Happy Endings - General Discussion

[Primetimer]

At last, a happy ending for us all.

Read the story

[Kromm]

Sigh. I miss Free Hulu. It kind of/sort of still exists, but the choice of shows is constantly shrinking.

[jamblastx]

ABC had a sudden and unlikely comedic one two punch with Happy Endings and Don't Trust the B... in Apt 23 which both had their plug pulled waaayyy too early. Apt 23 is available on streaming on Netflix and I just recently rewatched it and wow...it was truly an amazing show and cast perfectly.

[stanleyk]

I'm so excited to be able to watch Happy Endings start to finish; I was a little late to the party so there were some early episodes I never saw. It's still a great and hilarious show. But I have to say, watching the first season back-to-back, the re-ordering of episodes that happened during the initial air is very apparent and very jarring. I wish they had put them back in their original intended order, rather than in the order they were aired. Still...yay!

[meisje]

Stupid Hulu made me sign up for stupid, dumb hulu just so I could have a thorough rewatch. I even have the DVDs people, but I'm not going to get up and load and unload discs like some basic aughts bitch!

I'm so pleased it's airing somewhere, seriously, but I need hulu to take their stupid wads of money and continue the show! Hearing about the recent cast get together and how they're all ready to go if they get a deal just made me even more irritated with most of hulu's orginal programming choices. If only this had gone to Netflix, that would have been real, real nice.

I'm so freaking happy there's a HE forum, weeeeeeeee!!!!!! Side note: can't stop thinking "Ugh Penny, my deskjet? Come on, bro..." (silently to myself) every time someone does something less than smart. Separate side note: my language takes a turn for the worse when I'm thinking about this show.

[formerlyfreedom]

On 7/5/2016 at 10:53 PM, meisje said:

I'm so freaking happy there's a HE forum, weeeeeeeee!!!!!!

 

Me too!

I watched the first two seasons, and every episode of the third season in about a week. I can't bring myself to watch the last episode yet. I'm going to need to prepare to watch it...

[meisje]

Quote

 I can't bring myself to watch the last episode yet. I'm going to need to prepare to watch it...

Due to ABC playing tic-tac-toe with its time slot and the fact that they apparently never gave it press outside of commercials, I found it & fell in love with it in season 3. I still have the final episodes on my DVR, and they won't go until it dies. It felt shocking at the time that they actually cancelled it, even though it was on the perennial bubble and was never going to get the ratings to match its greatness. I couldn't bring myself to watch the final episodes or watch them the 3-4x I normally watched HE episodes after the cancellation, so I totally feel your pain. However, I can attest to now having seen all the eps probably 10-15x and still loving every minute. It really keeps delivering long after the novelty wears off. It was sad when the reruns went missing after it somehow ended up on VH1, and then just as mysteriously disappeared, but I'm sure Hulu has it shackled for life, so at least it has a home.

That cast, in those roles, could only happen once. It's great that there are smatterings of almost all (even if it means watching the House rerun with Zachary Knighton at every opportunity; it's strange to see him in such a dramatic role but with the same facial hair!) of these actors around, but it still always feels like the writing and chemistry is missing. I loved seeing Adam and Ben Schwartz take over The Late Late Show that one night, it was gold, and there's a great podcast interview out there with Adam that is a real change from all of his other appearances and roles. There used to be a hilarious old Pete Holmes bit with Eliza that made me cry-laugh, but all of the clips disappeared from youtube recently and it's nowhere else to be found. It's mentioned on a reddit thread too but the video is now private. I've never wondered so much who has this private video and why they won't post it for us somewhere that Sony won't be looking to sue!

Edited July 8, 2016 by meisje
Potential confusion over This Old House vs House MD and more...

[Perfect Xero]

The cast got together at the Vulture Festival and did a live table read of a new script!

Highlights Here

Quote

Things get meta when Alex wonders why they ever stopped hanging out: “It’s like one day we woke up and our friendship was just… cancelled.” Dave: “For no good reason!” Penny: “I mean, who can remember the ABC’s of what actually happened?”

[arc]

The "lost episode" table read is available in full now: http://www.ew.com/article/2016/12/08/happy-endings-reunion-lost-episode-video?xid=entertainment-weekly_socialflow_twitter

[CofCinci]

How is Will and Grace returning but not this series?!!

