Five Centres

There's nothing better than waking up to a W.G. Snuffy Walden theme tune. Every morning, 7.15am we watch Ellen on ABC1 in bed. I think I'm obsessed with it. We must have watched the entire five or so series at least seven times. Once it ends, it just gets rerun all over again. Still, it's not as bad as Rodney, which is on before Ellen. There are so few episodes and it's been on so often we can quote from it. And that goes for the ABC1 trailers too. They change once a month if that.

So back to Ellen. I liked it when it was on orginally, though I thought when it came to lesbian series it lost its way. Having watched those episodes again and again, they do have their merits and some are quite funny. However, how the supporting cast felt during that series is anyone's guess. Though they're always credited they are either not in it, have one line or are just there to reassure Ellen that being gay is OK. There are some eps which do rather force it down your throat, so to speak, and others which are genuinely funny. On the whole, they stand up.

I think Ellen DeGeneres is a really funny visual comedian. She's very much in the Lucille Ball vain. The very first series (called These Friends of Mine in the US and simply Ellen over here), had a completely different cast except for Adam and Ellen and was hilarious - so why they dropped her two friends (one played by Maggie Wheeler, Chandler's Janice in Friends), and brought in Paige and then shouty cousin Spence is a mystery. But go they do. ABC1 don't show this series, so there must be legal reasons as to why.

But it was nonetheless pleasing to start this morning with series two, have just seen off the lesbian last series. So Ellen's now got her bookshop and there's loser in love Adam, man-eating Paige and Canadian Joe behind the coffee counter. No sign of the annoying (but still amusing) Audrey yet and Spence doesn't appear until further down the line, just crossing over with Adam who then goes too. I'm dying to know why Adam left but can find no info anywhere. I wonder if the others all fell out with Ellen when they were sidelined from the show in it's last series?

If anyone reading this can put me out of my misery, I'd be most grateful. I definitely put Ellen in my top five comedy shows of all time.