The Ellen Show was an obscure show which premiered in September 2001, when few people were interested in laughing, and quickly failed. I watched the show for the first time, years after its cancellation, for no other reason than that it was co-created by Mitchell Hurwitz, the brains behind Arrested Development, and partially written by Hurwitz and Chuck Martin, who also wrote for AD. Besides Ellen DeGeneres, the show stars Martin Mull, who appeared on AD. The Ellen Show had some promise with Hurwitz on board, but it never fully realizes its potential and stays an average sitcom with mostly uninteresting characters, sometimes predictable humour, sometimes mediocre acting and no deep meaning. Not to mention an annoying laugh track.The two best episodes are the Pilot, co-written by Hurwitz, and "Joe", the seventh episode which is also written by Hurwitz. These have Hurwitz playing with awkward situations, double meanings, wit, occasional physical humour, and the basic idea of losing a fortune- all of which became bigger on AD. But the rest of The Ellen Show's episodes barely feel Hurwitz's presence, even when he's a credited writer, and Martin's episodes don't achieve much either with such two-dimensional characters.In short, I had hoped I found a gem no one knew about but discovered the show is obscure for a reason, and it probably deserved to go.

I think this show wasn't given near enough credit. It was a very funny show. It was also great to see Cloris Leachman on a weekly bases again. The rest of the cast had great chemistry and Ellen brought in some great guests from time to time, including Mary Tyler Moore in a Christmas episode which I still have on TIVO to this day. Also Betty White and Ed Asner. I was surprised when it stopped airing (I had not heard or read anything anywhere about it's being canceled. It just stopped airing one day.......).I would like to see the 18 episodes that were produced released on one DVD set, so that those of us who enjoyed it can continue to enjoy it for years to come. (or at the very least allow us to view the 6 episodes that never aired.)

I have watched the show and think is is quite funny. Who cares if she is gay in it. Will and Grace seems to get a lot of laughs on that premise. In fact it is one of the things the show is based on. No one seems to complain about the fact that the men in it are gay, and talk about it a lot! It's one of the best showns on tv. Now back to Ellen. I like it, I hope it finds an audience.

Ellen D is without a doubt one of the funniest comedians to grace the screen. She has developed her comedic timing and delivery on par with many of the greats (Carol Burnett, Bob Newhart). She has also decided, or have had decided for her, that for the time being, her personal sexuality choices cannot be separated from her characters. So, once again, Ellen plays a homosexual. I found this profoundly disappointing. It's like Bill Cosby launching yet another sitcom in which he plays the upper middle class father of two or three kids. We've been there, and we've seen that. And even if immensely popular the first time, it does gets old. Add to that the fact that huge sections of her potential audience ran from her last outing in an extremely similar role, and that there are already successful series which feature openly gay characters, this stuck this viewer as essentially a waste of talent. If the argument in favor for this show is that gays need the exposure, in all fairness, gays are still 10 times better represented than Italians, Asians, Native Americans, the elderly, and the entire state of New Jersey. Nothing new to see here folks, move along.