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DAG aired from November 2000 until April 2001 on NBC.
Jerome Daggett( David Alan Grier), was a secret service agent whose career had taken a giant leap in the wrong direction. Assigned to protect the President, he had inadvertently leapt away from the chief executive during a failed assassination attempt, and his blunder had been plastered all over the evening news making him the object of ridicule. Instead of firing him, however,The President demoted him to head of the White House B-Team, assigned to protect his bothersome wife, Judith ( Delta Burke). Daggett, stuffy and all business, found himself little more than an errand boy for the bossy, frustrated first lady, who resented the fact that she had worked so hard on behalf of her husband's career and now he ignored her. Besides taking care of her fluffy dog, " Betsy Ross" and babysitting her sassy teenage daughter Camilla ( Lea Moreno Young), DAG now had to deal with Judith's rude secretary Ginger ( Lauren Tom), a former Grifter, and her power-hungry chief of staff Sullivan ( Paul F. Thompkins). His motley security team included Pillows ( Stephen Dunham), a tall, handsome but dumb guy who used to lead the team but kept forgetting his gun and Cole ( Emmy Laybourne), a sexy, tough, incredibly obsessive agent who slept 3 hours a night and pumped iron the rest of the time. Morton ( Mel Jackson), the new head of the President's A-Team, ragged DAG endledssly. The occasionally seen President (David Rasche), was portrayed as a clueless doofus.
Despite their differences, DAG and the first lady hit it off in an odd sort of way, and amid the banter and nonsensical assignments there was a kind of camaraderie between these 2 " people left behind." In the series finale, DAG was promoted back to the A-Team and Pillows got the B-Team again; Ginger and Sullivan fell in love and Cole was sent to Harvard with Camilla who had enrolled there. Although the series ended its regular run in April, one leftover episode aired on May 29, 2001.
A Review From The New York Times
TELEVISION REVIEW; Gee, From Dodging Bullets to Fending Off Wisecracks
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By RON WERTHEIMER
Published: November 14, 2000
Just in time for holiday giving, here comes the Sitcom-o-Matic. Now there's no need to bother thinking up a television series. Just turn on your Sitcom-o-Matic and sit back while its microchips randomly choose a familiar premise and throw familiar actors into familiar roles. This digital wonder can churn out enough meaningless dialogue to fill the required minutes and compensate with a cascade of laughter that shamelessly begs for affection.
Only a machine, or some mighty desperate people, could have assembled ''Dag,'' mistaken it for entertainment and dropped it tonight onto the NBC schedule. Thud.
David Alan Grier (whose initials are D. A. G., get it?) plays to type as a bumbling, self-important Secret Service agent named Daggett, who is demoted from protecting the president (the A-team) to running errands for the first lady (the B-team). ''I'm stuck drivin' Miss Daisy,'' he whines in the first episode's single clever line. Delta Burke plays to type as the feisty first lady, Judith Whitman, who is ignored by her husband (David Rasche, listed as a guest star and playing to type as a dolt). Mrs. Whitman expects Daggett to help her with her hissing dog and her hissing teenage daughter, Camilla (Lea Moreno Young).
Mother wants Camilla to go to Harvard. Daughter says, ''Only jackasses go to Harvard.'' Mother replies: ''Your father went to Harvard. Maybe that's not a very good example.'' Maybe not.
For the requisite nuttiness the Sitcom-o-Matic gives Mrs. Whitman a wisecracking secretary, Ginger (Lauren Tom), who scams her fellow White House staff members with three-card monte. In a moment of typical wit, Ginger notes Daggett's nervous walk and asks him, ''Can I get some fries with that shake?'' The laugh track finds that hilarious.
You, on the other hand, would probably have a better time watching an infomercial. Maybe one that extols the virtues of the Sitcom-o-Matic. It could feature Mr. Grier and Ms. Burke. They remain appealing personalities. And they're bound to have some free time real soon.
DAG
NBC, tonight at 9:30
(Channel 4 in New York)
Jack Burditt, Eileen Conn and Andrew Gordon, creators and executive producers; Mike Saltzman, co-executive producer; Brenda Hanes, producer and unit production manager; pilot directed by John Fortenberry. Produced by NBC Studios.
WITH: David Alan Grier (Jerome Daggett), Delta Burke (Judith Whitman), Stephen Dunham (Edward Pillows), Mel Jackson (Agent Morton), Emmy Laybourne (Susan Cole), Lauren Tom (Ginger Chin), Lea Moreno Young (Camilla Whitman) and David Rasche (President Whitman).
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