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The John Larroquette Show aired from September 1993 until October 1996 on NBC.

In a world full of bright, cheery sitcoms, The John Larroquette Show was an anomaly. It was so dark and seedy that TV Guide called it "sitcom noir," but its smart, character-driven humor earned it a loyal following on NBC's Tuesday-night lineup. John Hemingway ( John Larroquette) was a well-educated man who had lost his family and career due to alcoholism. He was now firmly on the wagon, but the best job he could get was as night manager of what was possibly the world's seediest bus terminal-The Crossroads, located in a run-down and dangerous section of St. Louis ( one wonders why any traveler would go near it). Mahalia ( Liz Torres) was his loud, sarcastic assistant who knew more about the place than he did and thought she should have had his job; Dexter ( Daryl " Chill" Mitchell)the young black man with a chip on his shoulder who operated the snack bar and resented all whites; Gene ( Chi McBride) the large, surly janitor who didn't like to clean( the appalling condition of the unseen men's room was a running gag); Oscar the bum ( Bill Morey) who always was looking for a handout; and Hefty Hampton and tiny Eggers(Lenny Clarke, Elizabeth Berridge)the jaded cops who mooched donuts.

Lightening things up a bit was Cary ( Gigi Rice) the hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold who befriended John ( and eventually bought the Terminal's bar where he stopped by but never imbibed)and, in the second season Catherine ( Alison LaPlaca), a nurse who lived in the apartment across from John's and provided a love interest.

The 1995-1996 season brought major changes, as NBC struggled to save the sinking show by lightening its tone.The sun came up, literally , as the entire cast moved to the day shift: Oscar got a job running the newsstand and Carly, who had given up her career as a hooker , found her millionaire ( Ted McGinley) and sold the bar to Catherine, who used it to indulge her lifelong dream of being a torch singer. Stories revolved around John and Catherine's on-and-off relationship, and reminders of his former life . In one episode , both of John's kids , Rachel ( Mayim Bialik) and Tony ( Omri Katz)-neither of whom knew about the other-showed up. In 1996 Carly broke up with her sugar daddy and she and John abruptly decided to marry. However during the ceremony in September 1996, John learned that Catherine was apparently pregnent with his child! The series was canceled only a few weeks into the 1996-1997 season, leaving the few viewers who were left little time to sort all this out.

A Review from Variety

The John Larroquette Show
((Thurs. (2), 9:30-10 p.m., NBC))
By RAY LOYND

Filmed in Hollywood by Witt-Thomas Prods. Exec producers, Paul Junger Witt, Tony Thomas, Don Reo, John Larroquette; co-exec producers, Judith D. Allison, Mitch Hurwitz; director, John Whitesell; creator, Reo; production designer, Ed LaPorta.

Cast: John Larroquette, Liz Torres, Gigi Rice, Daryl (Chill) Mitchell, Chi McBride, David Shawn Michaels, Glenn Shadix, Lenny Clarke, Elizabeth Berridge, John F. O'Donohue.

Hi. My name is John Hemingway and I'm an alcoholic." It's doubtful any TV comedy has ever opened at an A.A. meeting, let alone unveiled an introductory line quite like that. Credit John Larroquette, who stars as a recovering boozer taking over the night management of a St. Louis bus station, for bringing humor, respectable drama and even a touch of grace to the dark, edgy corners of this refreshing sitcom.
If viewers are ready and hungry for comedy with social bite, thisshow should register numbers. In both the pilot and premiere episodes, the tone is established by ripe, politically incorrect humor in one scene after another.

The format -- alternating confrontations between Larroquette and the bizarre denizens of a self-contained world -- is as old as radio and "Duffy's Tavern."

But the exec producers (who include Larroquette himself) turn an urban underbelly into an adult, witty, street-smart mural. Contributing to the flavor is the bus station's colorful, bygone-era art-deco decor (designed by Ed LaPorta).

The show's major risk is the sheer amount of A.A.-inspired material. A running gag is how everyone is always inviting the tempted Hemingway into the bar for a drink. But the writers deftly skirt any personal agendas.

In one encounter with a drunk hanger-on (Eric Christmas), the inebriate absorbs a Larroquette remark about sobriety and cynically responds, "You're in the program? I wish all you people would take your 12 steps off an 11-step pier."

A Review from The New York Times

Review/Television; Prime-Time Comedy With a Sting

By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: September 14, 1993

With adorable parents and cuddly children hogging much of the prime-time television schedule these days, chronic grumps may be understandably desperate for a dose or two of humor with bite. Examples of two very different sorts are available tonight: "The John Larroquette Show," a new series at 9 P.M. on NBC, and "Bill Hicks: Revelations," a comedy special on HBO at midnight.

