Bad Girl's Guide: Jenny McCarthy - Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries

Bad Girl's Guide aired from May until July 2005 on UPN.

According to author Cameron Tuttle, whose Bad Girl's Guide book provided the basis for this comedy, a " bad girl" was a woman who was sassy , provacative, questioned authority and knew what she wanted in life and how to get it with style, confidence and humor. JJ, Holly and Sarah ( Jenny McCarthy, Marcelle Larice, Christina Moore), three independent women in Chicago, fit the description to a tee. Single JJ was the quintessential bad girl, doing pretty much whatever she wanted while still believing she would eventually settle down with Mr. Right-as long as the relationship didn't cramp her style. JJ was an account executive at Banderas Advertising working with Holly, a divorcee with no intention of ever remarrying , who frequently took her bad-girl-ness right to the edge. JJ's roommate Sarah, more levelheaded than the others and ready to get married and settle down , was still susceptible to their bad girl shananigans. At work JJ and Holly reported to Irene (Stephanie Childers), a bitchy autocratic vice-president with no sense of humor.Patric ( Johnathan McClain), the Banderas receptionist loved to hear what the girls were doing and was more than willing to help them get around Irene's dictates.

A Review From The New York Times

TV Review | The Bad Girl's Guide
A New Career in Advertising, but Still With a Wicked Streak

By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN
Published: May 24, 2005

There was something ace about Jenny McCarthy in the 1990's. On "Singled Out" she was so brash, so crass, so great-looking, so expertly just-shy-of-annoying. Or maybe she was annoying sometimes. But she was good at comedic saves, too; if you were annoyed, she made you think it was your problem and why didn't you know how to have fun? With her Playmate of the Year looks and her flooring-it party-girl persona, she came off like a low-cal Liz Phair, and she was by far the best thing on MTV's squealy dating show.

But since the days Ms. McCarthy spent as a high-flying television personality, which followed the days she spent as a high-flying Playboy Playmate of the Year, her career has been a series of good-natured misfires. She had some small movie roles, as well as a variety show on MTV and a sitcom on NBC, although neither lasted long. And though it seemed at times as if she should have been a full-on comic blond sensation - did Cameron Diaz steal her career? - she faltered, married, had a baby, disappeared.

But now she's back. She's filling the role of host on live shows, making appearances. Her book, "Baby Laughs," about the first year of motherhood, is on the best-seller list, just above a memoir by Bob Dole. And her latest sitcom, "The Bad Girl's Guide," starts tonight on UPN.

There's no pleasure in reporting that it's another misfire, though typically good-natured. Tonight's episode is madcap but ultimately strident and not entertaining. As JJ, a boy-crazy advertising executive, Ms. McCarthy smiles wide, cavorts and cracks up with two friends, Holly (Marcelle Larice) and Sarah (Christina Moore), as she pushes deadlines, fantasizes about guys and gets high while working for a huffy boss.

That's cool, that's bad. But the kooky dialogue, delivered in shrieks, falls flat. And JJ and her friends are far too pleased with themselves; they amplify the grating laugh track with so much deranged gaiety of their own that they seem to be crying for help.

The advertising firm, at which JJ and Holly share an office tricked out with dot-com kindergarten décor (exercise balls, beanbags, cheery Macs), provides plenty of opportunities for the bad girls to blow off their work but keep their salaries and their reputations as geniuses by pulling something out at the last minute (in the case of tonight's episode, a detergent campaign they come up with while stoned).

After hours, JJ and Holly coach softie Sarah on how to stand up to her thieving ex-boyfriend, while juggling prospective boyfriends of their own. Sweetly, each episode purports to offer a little moral, mostly about love. On tonight's, JJ proposes that "the real deal is worth waiting for," only to be told, by Sarah, that sometimes a girl needs support from her friends even when she's dating the wrong guy. The story concludes with a plug for "America's Next Top Model," another UPN show; the bad girls, it turns out, are big fans.