[voiceover]

For the 2nd time today:

Aaaaaaiiiiieeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!

LOGO has brought it back!   So far, all I can see is a Monday binge-watch.  But I'll take what I can get.

[voiceover]

I forgot that the pilot ep was this funny ("I've had pure evil coming out of both ends for three weeks!").   Hope they keep running this.  Though I'm not a fan of the 7-ep evening.  Is this a new thing -- that reruns must be binged, rather than scattered?

[voiceover]

So: Jane the Virgin is Penny's godawful assistant.

[stillsearching74]

I can't believe I missed this show during its original run. It's so clever, sharp, insightful and one of the very few sitcoms that I find genuinely funny! It takes me awhile to watch every episode because I keep rewinding to hear all the rapid fire jokes I'm worried I'm missing. 

[Perfect Xero]

I hope that Logo keeps this going, I have Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD but need Season 3.

[voiceover]

WTF, Logo?!?  

I guess it was some sort of tease.  Neither HE nor Mindy Project is back this week!!

I may pout for 72 hours.

[voiceover]

Fuck you, LOGO.  All these piece of crap 80s sitcoms during the day, and TMP & HE in the middle of the night.

You may have permanently damaged my REM cycle.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

9 hours ago, voiceover said:

All these piece of crap 80s sitcoms during the day, and TMP & HE in the middle of the night.

You may have permanently damaged my REM cycle.

I'm assuming you don't have Hulu, since both shows are on it.  How much is proper sleep worth to you?

[voiceover]

9 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

I'm assuming you don't have Hulu, since both shows are on it.  How much is proper sleep worth to you?

No Hulu. Trying to resist the urge.

"Proper sleep" = vampire hours in general, but the older I get, the tougher it is to bounce back.

Goddamnit.

[SarahPrtr]

I wish they could have made it to 100 episodes so that the show could be played on any channel and in other countries.  I mean, I'm a fan, so I have the DVDs, but I want others to discover this show and watch it!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Adam Pally, Doug Mand, John Reynolds, & Dan Gregor discuss Most Likely to Murder:

[djsunyc]

i miss this show.  seasons 1 and 2 were great.  season 3 was a bit more hit and miss but still good.  still can't find any sitcom to replace this with in my viewing schedule.

[Cherry Cola]

Just started rewatching on hulu.   What a solid Pilot episode.  This was one of my favorite shows.  What a great cast. 

I loved Andrea being Undrea so Max introduces himself as Mox. And the final scene where Andreas gramma died and Dave bops her nose on the picture.  Too funny. 

[Cherry Cola]

Penny Hartz Hitler has me laughing way too hard.  

Edited June 7, 2018 by Cherry Cola

[djsunyc]

women be stopping...women...be...stopping

[SmithW6079]

Just bought the first two seasons on DVD from Amazon (they were cheap). Season 3 is almost $40, so I'm holding off for now. I'm enjoying the series all over again.

[Perfect Xero]

Guys, they're releasing the Complete Series on Blu Ray in August! And it's $27.99, which is cheaper than the S3 DVDs sell for!

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Happy-Endings-The-Complete-Series-Blu-ray/205180/

 

Here's to hoping they put the Episodes on there in production order rather than the order they aired on TV.

[SmithW6079]

This is still one of my favorite scenes: "Black Wids..."

 

 

18 hours ago, Perfect Xero said:

Guys, they're releasing the Complete Series on Blu Ray in August! And it's $27.99, which is cheaper than the S3 DVDs sell for!

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Happy-Endings-The-Complete-Series-Blu-ray/205180/

 

Here's to hoping they put the Episodes on there in production order rather than the order they aired on TV.

I think the DVDs have them in production order.

How did I never know there were webisodes of this show?

Edited June 18, 2018 by SmithW6079

[arc]

BTW, the series was released in whole as a budget Blu-ray, but even that's still HD and probably better than the janky print-on-demand DVD-R release they did for the third season. Review here.

[Dee]

This show was around 5 years ahead of its time.

If it was released today it would definitely be a hit.