Television likes John Larroquette. The actor won four consecutive Emmy Awards, a unique feat for a performer, for his portrayal of the flakily pompous prosecutor on the NBC series "Night Court." This time around, as the star and an executive producer of his own show, created by Don Reo ("Blossom"), Mr. Larroquette plays John Hemingway, a recovering alcoholic.

Trying to put his life back in order after 20 years of serious boozing, John has become the night manager at a bus station in St. Louis. Like the airport in "Wings" and the police station in "Barney Miller," the bus station provides a setting calculated to attract an endless parade of eccentrics and weirdos. In television terms, the concept is ancient.

Mr. Larroquette's John is the kind of acerbic but affable guy for whom everybody is eager to buy a drink, the last thing in the world he needs. "Muslims want to buy me a drink," he cries. There is obviously nothing funny about alcoholism, but this new show manages to be enormously amusing even while deftly slipping in some serious messages. And the supporting cast is well chosen. Among the multi-racial cast are Hemingway's tart-tongued assistant, Mahalia, played to a sizzling Latina turn by Liz Torres, and a cocky young black man named Dexter, depicted with zest by Daryl (Chill) Mitchell.

Coping with loony passengers, local hookers and frightfully filthy restrooms, John does his best to get through it all one day at a time while realizing that "if I was drunk, none of this would bother me." Mahalia's sarcasm and Dexter's hostility (John asks, "Did you learn everything you know about white people from Spike Lee movies?") are the least of his problems. Only consider the whisky-swilling geezer who, on the subject of Alcoholics Anonymous, snarls: "I wish all of you people would take your 12 steps off an 11-step pier."

"The John Larroquette Show" looks good in its initial episodes, but this time around the performer will need more than Emmys to insure survival. The series is up against ABC's "Roseanne," a top-five favorite showing no signs of fatigue.

Bill Hicks, a stand-up comic, is often called a skeptic. That hardly does justice to the uncompromisingly sour world view of this misanthrope, very much one of Lenny Bruce's many children. As he proceeds on what he calls "my never-ending ride into the setting sun," Mr. Hicks can lash out at McDonald's as the anti-Christ and then, tweaking the righteous, announce: "Not all drugs are good. Some are great."

Insisting that God is a prankster, Mr. Hicks covers everything from the United States invasion of Iraq ("As soon as the weapons check clears, we're going in") to smoking marijuana ("You can do anything perfectly well; you just realize it's not worth the effort"). The language is strong, the material provocative and frequently hilarious. Not for ordinary prime time, perhaps, but Mr. Hicks confides, "I am available for children's parties, by the way." THE JOHN LARROQUETTE SHOW NBC, tonight at 9 (Channel 4 in New York) Created by Don Reo for Witt-Thomas Productions. Paul Junger Witt, Tony Thomas, Don Reo and John Larroquette, executive producers. WITH: Mr. Larroquette, Liz Torres, Gigi Rice, Daryl (Chill) Mitchell, Chi McBride, Lenny Clarke, Elizabeth Berridge and John F. O'Donohue. BILL HICKS REVELATIONS HBO, tonight at midnight Directed by Chris Bould; producer, Gillian Strachan; exectuive producers, Chris Bould. Bob Shea, Herb Nanas, Charles Brand and Sue Hancock. WITH: Bill Hicks

A Review from USA TODAY

TV PREVIEW/BY MATT ROUSH

'John Larroquette Show' courts disaster

After all the griping about those sugary-sweet family sitcoms that clog the prime-time brain train, it seems churlish not to be generous to a comedy that insists on being dark and downbeat.

But what the heck.

The John Larroquette Show doesn't mearly have edge. It has mildew.

Bawdy yet dreary, this show drowns its many sorrows in an unpalatable stew of bitter humor about alcoholism, racial tension, stranglings and shootings, with hookers and hustlers and transvestites among the tide of inhumanity that ebbs in and out of a St. Louis bus station.

Naturally, much of the humor is below the belt or in the toilet, including a men's room that's such a toxic waste dump even the janitor won't venture to.

Into this grim no-exit way station comes John Hemingway ( Larroquette), a barely recovering alcoholic, numb with dispair and self-disgust.

Bearing a wall plaque that reads This is a Dark Ride-" There should be one hanging at the end of the birth canal," he mopes-he takes over as night manager, greeted by the chalk outline of his predecessor. Died in his sleep, didn't even feel the bullet.

By next week , shellshocked Larroquette is spouting lines like , " These are the jokes ,sweetheart. Feel free to laugh." Unlike in Night Court, he's the straight man now, with a hangdog expression of pained incomprehension as he spars with co-workers and customers while everyone offers him a drink.

As ensemble workplace comedies go, this is a clipped Wings, a cheerless Cheers, yet with enough ambition to attempt Kafka and Diane Arbus jokes ( albeit feeble, and Larroquette calls her " Dee-anne,") Sadly the era of " Norm!" is gone at NBC. Welcome to ab-norm.

