“I Give It Six Months”

Well, NBC’s Ed saw its season finish last night with the marriage of series leads Ed Stevens & Carol Vessey (is there ever a show that made us any more aware of its main characters’ full names?) NBC is calling it a season finale, but to these eyes it looked like the end of the series entire. Makes sense: the wedding is the moment the show led up to from its beginning.
Gotta admit I’m not too saddened by the show’s demise. When it debuted, Ed came off as a winning blend of romance and whimsical comedy – both tough to sustain over the long haul – and while it continued to have its moments (thanks, largely, to the efforts of a marvelous cast), the series lost much of its luster once the writers started tossing too many textbook complications between the romance of Ed and Carol (Tom Cavanagh & Julie Bowen). Writers/creators Rob Burnett and Jon Beckerman seemed to acknowledge that fact last night in a song by nervous truth-teller Shirley Pifco (Rachel Cronin), who concludes a “Ballad of Jed Clampett” parody with a “thank God because we’re all sick of Ed and Carol’s story.”
Well, maybe not sick, Shirley. But over the last year especially, it’s the show’s secondary plotlines that’ve proved more appealing: the high school travails of Warren and Mark (Justin Long & Michael Genadry), best friend Molly’s (Lesley Boone) unsuccessful romances, Doctor Mike’s (Josh Randall) work and family woes, the bowling alley rivalry between Phil (Michael Ian Black) and Eli (Daryl Mitchell). I’ll pine for that more than I will the off-again/on-again antics of Ed‘s leading man and lady. Though I will admittedly miss hearing the way Cavanagh’s Ed would deliver the name “Carol Vessey” – sounding at once both awestruck and self-aware – whenever I recall this off-beat li’l series. . .