Unhappily Ever After (often shortened to
Unhappily... in promotional advertisements) is an
American sitcom that aired for 100 episodes on
The WB network from January 11, 1995 to May 23, 1999, for a total of four and a half seasons. "
Hit the Road Jack" by
Ray Charles was the show's
theme song starting with episode 6. The series was produced by
Touchstone Television.
The Malloy Family
The show was about Jack Malloy and his
dysfunctional family.
- Jack Malloy (Geoff Pierson) (Season 1-5): born 1959, A schizophrenic, alcoholic father who works at a wholly unsatisfying job as a used car salesman, his daughter Tiffany is his only real hope in his otherwise depressing life. He converses with a stuffed bunny (Mr. Floppy) that only he can hear.
- Jennifer "Jennie" Malloy (nee Slattery) (Stephanie Hodge) (Season 1-4): Jack's shrewish, ill-tempered, sex-crazed wife. She gets along with no one in particular and is prone to jealousy, particularly toward her daughter Tiffany (since she's everything Jennie never was and Jack treats Tiffany better than Jennie.)
- Ryan Malloy (Kevin Connolly) (Season 1-5): The eldest son of Jack and Jennie, Ryan maintains a positive happy-go-lucky attitude despite being unpopular, stupid, and unsupported emotionally by anyone (including his parents.) His inability to attract girls and his parents' overt derision of him are recurring themes throughout the show.
- Tiffany Malloy (Nikki Cox) (Season 1-5): The "favorite" child of Jack, Tiffany is seemingly perfect: smart, ambitious, popular, attractive, and still a virgin. Despite this, she is not really pure-spirited and is often self-serving.
- Ross Malloy (Justin Berfield) (Season 1-5): the youngest and arguably the most normal member of the family, despite having only average intellegence, Ross is often the voice of reason, common sense, and enlightenment in an otherwise dysfunctional family. However, it becomes clear from certain episodes that Ross has issues of his own. He is also the child that is most ignored in the family and unlike Ryan and Tiffany, tends to be treated indifferently by Jack and Jennie.
Additional characters
- Mr. Floppy (voice of Bobcat Goldthwait, puppeteer Allan Trautman) (Season 1-5): A smoking, drinking, and perverted gray stuffed bunny who lives in the Malloy basement, often discussing his life in "the toy bin," his success stories with women, or ranting about cynical topics. A large part of the show revolves around Jack consulting Mr. Floppy for advice, as only Jack can hear him (Mr. Floppy doesn't actually speak, but in Jack's warped mind he does.) While both Jack and Mr. Floppy often have differing views on things, they have similar mindsets and thus, Mr. Floppy is best seen as a sort of alter-ego of Jack.
- Maureen Slattery (Joyce Van Patten) (Season 1-2): Maureen is Jennie's somewhat delusional, alcoholic and overbearing mother and ex-wife of Joe, who clearly disapproves of Jack. She is disliked by both Jack and Jennie who see her as an annoying nuisance.
- Barbara Caulfield (Wendy Benson) (Season 5): Tiffany's on and off friend who is sometimes her enemy and one of Ryan's love interests. She attends Northridge Junior College along with Tiffany and Ryan.
Recurring characters
- Barry Wallenstein (ANT) (Season 1-5): Tiffany's main guy friend at Priddy High who is flamingly homosexual.
- Amber Moss (Dana Daurey) (Season 1-3): Tiffany's best friend at Priddy High. She is an underachiever and is sexually active unlike Tiffany.
- Patty Le Gurst (Elizabeth Harnois) (Season 1): Tiffany's rival who, like Tiffany, dresses scantily yet she is stupider than Tiffany.
- Sable O'Brien (Kristanna Loken)(Season 3): A beautiful and popular girl who becomes Tiffany's arch rival at Priddy High, unlike Patty Sable is vicious and relentlous towards Tiffany.
- Joe Slattery: Jennie's father and Maureen's ex-husband. He owns Joe's Used Car Lot, the place where Jack is employed. He is never seen but is referred to constantly.
- Emily, Jasper and Annie: Jennie's dogs that are seen in the early seasons.
