From The TV IV

The John Larroquette Show is a sitcom that aired on NBC.

John Larroquette played John Hemingway, who has lost his wife and most of his life to the bottle, but has just turned the corner to sobriety. He's taken a job as the night manager of the Crossroads Bus Terminal in St. Louis and is putting his life back together one day at a time.

Down at the bus station, the show has a conventional sitcom cast of characters: the aforementioned call girl ( played by Gigi Rice) ; Dexter( played by Daryl "Chill" Mitchell) who ran the lunch counter; the Puerto Rican desk clerk Mahalia Sanchez ( played by Liz Torres), who also serves as Larroquette's mother confessor; and the janitor Gene (Chi McBride) who won't set foot in the men's room.

There is also a bar adjacent to the terminal where the bartender keeps commemorative chips AA hands out for sobriety milestones. He trades booze for chips.

Staying sober in this environment is, of course, challenge enough. The last six station managers died on duty, we learn -- four murders and two suicides. A bottle of booze comes with the manager's desk, and a small handgun is strapped under the counter with Velcro. By the end of the first episode John has used the gun, on the bottle.

If this were all there was to it, "The Larroquette Show" would be just another overloud sitcom. But Larroquette is also developing another life for John Hemingway, around and outside of work, that centers on the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Here we meet the old hippie rocker, and near-death recovery specimen, David Crosby himself in the role of Chester, a biker who is also a 15-year AA veteran. He becomes Hemingway's AA sponsor and begins leading him through the steps.

This is where the show gets into some uncharted territory for television. For instance, Chester demands that his new charge take a six-month vow of celibacy. This is a fairly common piece of AA wisdom for the newly sober, and Chester notes that, for Hemingway, booze and women have always been associated.

Later Chester tragically dies in an episode.

After the first season, NBC pressured the producers (one of whom was Larroquette) to lighten the tone, and the sharks were there! When the show stayed true to the standard John hung in his office, "This is a dark ride", it was brilliant. After the first season, it was all over. The rough edges that made this show remarkable in its first season were almost all gone by season two.

Season 2: Carly (played by Gigi Rice)stopped being a hooker. You had to know that the network suits wouldn't tolerate such a character on a prime time sitcom any more than they'd be likely to tolerate a drug dealer or a pimp in a comedic role. John moves out of a seedy sleeping room directly into a luxury apartment? Please! Carly quit hooking and bought the bar (how?). Oscar left the phone booth. Mahalia lost her accent. Pat and the other transvestites disappeared. The second season isn't a total lost and it still had substance, but it's losing the edge what it was from season one.

By seasons 3 and 4, The show became nonsense with John and his love triangle of Carly & Catherine. Season 3 was better than season 2, but still couldn't top the first season. The third season was when it went down the drain: Oscar became a shoe shiner, Carly a socialite, Dexter and John lost the racial stuff and became best buds, his alcoholism was barely addressed, it was like watching Friends in a bus station. Also John and the rest of the cast changed from night shift to day shift at Crossroads bus terminal, which helped to lose the bizarre edge that the show was based around. By the fourth season the show had "cancellation" written all over it. The problem was that Catherine left. Yes she was a cardboard character, yes she was annoying, but she was also an integral part of the show. Without the Carly/John/Catherine love triangle the show fell to pieces. Then Boyz II Men showed up. They just happened to be coming through this rundown bus station, and John acted all excited and said "hey, would you mind singing something?" That was the moment that the show totally sold out to the sharks of NBC. The fourth season became a cheesy remake of "Friends" and was unsalvageable. NBC hit the axe and canceled the show in the fourth season. The 6 previously unaired episodes debuted on USA Network later on.

Overall: The John Larroquette Show was a prime example on how destroy a successful situation comedy by the sharks. The show is the most underrated and, in many ways, ahead of it's time sitcom. Only if NBC turned a blind eye and allowed the show to grow into itself and not changed the substance of the show so much. Everyone should see this show and the show should be in re-runs today. It's a total shame a DVD boxset of this show isn't out yet and it's even in question if we'll ever see the light of DVD of this show. The biggest rip off of "The John Larroquette Show" became later on when CBS put Becker on the air.

Contents 1 Cast 2 Seasons 3 In-Depth 4 DVD Releases 5 External Sites

[edit] Cast

Actor	Character	Duration
Main Cast
John Larroquette	John Hemingway	1	2	3	4
Liz Torres	Mahalia Sanchez	1	2	3	4
Daryl "Chill" Mitchell	Dexter	1	2	3	4
Gigi Rice	Carly Watkins	1	2	3	4
Alison LaPlaca	Catherine Merrick		2	3	4
Chi McBride	Heavy Gene	1	2	3	4
Lenny Clarke	Officer Adam Hampton	1	2	3	4
Elizabeth Berridge	Officer Eve Eggers	1	2	3	4
Bill Morey	Oscar	1	2	3	4

[edit] Seasons

Season	Premiere	Finale	#
NBC
Season One	September 2, 1993	April 12, 1994	24
Season Two	September 20, 1994	August 29, 1995	24
Season Three	September 30, 1995	May 21, 1996	24
Season Four	September 18, 1996	October 30, 1996	12

[edit] In-Depth

• At a Glance: Additional information about the series

[edit] DVD Releases

[edit] External Sites