Suddenly Susan



A Work Com about a woman who leaves a man at the altar, finds herself without prospects, until her ex-fiance's brother takes a gamble and hires her as a journalist. Originally conceived as a starring vehicle for Brooke Shields, but in actuality it ended up being a retread of The Mary Tyler Moore Show which ran the complete gamut of office humor cliches roughly three or four times.

Despite its shortcomings, the show managed to run for four seasons and enjoyed a semi-healthy run in syndication. However, the one-two punch of Judd Nelson's departure and cast member David Strickland's suicide necessitated an exhaustive Retool, moving the characters to a grimy warehouse in Chinatown. The show's ratings, nothing much to begin with, plummeted and NBC mercifully pulled the plug.

Ultimately, any show in which you can say Judd Nelson is wasted and replaced in its final season by a washed-up Eric Idle has little going for it. The show's only real claim to notability was that it made Kathy Griffin a star.


 * Alpha Bitch: Maddy
 * Captain Ersatz: Vicki, the sassy redhead played by Kathy Griffin, was often accused of being a ripoff of Beth, the sassy redhead played by Vicki Lewis on News Radio. The Newsradio producers sure seemed to think so.
 * Casanova: Luis. It's the accent, of course; when he tries picking up women with a Fake American accent ("M'name is Louis.") he spectacularly bombs.
 * Celebrity Paradox: One Halloween episode involved Todd dressing as tennis pro (and then-husband of Brooke Shields) Andre Agassi. Susan asks, "Isn't he married to-- ooh, what's her name?
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: After Judd Nelson was replaced with Eric Idle at the beginning of Season Four, Nelson's character Jack was never mentioned again, despite having been a very good friend and eventually a pretty important love interest to Susan at one point.
 * Costumer
 * Date My Avatar: Todd subscribing to a Lesbian dating site, having reasoned that his lust for women qualifies him as one. Predictably, his 'date' turns out to be another horny male.
 * Fake Nationality: Luis is played by Nestor Carbonell, a naturalized American citizen.
 * Hollywood Dateless: Susan -- Brooke friggin' Shields -- at least once bemoaned not being able to find a date.
 * Hotter and Sexier The later seasons emphasized the main character's sexuality, and the theme song was changed to reflect this.
 * Lottery Ticket
 * Old Shame: In real life, subverted hard. Brooke Shields has said she greatly misses the show and would have liked to spend more time there.
 * Post-Robbery Trauma
 * Put on a Bus to Hell: Maddy's departure in Season Four. After the writers painstakingly spent most of Season Three Defrosting the Ice Queen and making Maddy into a sympathetic character, in the Season Four premiere, she dumps Luis for no real reason and hastily exits the show, then later is revealed to have married Jerry Springer. Either the writers totally hated the character, or they assumed the fans did.
 * Real Life Writes the Plot: After David Strickland committed suicide, his character Todd died with him. This was addressed in the Season Three finale, in which the cast spends the entire episode looking for Todd. Each scene is interspersed with the series regulars addressing the camera Our Town-style and sharing memories of him. The episode ends with the cast sitting in a circle with a telephone between them, still waiting to hear news of Todd's whereabouts. And then the phone rings.
 * Retool: The last season, not helped that this was just after Strickland died.
 * Runaway Bride: The very first scene of the show has Susan standing at the altar, apparently on the brink of a panic attack. . .and the next scene has her running out of the church, ripping her dress along the way.
 * Theme Tune
 * The Unfavorite: When Susan essentially begs Jack for a job in the pilot, Jack notes that she left his brother at the alter and deeply embarrassed his parents. Apparently, Jack was this because he then immediately offers Susan a better job and hires her.
 * Will They or Won't They?: Susan and Jack.
 * Work Com