[Deputy Deputy CoS]

This show had so much potential. I was sorry ABC cancelled it.

But before cancellation, I noticed they were testing the waters with Penny and Dave and I felt it was catering to Penny fans. I hate when shows do that. It takes me sours me on the pairing right off the butt.

[Ms Blue Jay]

I have the Blu rays and what a wonderful purchase it was.  Damn, I forgot how much I love this show.

It's so good in seasons 2 and 3 especially.  Season 1 is great too, but maybe the first 3 episodes are a touch weaker.

Weird thing is, those last 5-6 episodes of Season 3 I don't remember at all.

Did they really fall off in quality?  Sad.  I can't evaluate them like the other episodes.  Maybe in the future I'll think they're as great as the rest of the show, but right now I find them so confusing!!!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Adam Pally says everyone is up for a Happy Endings revival

Quote

"I don't want to get anybody's hopes up but I know that everybody wants to do it," Pally told The Hollywood Reporter on Saturday following Television Critics Association's winter press tour panel to support his new NBC comedy Indebted. "Right now, they're trying to find a way to make that happen because there's a lot of moving parts. If we were to do it, I think David [Caspe, the creator] would want to do it his way."

Happy Endings, produced and owned by Sony TV, ran for three seasons on ABC from 2011-2013. ABC Entertainment president Karey Burke has been open about wanting to reboot the comedy — with the original ensemble cast — on her network as she hopes to bring women back to the broadcaster.

[...]

[A] case could be made that Happy Endings (and other cult hits like Don't Trust the B— in Apartment 23) were the poster children for a lack of understanding about delayed viewing patterns in the early days of the DVR.

[...]

"It was a bad time," Pally said of the TV climate when Happy Endings was axed. "We came out at the time that there were like three other shows about single people dating. It was a tough launch. But I wouldn't want it any other way than the way it is because it's like a club."

One thing that could be an issue in a Happy Endings revival is creator Caspe's recent decision to exit Sony TV for an overall deal with Universal Television. Still, ABC's Burke told THR in August that she was optimistic that  Caspe would be involved should a revival become a reality.

"There's a lot of overall deals; someone put a clip up the other day of a beginning of Happy Endings and the credit sequence was going down and no joke the first seven names of the writers on the show all have their own shows," Pally told THR on Saturday. "And if they don't have their own shows, they're in charge of the Marvel universe. It's a lot of moving parts. It's one of those things that hopefully Hollywood will let it happen."

 

 

[peachmangosteen]

‘Happy Endings’ Virtual Reunion Set at Sony Pictures Television

July 20th! I'm so pumped!

[Giuseppe]

On 7/14/2020 at 6:29 PM, peachmangosteen said:

‘Happy Endings’ Virtual Reunion Set at Sony Pictures Television

July 20th! I'm so pumped!

I watched it. I was as funny as a Zoom episode of this show could ever be. Everyone slipped right back into character so effortlessly and it made me miss the show more than ever. There was also a Q and A with the cast and creator afterwards. It was good to hear everyone reminisce about their favorite episodes and behind the scenes talk. Everyone is still up for doing a revival, but sounds like a lot of hoops will still need to be jumped through to make it happen. 

I had no idea Hulu was streaming this! I just added it and I'll definitely be doing a series re-watch now.

[Kip Hackman]

12 hours ago, Giuseppe said:

I watched it. It was as funny as a Zoom episode of this show could ever be.

Agreed. I loved the Parks & Rec Zoom episode, but this was much funnier.

[PWHCHCH]

Penny’s line “ I’d rather be a divorcee than a spinster” is the most perfect line ever and totally in character. God this made me miss the show. It was gold. 

[Avabelle]

I loved the show right up until the third season where not only did I feel Penny was beginning to get a little too serious (whiny) but they also seemed to be leaning towards her and Dave. I hated that move. Mainly because I actually loved the on/off Dave/Alex relationship and friendship but also because i hate when shows start that triangle stuff. It never works for me and I always end up hating two out the three characters. 

[idiotwaltz]

 

On 6/8/2018 at 3:42 AM, Cherry Cola said:

Penny Hartz Hitler has me laughing way too hard.  

