Abby is an American television sitcom created by Nat Bernstein and Michael Katlin, which originally aired for one season on United Paramount Network (UPN) from January 6, 2003 to March 4, 2003. The show revolves around television producer Abigail "Abby" Walker (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) and her relationship with her ex-boyfriend Will Jeffries (Kadeem Hardison). After they break-up in the pilot episode, they agree to live together as friends in their rent controlled San Francisco apartment. The supporting cast includes Randy J. Goodwin, Tangie Ambrose, and Sean O'Bryan. O'Bryan was originally announced to play Will, and Bernstein and Katlin had intended the series to feature Abby and Will as an interracial couple. However, they recast the role after a negative response from test audiences
Critics classified Abby as a sex comedy and a romantic comedy. Even though UPN heavily promoted it, Abby suffered from low viewership, and it was the lowest performing show tracked by the Nielsen Holdings. It received an average of 1.7 million viewers per week. Critical response to Abby was primarily negative; commentators frequently criticized its reliance on sexual humor. Despite the negative attention, Poitier's acting was the subject of praise from critics.
Video Abby (TV series)
Premise and characters
Set in San Francisco, Abby follows its lead character Abigail "Abby" Walker (Sydney Tamiia Poitier), who was promoted to the producer of the fictional television sports program "West Coast Sports Report". She is shown as one of the few women working for the show. Even though she works for a sports show, Abby is not portrayed as invested in any type of sport. Poitier described the character as "an open book" who "doesn't design herself to fit other people's perceptions and wants". Episodes include storylines in which Abby "sometimes wish[es] she were an entirely different person" and has a "bad habit of sharing all the intimate details of her love life with Max".
In the pilot, Abby breaks up with her boyfriend Will Jeffries (Kadeem Hardison), but they argue over their rent controlled apartment and decide to share it as "platonic roommates". A writer for Jet identified the pair as having an "antagonistic and supportive relationship". Will, a "self-absorbed, professional photographer", still harbors feelings for Abby and attempts to restart their romance. He is portrayed as uninterested in her professional life and selfish; instances of his negative behavior include when he purchases an expensive watch for himself for their second-year anniversary, and proposes to her as "there is no more perfect gift than himself". David Bianculli of the New York Daily News compared Abby's concept and tone to the sitcom Three's Company, and Hal Erickson of AllMovie described it as "Will & Grace with two straight people". Rob Owen referred to the series as a sex comedy, while others felt it was a romantic comedy.
Abby is supported by her best friend and the program's anchorman Max Ellis (Randy J. Goodwin) and her "feisty" sister Joanne "Jo" Walker (Tangie Ambrose). Jo encourages Abby to move on from her previous relationship with Will. Over the course of the series, Max displays an unrequited crush on Abby. Abby uses him as a way to make Will jealous, along with using "aggressively suggestive remarks and sounds as weapons". She has difficulty with her "somewhat chauvinistic and eccentric" boss Roger Tomkins (Sean O'Bryan). Roger is a close friend to Will, and they frequently are shown at the gentlemen's club "The Booty Barn". He pushes for Will and Abby to get back together. The Sun-Sentinel's Tom Jicha described Roger as the series' "token white" character. Abby's mother and father, played by Michelle Phillips and Charlie Robinson, appear in a recurring capacity.
Maps Abby (TV series)
Production
The executive producers of Abby were Nat Bernstein and Michael Katlin, and it was produced by CBS Productions and Katlin/Bernstein Productions. Bernstein and Katlin also served as display artists and writers for the series. It was filmed in Los Angeles, and Leonard R. Garner Jr. was a director. Jacque Edmonds worked as a co-executive producer. Cinematography was done by Josephy Calloway, and Sheila Hall edited the episodes. Dan Maltese acted as the production designer and Rick Marotta contributed to the show's music.
Abby was developed under the working title Abby Newton, and Poitier and O'Bryan were originally announced in the lead roles. Casting was done by Gilda Stratton and Dava White. Abby was Poitier's first starring role in a television series, and her sitcom debut. She was drawn to the show's concept, which she described as "fertile ground for a lot of humor", and its multicultural casting. Poitier described Abby as "good practice". When discussing Poitier's audition, Katlin said: "there was something special, which we picked up on immediately."
Producers originally conceived Will as a white character, but replaced O'Bryan with Hardison. When discussing the original concept, Katlin said: "We had wanted to have an interracial relationship, but not make the show about an interracial relationship." However, a common question from the pilot's test audience was: "Why aren't you dealing with it?" Poitier said that a "spirit of multiculturalism" would be preserved Will and Abby's dating life, and referred to Abby as one of the few shows to include interracial couples.
Episodes
Broadcast history
In January 2003, Abby was initially broadcast on Monday nights at 9:30 pm EST and moved to Tuesday nights at 9:30 pm EST. It was a replacement for Haunted, which Hal Erickson called "hastily assembled". Between January and March of that year, it was shown on Tuesday nights at 9 pm EST, along with the supernatural drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer and sitcom Girlfriends. Abby was the first non-genre show to be placed in the time slot in two years.
The series was promoted through "an aggressive rollout strategy", and United Paramount Network (UPN) targeted it towards a primarily African-American audience. Scott D. Pierce of The Deseret News wrote that the network was "pinning its hopes on the new sitcom". UPN branded its Tuesday programming as a "comedy night" and "Girls Night". Poitier was hesitant about the audience's potential response to the mixture of sitcoms and dramas. She explained that the network wanted the series to attract the same audience from its Monday comedies. From July 2003 to August 2003, episodes were shown on Tuesday nights at 8:30 pm EST, and it was placed against Frasier, 24, The Guardian, and Smallville.
Abby was commercially unsuccessful, and was ranked at 146 at the 146 shows tracked by the Nielsen Holdings. It received an average of 1.7 million viewers per week. The series was canceled, after a nine-episode season was broadcast. The final episode aired on March 4, 2003. Overall, Abby was broadcast for a total of 270 minutes. According to John Kiesewetter of The Cincinnati Enquirer, Abby had "contributed to UPN ratings losses" for the 2002-2003 television season.
Critical reception
Abby received negative critical feedback, primarily for its sexual humor. Even though he cited it as "pleasant but not funny", USA Today's Robert Bianco criticized it as an example of UPN's overuse of sexual comedy. In a similar review, Michael Speier of Variety panned the show's "reliance on booty humor" and frequent scenes on "hot sex, about messy sex and about dirty sex". Criticizing the premise as causing "strained humor", Bernadette Adams Davis of PopMatters questioned the effectiveness of the focus on Abby's on-again, off-again relationship with Will. The Chicago Tribune's Allan Johnson criticized Poitier's performance, writing that she was "not appealing enough to lift what becomes a very uncomfortable premise".
The series did earn some positive remarks from critics. Poitier's acting was the subject of praise from commentators. Speier wrote that she "react[ed] with proper nuance and appropriate tones to males who come from various macho molds". Bernadette Adams Davis felt Abby should have centered on "a single, career-minded Abby". David responded positively to the representation of Abby's professional life, writing that "other shows tend to give short shrift to the women's working lives in favor of ensemble storylines". While critical of the series' premise, Diane Werts of Newsday felt that "the execution makes it fly".
References
Citations
Book sources
External links
- Abby on IMDb
- Abby at TV.com
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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