Poster: Clint Eastwood Fan
(see this users gallery)
Good Company aired from March until April 1996 on CBS.
Comedy set at a Manhattan ad agency. Zoe ( Wendie Malick), was the manipulative newly appointed creative director of the Blanton, Booker & Hayden Agency. Having just had a baby and with a reputation around the agency for being a real bitch, Zoe found her life in turmoil. Working with her were Will ( Jon Tenney), the art director who wanted to be an artist; Jack ( Seymour Cassel), the gruff but talented senior copywriter; Jody ( Timothy Fall), Jack's airheaded assistant; Ron ( Jason Beghe), the backstabbing account executive; Liz( Lauren Graham), an ambitious young copywriter; and Dale ( Elizabeth Anne Smith), a neurotic junior art director. Bobby ( Terry Kiser), BB&H's president and CEO, didn't say much-and never smiled-but his mere presence struck fear into his staff. Problems with clients and advertising campaigns and office politics were the primary focus of the series, while it lasted.
A Review From The New York Times
by John J. O'connor
published March 4, 1996
Good Company CBS, tonight at 9:30 (Channel 2 in New York) Like every office sitcom from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" to "News Radio," CBS's "Good Company," which begins tonight at 9:30, throws a bunch of different types together and hopes they'll interact profitably. In this instance, the setting is a mid-Manhattan advertising agency that, at least on paper, would be fertile ground indeed for Swiftian satire. Alas, what emerges is standard sitcom, attempting once in a while to be warmhearted.
The hero of this strongly cast piece is Will (Jon Tenney), a talented young ad man who would rather be going to art school. In fact, just after winning a prestigious advertising award, Will gets a letter from one school and announces that he has been accepted. His seemingly happy co-workers include back-stabbing Ron (Jason Beghe), spacey Jody (Timothy Fall), ambitious Liz (Lauren Graham) and fluttery Dale (Elizabeth Anne Smith). Think hard and you can write the one-liners yourself.
Meanwhile, Bobby (Terry Kiser), the agency C.E.O., announces that the new creative director will be Zoe (Wendie Malick). Eager to please management, Zoe gleefully announces that "I am not too nice." When Will asks to take off two personal days, she suggests Saturday and Sunday, warning the others that "you can't just sit around and drink cappuccino all day like some cast member of that show 'Friends.' " Zoe patiently explains, "My fiduciary responsibilities are to the company and its holding company in the Cayman Islands." Zoe is obviously a nifty character. But then there's Jack (Seymour Cassel), the workaholic old-timer who gives grateful Will invaluable advice ("Keep it simple") even as he looms as a prime candidate for corporate downsizing. But now that Pat Buchanan has brought downsizing to the forefront of public debate, it's a subject that's not funny, even on a sitcom.
The big winner here: Mr. Kiser who, as the ominously silent chairman, has about as much dialogue to cope with as the corpse he played in "Weekend at Bernie's."
|