That was the episode that got me hooked onto the show. Other scenes that crack me up thinking about it: Alex realising when she gets drunk, she eats ribs; Jazz Kwon Do; the one where Max is a bear. 

[Avabelle]

I was always disappointed Eliza Cuthbert never got many other funny roles post Happy Endings. The Ranch was too bad for me to consider it a comedy and she was wasted on it anyway. The rest were established comedy actors so I thought she was a revelation.

[SarahPrtr]

11 hours ago, idiotwaltz said:

 

That was the episode that got me hooked onto the show. Other scenes that crack me up thinking about it: Alex realising when she gets drunk, she eats ribs; Jazz Kwon Do; the one where Max is a bear. 

When Penny gets drunk, she can speak Italian!

 

"I'm 18, SLUT!!!  Who's Michael Jordan???  Your friends are all so immature!!!"

Oh my god, I laughed so hard!  That was like in 'This Is 40', where the young daughters don't know who Gandhi and Bill Murray are!!

 

11 hours ago, Avabelle said:

I was always disappointed Eliza Cuthbert never got many other funny roles post Happy Endings. The Ranch was too bad for me to consider it a comedy and she was wasted on it anyway. The rest were established comedy actors so I thought she was a revelation.

I actually started watching the show because of Elisha (long-time fan!!!).  I looked her up on imdb for any recent work she had done (back in 2012) and this show came up.  It's the kind of sitcom I like, with no laugh track.  I was really bummed when it got cancelled.

[SmithW6079]

On 7/31/2020 at 5:14 AM, Avabelle said:

I loved the show right up until the third season where not only did I feel Penny was beginning to get a little too serious (whiny) but they also seemed to be leaning towards her and Dave. I hated that move. Mainly because I actually loved the on/off Dave/Alex relationship and friendship but also because i hate when shows start that triangle stuff. It never works for me and I always end up hating two out the three characters. 

Actually, I liked the idea of Dave and Penny. I think they would each have helped the other even out a little bit. 

On 7/20/2020 at 8:57 PM, Giuseppe said:

I watched it. I was as funny as a Zoom episode of this show could ever be. Everyone slipped right back into character so effortlessly and it made me miss the show more than ever. There was also a Q and A with the cast and creator afterwards. It was good to hear everyone reminisce about their favorite episodes and behind the scenes talk. Everyone is still up for doing a revival, but sounds like a lot of hoops will still need to be jumped through to make it happen. 

I had no idea Hulu was streaming this! I just added it and I'll definitely be doing a series re-watch now.

I've been rewatching on Hulu too. The Penny & Hitler episode is one of my favorites, although I think this show was funny from the start (with the exception of the Dave & Max episode where they go to confront the guy with whom Alex ran off).

I liked the Zoom episode too, although not the fact that they made Alex a COVID denier, which gave her a little too much credit, even if she's not as dumb as she is. :-)

Sometimes I feel sorry for actors on popular shows. Popular shows end but live on through DVDs and streaming. Fans will discover the shows and fall in love, but for the actors, it was a job that ended a decade or more. When the moderator asked them what their favorite parts were, I felt like it kind of put them on the spot. I would be hard pressed to tell you a favorite part of my job from 10 years ago, but actors are supposed to remember and act like it was the best thing ever. (That said, I would totally watch a reboot if it showed character growth, not like the awful "Will & Grace" reboot.)

 

[Kel Varnsen]

On 7/20/2020 at 8:57 PM, Giuseppe said:

I watched it. I was as funny as a Zoom episode of this show could ever be. Everyone slipped right back into character so effortlessly and it made me miss the show more than ever. 

I am super behind the times but I just found out about this and watched it. It was really well done. I have been watching random episodes when I can't find anything to watch as it is available on Prime Video in Canada. The annoying thing is that when I watch the episodes on my fire stick they are out of order on the prime video app (of course), but they are also out of order (and in a different order when I watch them from the fire stick homepage.

On 1/3/2016 at 8:12 AM, jamblastx said:

ABC had a sudden and unlikely comedic one two punch with Happy Endings and Don't Trust the B... in Apt 23 which both had their plug pulled waaayyy too early. Apt 23 is available on streaming on Netflix and I just recently rewatched it and wow...it was truly an amazing show and cast perfectly.

