Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Cursed (A .K.A. The Weber Show)

Cursed ( aka The Weber Show) aired from October 2000 until April 2001 on NBC.

Everything was going wrong for ladies man Jack ( Steven Weber), and for good reason-he was cursed. Literally. It seems that he had gone on a blind date with a woman who had put a hex on him. From that point forward his life was full of little annoyances and irate dates. Melissa ( Amy Pietz), was his perky ex-girlfriend, an avant-garde artist, with whom he kept breaking up all over again; Larry ( Chris Elliott), his gross, free-loading roommate who happened to be a doctor; and Wendell ( Wendell Pierce), his wide-eyed insecure boss in the marketing department at Flashware, an interactive software company. Katie ( Paula Marshall), was a gorgeous friend who was a lesbian. Drat. The setting was Chicago.

The series itself seemed to be Cursed, judging by it's behind-the-scenes history. Almost as soon as it went on the air, NBC executives, decided the premise was a mistake, so they fired the producers and ordered up scripts in which the "curse" was no longer mentioned. In December they changed the title to The Weber Show. Then after numerous preemptions, they canceled it. Cursed, indeed.

A Review from Variety

Cursed
(Series -- NBC; Thurs., Oct. 26; 8:30 p.m.)
By MICHAEL SPEIER
Cursed

Filmed in Los Angeles by NBC Studios in association with Artists Television Group. Executive producers, Adam Chase, Ira Ungerleider; co-executive producers, Steven Weber, Michael Curtis; director, James Burrows; writers, Mitchell Katlin, Nat Bernstein.

Jack Nagle - Steven Weber
Melissa - Amy Pietz
Larry - Chris Elliot
Wendell - Wendell Pierce

Appropriately titled, NBC's "Cursed" is a weak addition to a big night of comedy. Like "Suddenly Susan," "Caroline in the City," "Jesse" and "Stark Raving Mad" before it, new laffer is asked to carry the Must See TV torch, this time bridging the laugh gap between "Friends" and Thursday newcomer "Will & Grace." No such luck.
With castaways from other Peacock programming, "Cursed" is anything but original. Butt jokes, dating jokes and boss jokes make up most of the dialogue, and the one-note characters riff on each other with predictable sarcasm while talking about "nothing."

The pilot's setup was funny enough: Commitment-phobic Chicagoan Jack Nagle (Steven Weber) broke up one last time with his on-again, off-again girlfriend Melissa (Amy Pietz) and went on a bad date with a superstitious and talkative Greek woman (Lisa Darr).

The night was a disaster, so she put a spell on him that took effect right away: Jack got into a fight with a circus clown and lost a promotion he thought was a sure thing.

Second episode (Nov. 2) established that future plotlines will revolve around whether Jack, now forlorn and dispirited, and Melissa will ever get back together. He thinks she constantly misses him, while she thinks he's too childish for a real relationship.

Oy vey.

Vet directors James Burrows and Michael Lembeck have kept things snappy for the first two weeks, but the biggest problem with "Cursed" is overexposure. All of these faces have been plastered on NBC's Thursday skeds during the past few seasons, so it looks and sounds like a mixture of several average shows. Weber ("Wings"), Pietz ("Caroline") and John O'Hurley ("Seinfeld's" Mr. Peterman) have all been here, done that, so there's little here to distinguish it from their previous projects.

And the other players don't do very much. Chris Elliot plays the goofy friend that thinks he's funnier than he really is, and Wendell Pierce, as Jack's colleague, gets a batch of old-hat one-liners.

Tech credits are fine, though no effort is taken to showcase the Windy City setting.

For more on Cursed go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursed_(TV_show)