ThiefHott Too much of everything

Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

JazzMan599 Sometimes when I think of "The John Larroquette Show", it depresses me. It depresses me because a hundred years from now, when critics talk about "television of the 1990's", it is such a shame that they will talk bout shows like "Friends", "Seinfeld", and all of their imitators, and that this brilliant, darkly hilarious and inventive masterpiece will go virtually unnoticed. I won't say that this show was ahead of it's time, because no show has dared venture into these waters, neither before or since. This was probably the bravest situation comedy ever to go on the air. Where shows like "Friends" wanted us to sympathize with people who, even at their very worst, were far better off than anybody watching could possibly be, this show went the other way, showing us people who were no doubt worse off than most, yet still finding a way to laugh and embrace their lots in life, which made our laughter actually MEAN something. The Friends characters were gorgeous on the outside, callous and shallow on the inside. The characters here were ugly on the outside, and absolutely glowing on the inside, and the perfect combination of writing and acting brought that out. There is one episode that personifies this notion perfectly: An abandoned baby is found in a dumpster. (name another sitcom that would dare to find the humor in this). The seedy people in the seedy St. Louis bus station take turns watching it. There is one scene that is so true, and so real, and so heartwarming. The janitor Heavy Gene (played by Chi McBride), sits alone in the bar with the baby in his arms, as he gently sings Danny Boyto the child. The scene has nothing to do with any kind of narrative, and it doesn't push the plot of the episode in any specific direction. It's just a moment, that's all it is. A moment that gives the audience a microscope into the soul of a character that would never exist in any other sitcom, other than to be ridiculed or used for comic relief. The John Larroquette Show is filled with moments like this. We get to laugh and cry with an alcoholic, a hooker, a hobo, a janitor, a food-counter owner, a single Latino secretary, and others. We feel their pain without them asking us to. We feel their pain by laughing with them. None of them are stupid, or ditsy, or manipulative. They are just real. In it's second season, this show turned into what it so daringly avoided in it's first season, and became "Cheers" in a bus station. But the first season, quite frankly, is the best full season of television I have ever seen. I hope someone digs up the masters of this show and makes it available to be seen again. So much can be learned about life, and television, from this absolutely beautiful show.

ericcchristensen The first season of Laroquette was, at least in my view, one of the most inventive and funny series on TV. A dark, dry and offbeat worldview pervaded the stories and the cast sold just incredible dialogue with rare verve and honesty.I agree with the other reviewers, however, that later seasons became mundane and weak as they tried to broaden the show's appeal beyond the narrow group of devotees who found it during the first season.I mean, my god, the episode where an employee from the U.S. Bureau of Weights and Measures passed through the bus station with the official inch measure of the United States and he asked John to watch the measure while he went to the men's room. Naturally, John became curious about it and, ultimately, wound up damaging the official inch measure. It was hilarious.Or the episode where a teenage boy was at the bus station being transported back to his home in the rural south after running away from a sheriff's daughter. He was going to be sent to prison (unjustly) it turned out, when the local prostitute (a regular on the show) said she could tell he was a virgin. He admitted to this, and the cast decided that they would get together and hire the prostitute to "service him" before he went to prison. Unfortunately, the bounty hunter who was escorting him, wouldn't remove the handcuffs he had on the boy for the time he was to be serviced. So all you saw was this bounty hunter standing in John's office doorway with his arm flailing up and down in the door as the act was consumated. It was blindingly funny.If there is any justice in this world, or appreciation for true dark humor, the powers that be will release at least the first season DVD.

cul-de-sac Season 1 was superb: gritty, realistic characters who behaved like they lived gritty, realistic lives...unapologetic hookers, transvestites, bums, and alcoholics who were hilarious. Almost like watching a play...like "Hot L Baltimore" in the 70s. As the sign on John Laroquette's wall said, "This (was) a Dark Ride." Weird, fun, occasionally disturbing because it was a lot more lifelike than the usual sitcom.Season 2? Blatantly obvious that the network got nervous about all those hookers, transvestites, bums, and alcoholics not being apologetic...the fix was in, they cleaned it up, and the show became just another basic sitcom about a bus station. I was sad to watch it go.

RashomonLaStrada John Larroquette Show had a truly brilliant first season. It was startling to have such a darkly comic show on American TV in the early 90s -- American sitcoms were still stuck in the idea that characters had to be likable and situations had to be pleasant. But he was in a bottom- of-the-barrel job, trying to be a recovering alcoholic, living in a terrible place, surrounded by people who encouraged him to drink. So of course it was too good to last...The network brought the show back for a second season but with the understanding that it had be brightened up. They had John move into a nicer place, they got him a nice decent love interest (other than Carly, the hooker), and they took the edge away from the show. Sigh.The bitter irony is that nowadays American TV sitcoms go out of their way to try to set up quirky situations and characters, but without the talent in the writing or acting that John Larroquette Show had in its day.