Next week's episode is a little better, though it relies on gags about vibrators and cheap booze. What's nice about it comes at the end again. This time JJ learns a lesson about letting down her guard with a man. She trips, falls and locks her keys in her car after a wacky night, only to come across the obnoxious trend-forecaster who has been menacing her with talk of what-women-want for the entire episode. There's something genuine in the way she lets him call AAA for her. It's as though this act, Jenny McCarthy's decade-long act - beautiful, raunchy, and above all loud - might actually be difficult to maintain.

The Bad Girl's Guide

UPN, tonight at 9:30, Eastern and Pacific times; 8:30, Central time.

Robin Schiff, executive producer and show runner; Tony Krantz, executive producer; Cameron Tuttle, co-executive producer. Produced by Palm Tree Productions and Flame Television in association with Paramount Network Television.

WITH: Jenny McCarthy (JJ), Marcelle Larice (Holly), Christina Moore (Sarah), Stephanie Childers (Irene), Johnathan McClain (Patric), Cedric Yarbrough (Kip), Christopher Gartin (Doug), Oscar Nunez (Melicio), John Balma (caterer), Matthew Garel (Rick).

A Review from USA TODAY

'Bad Girl's Guide' does it all — badly
By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY
Bad, nothing. These girls are god-awful.

I'm sorry, but really: When you concoct a UPN throwaway sitcom for Jenny McCarthy, you really shouldn't use "bad" in the title. You're just asking for it.

Actually, The Bad Girl's Guide's most obvious and hopeless request is its unspoken wish that a gullible audience mistakes this mindless retread for Sex and the City.The show is trying so hard to be titillating, from the jokes about vibrators, bondage and lesbian day parades to the thudding sexual innuendos. It's even trying to build shows around invented social trends and terms, and not doing a particularly good job of it.

Written by Robin Schiff and run by a cast of thousands (always a bad sign for a sitcom), Girl's Guide stars McCarthy, Marcelle Larice and Christina Moore as beautiful young women whose interests never seem to stray beyond booze and boys. The show is based on Cameron Tuttle's series of books, which is odd because you get the feeling these women can't open a book on their own, let alone read one.

In her books, Tuttle entertains the possibility that even non-model-type girls can be bad. But this is TV, where we have to pretend all girls are gorgeous and McCarthy can carry a series — even though real life has provided more than enough evidence to the contrary.

Yes, McCarthy can be funny in small doses and select scenes. But she's far too harsh and exaggerated to support a half-hour.

Unfortunately, she's about all Bad Girl's Guide has going for it. Schiff's script is terrible, and the cast performs down to the level of the writing. There isn't a single funny character, unless you count Johnathan McClain's sexually confused straight-talking/gay-acting receptionist. And the only thing funny about that is the idea that any show would be desperate enough to steal a character from Veronica's Closet.

In tonight's opener, ad execs JJ (McCarthy) and Holly (Larice) are unable to come up with a campaign for a detergent until a dope-smoking stint inspires them. In a future episode, JJ is upset when the firm hires a handsome "trendthropologist" to teach her how to reach young female consumers.

Does JJ fall for her good-looking adversary? With a show this bad, you don't even have to ask.

Here's another aticle from The San Francisco Chronicle.

'Bad Girls' having so much fun that they tune out the TV show about them
Jane Ganahl

Saturday, May 28, 2005

Julie Parker, hotel executive, party organizer and friend of author Cameron Tuttle, makes a general announcement to the quickly growing party throng.

"Someone's gonna have to put a dollar in that boy's jock strap, and that someone might as well be me!"

The hunky male dancer go-going on a platform in the Den furniture store on Valencia Street smiles as Parker reaches up and slips some currency into his Speedo-size costume. Onlookers, who are easily 90 percent female, scream with approval. Bad Girls, every single one of them.

Bad goddess Cameron Tuttle rushes forward to give Parker a hug -- and a name tag, written on a panty liner. She peels off the backing adhesive and slaps the cotton figure eight on Parker's suit lapel.

A panty liner?

