Ed (TV series)

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Ed
The Cast
Genre	Comedy-drama
Running time	42 mins
Creator(s)	Jon Beckerman Rob Burnett
Starring	Tom Cavanagh Julie Bowen Josh Randall Jana Marie Hupp Lesley Boone
Country of origin	USA
Original channel	NBC
Original run	October 8, 2000–February 6, 2004
No. of episodes	83
IMDb profile

Ed was an NBC television program produced by David Letterman's Worldwide Pants Incorporated from 2000-2004. The hour-long dramedy starred Tom Cavanagh as Edward J. Stevens, the protagonist, Julie Bowen as his love interest Carol Vessey, Josh Randall as his friend Dr. Mike Burton, Jana Marie Hupp as Mike's wife Nancy, Lesley Boone as their friend Molly Hudson, and Justin Long as awkward high-school student Warren Cheswick. Other supporting cast members included Michael Genadry and Ginnifer Goodwin as Warren's friends Mark and Diane, and Michael Ian Black, Mike Starr, Rachel Cronin, and (later) Daryl Mitchell as the employees of Stuckeybowl, Ed's bowling alley. Long term guest stars included John Slattery as Dennis Martino and Sabrina Lloyd as Frankie Hector. The show was created by executive producers Jon Beckerman and Rob Burnett. David Letterman is also credited as one of the show's executive producers.

Ed received casting, writing, and directing Emmy nominations in 2001.Tom Cavanagh received a Golden Globe nomination and a TV Guide Award for his work on the program.

In 2004, despite a campaign by fans to keep the series on the air, NBC cut the show from their lineup because of poor ratings.

The opening credits theme song for the majority of the show's run was "Next Year" by Foo Fighters, except during the entire second season when Clem Snide's "Moment in the Sun" was used. Season three reverted back to "Next Year" in the United States, apparently at the request of fans. "Moment in the Sun" continued to be used outside the U.S., although the end credits list "Next Year" as the opening theme.

1 Premise
2 Trivia
3 Episodes
4 External links

[edit] Premise

The show revolved around Cavanagh's Ed Stevens, a hotshot New York lawyer who on the same day is both fired from his job (for a misplaced comma that cost the firm $1.6 million) and discovers that his wife is sleeping with a gay mailman (the wife makes a point that it is not their mailman in particular, but another mailman).

Deciding to pack up and go back to his home town of Stuckeyville, Ohio, he is reunited with friends that he has missed, as well as Carol Vessey, a woman he had a crush on in high school. Determined to win Carol's heart, he decides to stay, buying a rundown bowling alley and setting up a new law firm in the process, being nicknamed the "Bowling-Alley Lawyer" ("I am a lawyer, I own a bowling alley. Two separate things").

[edit] Trivia

Although set in the fictitious town of Stuckeyville, Ohio, the majority of the series was actually shot in various towns in northern New Jersey including Westfield, Cranford and Northvale.

Many of the street names and towns mentioned on the show are real New Jersey street and town names.

Stuckeybowl was actually the former Country Club Lanes in Northvale, NJ, and also served as the show's headquarters. Many of the shows's other sets were built in a cleared out portion of the bowling alley such as the interiors of Stuckeyville High School, the courtroom, and The Smiling Goat. Country Club Lanes went out of business several years ago, and was completely demolished in the late Spring of 2006.

It is interesting to note that the pilot, which featured the events that led to Ed moving to Stuckeyville, was not aired as part of the series. A summary using footage from the pilot, however, did appear at the beginning of the first regular episode.

The original first episode was also notable for starring Donal Logue as Phil and guest-starring Janeane Garofalo as Ed's ex-wife Liz. Michael Ian Black replaced Logue as Phil in re-shot scenes of the first episode and for the entire series, and a different number of actresses played Liz's few appearances including Lea Thompson who played the ex-wife near the end of the series.

The show was originally called Ed, then titled Stuckeyville when in development at CBS and then renamed Ed again when it was picked up by NBC.[1]

Ed had a number of running gags, such as Phil (Michael Ian Black) hatching ludicrous schemes usually to gain fame and/or fortune, and ten-dollar bets between Ed and Mike that would require one of them to do something extremely embarrassing.

A framed Foo Fighters poster hung on the wall of Stuckeyville High School principal Molly Hudson’s office. “Next Year” by the Foo Fighters was the theme song for Ed for three of four seasons.

Ed creators/executive producers Jon Beckerman and Rob Burnett made a cameo appearance as reception guests at Carol and Ed’s wedding in the final episode.

Several of the cast/crew who worked on Ed have turned up on Scrubs, starting with series star Tom Cavanagh who has a reoccuring role as Zack Braff's brother. Josh Randall guested in the fourth season as Sarah Chalke's love interest. Writer Mike Schwartz, a writer on Ed, is both a writer and occasional performer on Scrubs.