NBC has given this an appropriately fatalistic time slot, Tuesdays at 9 pm, ET/PT opposite Roseanne. It's hardly counterprogramming to schedule one bleak sitcom against another, but there's little doubt which one is funnier.

" Life is filled with horrifying thoughts," Larroquette muses in one typical moment. Hard to dispute, because-horrors-this is just the first new NBC show of the fall season.

Fasten your bus straps. It's not going to be a pretty ride.

An Article from The New York Times

CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK;Working Days and Lightening Up at the Bus Depot
By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: February 27, 1996

There seems to be something of a neglected-child syndrome in NBC's treatment of "The John Larroquette Show." As the network's programming juggernaut scoops up powerful ratings, much is ballyhooed, justifiably, about "Seinfeld," "Friends," "E.R" and "Frasier." The Larroquette series tends to get reduced to a minor player. That's not so, in terms of either ratings or quality.

Bumped around the NBC schedule for a couple of seasons, the show is now in the prime slot of Tuesdays at 9:30 P.M., immediately following "Frasier." There is a dip in the ratings as "Larroquette" comes on, but nothing disastrous. On a typical night it will still be ahead of "Wings" at 8 and the much vaunted "Dateline NBC" at 10. Obviously this is no 98-pound weakling.

And with good reason. Mr. Larroquette is ideal for television comedy. His face seems made of Silly Putty, dotted with two beady eyes that are devastatingly on target for his deadpan takes. Add a splendid sense of comic timing, and it's clear why the actor won an unprecedented four consecutive Emmys for playing the egomaniacal Assistant District Attorney on "Night Court," which was also on NBC.

In his current series, created by Don Reo, Mr. Larroquette is John Hemingway, manager of a St. Louis bus station called Crossroads. Originally the series had unusually dark overtones, suggesting something of a dingy sitcom. The character of John was a recovering alcoholic. His addictive nature extended toward women and gambling. It still does, but with considerably lighter touches. Even the lighting was changed as John switched from his night duties to a daytime shift.

With echoes of William Inge's play, this bus-stop world is filled with offbeat characters, some just passing through, several among the weekly regulars. John's assistant is Mahalia Sanchez (Liz Torres), an imposing tent of a woman whose sarcasm matches her girth. Dexter (Daryl Mitchell) runs the snack bar with an attitude that makes clear that white people are going to impinge on his African-American space. Catherine (Alison LaPlaca) is the wary object of John's odd affections. As in "Night Court," the plots are improbable, disarmingly wacky and, more frequently than you might expect, hilarious.

In fact, "The John Larroquette Show" is that rare commodity on prime time: sly satire. One recent episode tackled the contemporary anxiety of aging and cosmetic surgery. Agreeing to accompany Police Officer Eggers (Elizabeth Berridge) to a plastic surgeon (Harry Anderson from "Night Court" days) so she can have her distracting breasts reduced, John considered some changes himself, including new jaws in the shape of Jay Leno's or Markie Post's. John is 45; the doctor insisted he was 56. Only Dexter guessed his right age, noting that the problem was that he "talked old" but "I'm not going to be your link to contemporary society."

The episode ended at a college-reunion party for plastic surgeons, all looking strangely young but none under 60. "I just wanted to improve my image, not replace it," wailed John. Suddenly popping onto the scene was George Hamilton, oozing satisfaction: "Good? I look fantastic. I'm 87 years old." At fadeout, attending a birthday party for the father of old and raunchy Oscar (Bill Morey), a newsstand manager, John announced that "this episode of 'Matlock' has come to an end."

Last week John took up with a young yoga instructor, Penelope (Holly Fulger), who confided: "I hope this doesn't sound too New Age, but you really have pronounced energy receptors." He thought it might have something to do with his jeans shrinking in the last wash. Nevertheless, he ended up with Penelope on a train to some mud-bath resort, only to discover that her babble about karma and destiny didn't do much for romance. Catherine, who happened to be on the same train, accused John of using "that New Age mumbo jumbo just to get what you want." He reasonably countered: "Isn't that what New Age mumbo jumbo is for?"

Meanwhile, back at the bus station, Mahalia was assuring Carly, a former hooker with a slight frigidity problem, that sex offered intense physical release, and, she added, "the last three times the delivery guy let me have the pizza for free." The plots click along zanily, supplemented with strong guest stars. In one episode, Richard Mulligan played the father that John thought had been killed in a shootout years earlier. In another, Ann Magnuson did a nifty turn as a performance artist. Tonight Max Wright is a best-selling author whose writer's block is cured, unintentional courtesy of John, by a hefty dose of helium.

Mr. Larroquette and his show are very much in the major leagues of television sitcom.

For a look at a crossover between The John Larroquette Show and Frasier go to http://poobala.com/frasierandlarroquette.html