"They make excellent beer cozies as well," beams the author of the mega- selling "Bad Girl's Guide" books, hastily scribbling more names on more pads for more friends. She seems to have a million friends -- or at least fans. They're all gathered tonight at Tuttle's behest for a "trash TV party," which includes junk food, lots of booze, go-go dancers -- and a viewing of Tuttle's latest enterprise, the UPN sitcom also bearing the "Bad Girl's Guides" name, which is to premiere in an hour or so. Scaffolding has been set up so the show, starring Jenny McCarthy and executive-produced by Tuttle, can be projected onto the wall.

"It's been getting mostly panned," shrugs the witty redhead, who once sustained a head injury from dancing so recklessly that she landed on a coffee table. "Which doesn't surprise me that much. The (New York) Times hated it, I hear. We got a B minus in Entertainment Weekly. And normally a B minus wouldn't be acceptable to me, but this is TV."

Tuttle's books (and the paraphernalia from her Bad Girl Swirl line of merchandise) have found their way into the hearts of young women everywhere who warm to the idea that the future belongs to the rule-breakers. And that means tons of fun.

Heather Scotland is a bad girl who came from the East Bay to support her heroine.

"Heather has this great idea of bringing together 'Bad Girl' essays on the Web site -- sort of an exchange of ideas," says Tuttle, with an arm around Scotland's shoulder.

"I'm just one of the members," says Scotland, 23, referring to the hyperactive www.badgirlswirl.com. "There are so many women on the Web site, and we form a real community. We meet each other, go to parties wearing feather boas and tiaras."

Of her idol, Scotland sighs, "Cameron is awesome."

At the Mission District store, which is owned by Tuttle's friend Raymond Long, there are piles of doughnuts, bowls of cheesy tortilla chips, popcorn and peanuts. The booze is in the back -- vodka drinks, tequila drinks, wine and bottled water for the wimps. There also is a display set up by the Sperm Bank of California, complete with a container overflowing with dry-ice fog. What's inside the container is anyone's guess.

Wisely, Long has moved a fair amount of his store's furniture to the basement. He knows what Tuttle's friends are like.

The 40-ish Tuttle herself is barely drinking -- too much pressure on the hostess. The Lafayette native (where her father was mayor) and Brown University graduate who now lives in San Francisco started out as an advertising writer. So it's only natural that her publishing empire would expand to take on clever merchandising like calendars, journals, clothes, photo albums, diaries -- perfect gifts for the nonconforming young feminist. Tuttle describes the line as "Hello Kitty with a bad attitude meets Martha Stewart on a bender."

She seems indefatigable, but her stint in Hollywood for the TV show has proved daunting. "Horrible place," she shakes her head. "Not very nice people. " Still, her months spent there were a means to an end: her sitcom.

Tuttle rushes to greet her brother, Crawford Tuttle, who is looking oddly out of place in his business blazer. She slaps a panty-liner name tag on him and he doesn't flinch. He pulls hers off with a quick zip and she shrieks, "Hey, that was my chest hair!"

Chaos has erupted by the go-go dancer; Parker has climbed up to do a body shot of tequila on him, and the girls are going wild. Long hastily wedges himself behind the writhing drinkers and removes a painting from the wall worth several thousand dollars. He shoots Tuttle a look that can best be described as "help!"

Tuttle grimaces. "I had thought that when it was time for body shots, we'd do them in the back," she says.

Finally it's time for the show to be screened. Tuttle climbs atop the go- go platform, greeted by screams of appreciation. She thanks the 200 or so assembled for coming. "I told myself that if this show ever got made, I would not have a classy party, I would have a trashy party!"

More cheers.

"And now for the show ..." she smiles, clasping her hands happily. "As I've said often, this may be a trashy show, but it's my trashy show!"

The show begins, projected on the Den wall. The throng pays attention long enough to laugh at a few jokes, but soon the party spirit overtakes things, and the dialogue is all but drowned out by the clinking of glasses and the pounding of shots. Bad Girls, indeed.

For a Website dedicated to Jenny McCarthy go to http://www.jennymccarthyworld.com/