Anything But Love - Season 1

I purchased this dog only because my dear wife thought it would be fun. To me, its only worth is the exercise one gets inserting it into -then ejecting it from- the DVD player.

I enjoyed this show quite a bit when it first came out. The banter between Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis develops nicely. The first 6 episodes were ok, but it improved much with Ann Magnuson coming on as the quirky magazine editor. It's an amazing amount of video on three discs for the price.

Had the Charles/Burrows/Charles axis been able to shepherd creator Wendy Kouts down the proper path, and resist changes called for by studio suits, this could have been the romantic comedy of the late 20th century.

Sad to say, the exact opposite of each condition occurred, and this program waffled and whimpered and eventually wasted away.

What a waste it was. Curtis and Lewis were so fine together. JD Souther produced the best theme song for ANY romantic comedy, and the opening credits of the first "season," as Lewis and Curtis point out, were perhaps the best ever produced.

The principles are all too old to be believable in a 20-something-30-something comedy. But it could be revived, with younger actors... if someone had the vision.

In any event, this is a worthy program to grace any DVD collection.

This Battle of the Sexes was more about the *internal* battle of two romantic souls just a bit over-cautious about "letting it happen again". Yes, all the ingredients are there for Love....but it's anything but. Or so they think.
The first few shows have the proverbial growing pains of many successful sitcoms (conscious or unconscious "borrowing", here maybe from Mary Tyler Moore/Lou Grant/others) but right from the start Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis hit the mark, and that expected stiltedness, staginess, if you will, is not evident as it is in the early ventures of Seinfeld, for example.
It's interesting that both shows went through major changes for the better: here ABL morphed from a sentimental young-woman-from-the-country takes-on-a-big-city-publisher to a non-stereotypical setting, with self-deprecating intellectuals working for a Boss who is anything but self-deprecating. Close to the time this series abrupted ended, JS showed up, and that show went from a show about a hip comedian and his quirky New York friends to the "show about nothing".
Well, ABL did not become a show which dominated television, as it had a short run. The interviews and reflections in the special features suggest that a warm show involving nice people who cared about each other and the world they lived in just not might be what would soon be the norm for sitcoms.

I loved this show. Richard Lewis and Jaime Lee Curtis fit surprisingly well into the sitcom format.

Anyway, when "Seinfeld" came out a year or so after this, I watched a few episodes, didn't care much for it and, said to myself, and anyone else who would listen, "poor Jerry Seinfeld, his show will never take off and be a hit, like Richard Lewis' show."

At the urging of some friends, I picked up on Seinfeld in their second season and the rest is history.

Regardless of all that, I can't wait to watch these again. It is definitely an overlooked gem.