moving to an earlier slot on Wednesdays behind "Dharma &
Greg," it drew an audience of about 12.39 million. Last season, it was
moved to 8 p.m. to open the night, and its ratings took a slight dive to
10.54 million. And this year, after being moved yet again, this time to
Friday night, it is averaging a relatively paltry 6.94 million. It's kind
of like being the child of a parent in the military. You move around so
much that you never get the chance to develop a serious relationship
anywhere you stop. "We've become the utility show, where they just
fill in the blank with you," says Ruccolo. "After awhile, you start to

feel like, 'Oh, we're the denominator divisible into any spot in the
schedule.' People can spin that into a compliment, but to me, it sends
a message that they're just using you for what you're good for."
Low ratings are one thing. But the fact that the steep drop in numbers
happened because of something out of their control--the move to
Fridays--has created a bit of a helpless feeling. "Our demographic
isn't at home on Friday nights," explains Reynolds. "People between
18 and 49 are going out, not sitting down for a night of television.
That night is not our audience, and I'd love to be back where we were.
We make no bones about that at all here."
*
For years, ABC's Friday night lineup was built around programming
for the pubescent set, such as "Sabrina the Teenage Witch." This year,
however, the network opted to go in the opposite direction by adding
established, adult-oriented comedies like "Two Guys and a Girl" and
"Norm," and newcomers "The Trouble With Normal" and "Madigan
Men." The plan hasn't worked so far, with the latter two shows
already off the air. Bloomberg acknowledges that "we've asked 'Two
Guys and a Girl' to do a yeoman's job, and the audience isn't there
yet." Meaning that, for the moment at least, there is no chance the
show will be shipped to another night. Admits Abbott, "You do get
down about that move. When I heard about it, I went into a severe
depression. I didn't talk to anybody for about two weeks. ABC had
their strategy for it, but I felt like we were going to Siberia. I felt like
we still had a shot at good things on Wednesdays. Moving, to me, said
that we would never have the chance to grow."
Still, like Dodger fans during spring training, he and the cast at first
tried to keep their hopes for a great season alive. On Mondays
following a Friday airdate, people on the set would have water-cooler

conversations about what was going wrong and how it could be fixed.
"You couldn't help it when a show did poorly in terms of numbers. It
became a matter of conversation on the set," says Nathan Fillion, who
plays Johnny, Sharon's new husband. "In the kitchen, we grabbed
doughnuts and talked about it. When you got to work on Monday
morning, you were a little disheartened, getting into the whys and
wherefores. Are we getting enough promotion? Are we on the right
night at the right time?"
"The move definitely affected morale on the set," adds Abbott. "That
first Monday after our first Friday airing was very hard. Now, some
people are matter-of-fact about the ratings. Some are still bitter. At
some point, I talked to everybody about the situation. We talk about it
all the time. But we've regrouped and said, 'Let's try to make it work.'
"
That's easier said than done. Making it work, according to Ruccolo,
means giving the audience what it wants. However, when ratings are
low, it's tough to divine exactly what that is. "TV is so much more
about what people are talking about at work the next day," he says.
"That buzz ignites a creative fire with producers and actors, and
things start to stretch and develop. We've never really experienced
that. When people start saying, 'We love Will & Grace,' you have this
meter. You hear what they like, what they don't like. You stick to what
they like and you're on the road to success. When people aren't tuning
in, you have no meter, so you're guessing every week. Will this work?
Won't it work?"
*
While some shows at the deep end of the ratings pool slip below the
surface without a trace, "Two Guys" has been trying all sorts of new
strokes to stay afloat. The series has continually tried to move beyond

its original concept to pull in a larger audience. Since it went on the
air midway through the 1997-98 season, however, Abbott and a new
team of writers have been brought in to turn the show into something
more than the quip-of-the-week series that it had been. The pizza
place has been dumped. Pete and Berg have been given steady jobs.
Sharon has married. And several new actors, such as Cryer and
Fillion, have been brought in to create an ensemble cast. To some
degree, the changes have paid off. After all, the series is still on the air
and the network has ordered a full season of shows. And, as the cast
and producers have discovered, being No. 89 in the national Nielsens
means never having to play by the rules. How often do you see a top
20 sitcom kill off every character one week and bring them back as if
nothing had happened the next?
"There is a freedom to our situation," explains executive producer
Don Beck. "The network and the studio have both been very
encouraging when we want to try new things, things that are a bit
more bold. We wouldn't have that chance if we were a top 10 show or
a bottom-rung show. We did a show without dialogue. We did an
hommage to Hitchcock. You don't see that sort of thing normally in a
sitcom, and part of being low-rated is you get to do that." Adds
Reynolds: "There's not so much at stake. We're not going to get 40
million viewers screaming, 'My God! What did they do?' And so far, I
think all the risks we've taken have paid off creatively."
Some of the actors have also noticed a personal advantage to life on a
low-rated series. It's actually helped when they try out for movie
roles. "When I go in for films, I don't get put in a box," says Howard.
"If you're Matthew Perry [from 'Friends'] and you go in, they expect
to see Chandler. I get, 'Yeah, we liked that one episode you did,' but
they don't lock me into just being my character. That would make me
uncomfortable. Jennifer Aniston couldn't change her hairstyle for two

years. I'd hate that."
*
It's not, however, that she wouldn't like to spend a year at the top.
"Let's face it," she adds. "If this show was hot and huge, that would be
a really fun experience. I look forward to having that someday, but
then again, I don't feel like the stepchild over here because we've
always gotten a good response from the people who watch the show.
We never get, 'You guys suck!' I don't feel that. I just feel that this is a
show that's never really gotten its legs. That doesn't necessarily mean
that we can't."
That sense of faint optimism pervades the set, but there's also plenty
of realism. As Abbott admits, "20 years from now nobody will be
talking about 'Two Guys and a Girl.' " The show is part of a business
that cares for its employees the way Cruella De Vil treats the help, and
because of the uncertainty that creates, no show stays on forever.
Which means that ultimately, life on a low-rated sitcom is not much
different from that on a hit.
Out on the set, Reynolds and Ruccolo are proving just that. On a
Monday following a November sweeps Friday when ABC chose to air
a Beatles special instead of their show, the two actors are improvising
a gag that will last all of 20 seconds at the end of a show. It's a bit with
Pete coming home to find a sleeping Berg blocking the entrance to
their apartment. And while it will only run over the closing credits,
everyone including the camera operators has already spent 20
minutes offering all sorts of gag ideas. Finally, they settle on a punch
line. Pete tells Berg, "You can't sleep there." He steps over him, moves
his roommate into the hall and grabs the morning paper. "You can
sleep there," he says. And the set erupts in laughter.

"I have friends who are on sitcoms that are massive," says Reynolds.
"What we'll talk about is the dynamic on our sets, not ratings. And the
one thing I've learned in the short time I've been doing this is it's all
the same. Every show becomes a big family that has to slam together
22 minutes of television every week and you just hope it flies with an
audience. If you can get big numbers, that's great, but ultimately the
only goal is to be proud of each week's show. And I think we are here."
*
"Two Guys and a Girl" airs Friday nights at 9 on ABC.
Copyright 2011 Los Angeles Times
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