Ed

Like the best TV shows, Ed has a profound point beneath its silliness. It seems it's always possible to return to Stuckeyville, the hometown we carry around inside, and see new possibilities. If we let go and embrace a magical dramedy that dares to dream, we may feel somehow ennobled. [5 Oct 2000, p.E-03]

Even if the new season's shows weren't the blah, bland blanks that most of them are, Ed would stand out. For one thing, it isn't often that the season's best new comedy is also its best new drama. Ed is. [8 Oct 2000, p.G01]

It's where quirky meets quixotic, and the mix is enchanting - equal parts wit and whimsy. [8 Oct 2000, p.11]

Ed is a throwback, a hopeful, pixilated Capra character who wants to believe that things will work out as they should and is genuinely baffled and disappointed when they don't. Yet "Ed" the show doesn't seem creaky because Ed the character has also been endowed with ironic self-awareness, as might be expected on a series created by the men behind "The Late Show With David Letterman." He does wonders for both lawyers and bowling.

It's the old Northern Exposure trick again. Quirks and eccentrics abound, but they could grow on you. It's nicely done, with an air of sweet innocence by David Letterman's production company, with former Late Show producers Rob Burnett and Jon Beckerman at the helm. [7 Oct 2000]

You might call Ed a sentimental comedy, soft rather than biting, with the mushy sensibility of a going-home show like Providence turned into an amusing Jell-O salad. Or looked at from another angle - the simple innocence of an Adam Sandler movie, but with brains instead of body functions. [6 Oct 2000, p.R2]

Sheesh! This show's about as real as Pamela Anderson's second set of breasts. [8 Oct 2000, p.107]