Series history
In the beginning, the show was actually developed as a starring vehicle for Stephanie Hodge, whose character of Jennie was the focus of the first few episodes. However, the series concept was soon re-worked. The character of Jack (who had been kicked out of the house and was living in an apartment) was brought back home, and began living in the basement. Soon, Geoff Pierson's weary, mentally-unbalanced but straight-talking character of Jack became the central character of the show, along with Mr. Floppy. Also in season one, Joyce Van Patten played Jennie's mother, Maureen Slattery, who despised Jack.
By the show's third season it became apparent that Tiffany (Nikki Cox) was becoming a
breakout character and the de facto co-star of the show along with Pierson. Stories began focusing on Tiffany and Ryan's high school (and later community college) escapades, and the producers attempted to kill off the increasingly unnecessary character of Jennie who returned as a ghost. After doing so, however, they quickly reversed their decision due to negative audience reaction. On the show, the character was brought "back to life" in a deliberately bizarre sequence where a network executive wandered on to the set and announced Jennie's character was no longer dead. Nevertheless, Jennie was soon gone again, as several episodes later, the character abandoned her family and was never seen again.
Nikki Cox was already signed to star in a new series for the WB when
Unhappily... ended, and the final season focused more on her character of Tiffany.
Wendy Benson was added to the cast, playing Tiffany's rival Barbara Caufield. The series wrapped up with a final episode in which Jack finally made enough money to send Tiffany to
Harvard University.
Married... with Children connection
Unhappily... is sometimes called an imitation of the
FOX network's hit
Married... with Children, because the characters and their relationships to each other were very similar. Even the sets of the two shows looked extremely similar. However,
Married... with Children was usually much more extreme in sexual themes and humor. Both shows were co-created by writer
Ron Leavitt, and several writers worked on both shows. Additionally, Geoffrey Pierson appeared as Roland Squab in the episode "
Just Married... with Children" where
Al and Peg (playing as Steve and Marcy Rhoades) trade zingers on a game show.
Setting
The series takes place in
Van Nuys, California.
The Malloy Household:
The Malloys live on 2133 Oak Avenue.
- Jack's Basement: The place where Jack sleeps and has many of his conversations with Floppy.
Priddy High
The High School That Ryan, Tiffany had attended for the first 3 seasons. The mascot is "The Indians" once known as "The Injuns". The school's name is a play on the term "Pretty High".
Northridge Junior College
The community college that Ryan and Tiffany attend in Season 4 and 5.
Episodes
See:
List of Unhappily Ever After Episodes
Theme Song and Opening sequence
The series theme song was
Hit the Road Jack by
Ray Charles used from episode 7 to the series finale, the song is an obvious reference to Jennie kicking Jack out of the house. The opening is a sequence of bizzare events from the first season and the male vocals are lipsynched by Floppy while the female vocals are lipsynched by Jennie, Tiffany and Maureen.
The Original Theme song sung by Bob Goldthwait used from the pilot to episode 6 was:
We married young,
Because of Cupid.
And had three kids,
Because we were stupid.
She kicked me out,
She's not my honey.
But she still wants me,
When she needs money.
Now I'm alone,
Come rain or sunny.
But who needs love,
I've got my bunny.
Syndication and DVDs
The show was sold into
syndication for the 1999-2000 and the 2000-01 seasons, but was not re-offered the following fall due to lackluster clearance rates and low
ratings. It has been off the air in America ever since, though it was shown on the UK channel
ABC1 between 2004 and 2005. In
Canada, it was seen in syndication on
Omni Television during the 2006/2007 season. As of October 2007, it airs on the TV3 network in Estonia as
Armastuseta sinu (
Yours Without Love).
In
Germany, the show first aired on
RTL Television in November 1997, was since rerun on
RTL II and presently (as of June 2007) airs on
Comedy Central on a daily basis. It is titled
Auf schlimmer und ewig (
For the worse and ever), a pun on the phrase "Auf immer und ewig" ("For always and ever"), which is the German equivalent of the English final phrase in fairy tales ("Happily ever after").
To date, there are currently no plans to release DVDs of the series, and no site currently offers online viewing.
External links
Unhappily Ever After