About 4 or 5 years ago my wife and I binged both Happy Endings and Don't trust the b when they were both available on Netflix. Both were awesome. And it's really too bad because around the same time ABC had both those shows and Cougar Town, and if they had put any kind of effort into making them successful they could have had a really smart and funny comedy block as good as anything on any other network (including NBC Thursdays). But instead they seemed to just push Modern Family and go all in on family sitcoms.

[SarahPrtr]

29 minutes ago, Kel Varnsen said:

About 4 or 5 years ago my wife and I binged both Happy Endings and Don't trust the b when they were both available on Netflix. Both were awesome. And it's really too bad because around the same time ABC had both those shows and Cougar Town, and if they had put any kind of effort into making them successful they could have had a really smart and funny comedy block as good as anything on any other network (including NBC Thursdays). But instead they seemed to just push Modern Family and go all in on family sitcoms.

I LOVE THOSE SHOWS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

(can you tell??)

 

Don't trust the Bitch made me a fan of Krysten Ritter.  She and Dreama were a perfect as antithesis of each other and they worked so well together.  I really got a lot of laughs with every episode.

 

Happy Endings was really great too, I started watching because I love Elisha Cuthbert, but the other actors were great too.  You're right, they really could have gone far with these two shows but both ended too early.  What person in their right mind would cancel a perfect gem like Don't trust the Bitch???

[Ms Blue Jay]

I see you guys have mentioned this, but I only now just found out about it.  Linking it here for anyone who missed it.

 

 

Edited March 19, 2021 by Ms Blue Jay

[Roaster]

Happy Endings is on Netflix now.  It's just as good as I remember it from 10 years ago.  Holds up well.  One of the best comedies of the past couple decades.

[Avabelle]

I loved the first two (?) seasons but it lost me on the final season with the emphasis increasing on Penny and trying to show her as a better match for the guy played by Zak Knighton than Alex. 
 

I haven’t seen any of the cast go on to anything better which is a shame.

[Kel Varnsen]

On 6/14/2021 at 7:44 PM, Roaster said:

Happy Endings is on Netflix now.  It's just as good as I remember it from 10 years ago.  Holds up well.  One of the best comedies of the past couple decades.

In Canada it is on Amazon Prime and every once and awhile I will throw it on for background noise. It is cool how they combined the super standard young people living in a big city sitcom plot but then wrote it 30 rock style with rapid fire jokes and no pausing for audience laughter. And it worked so well.

6 hours ago, Avabelle said:

I haven’t seen any of the cast go on to anything better which is a shame.

Elisha Cuthbert had that show where she was pregnant with her best friends baby which was really bad.  Casey Wilson had that show Marry Me from her husband/ the HE creator that was better but not great. Zachary Knighton had that Weird Loners show which was probably the most interesting of the 3 but still not that great. The only thing I have seen any of the cast members in that was really memorable was Adam Pally's character in The Mindy Project.

[Night Cheese]

18 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

On 6/16/2021 at 1:59 PM, Avabelle said:

I haven’t seen any of the cast go on to anything better which is a shame.

Elisha Cuthbert had that show where she was pregnant with her best friends baby which was really bad.  Casey Wilson had that show Marry Me from her husband/ the HE creator that was better but not great. Zachary Knighton had that Weird Loners show which was probably the most interesting of the 3 but still not that great. The only thing I have seen any of the cast members in that was really memorable was Adam Pally's character in The Mindy Project.

Damon Wayans Jr. went back to New Girl after Happy Endings ended. He was in its pilot episode but then had to leave because Happy Endings was [unexpectedly] picked up for a second season. Eliza Coupe recently starred in Future Man on Hulu. I don't think it ever gained much traction, but was well-received from what I remember. It was pretty raunchy at times, but quite funny nonetheless.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 1/5/2016 at 3:05 PM, stanleyk said:

But I have to say, watching the first season back-to-back, the re-ordering of episodes that happened during the initial air is very apparent and very jarring. I wish they had put them back in their original intended order, rather than in the order they were aired.

This was posted a looong time ago, but is really helpful in making me not think I'm losing my mind.  I've been watching this on Roku, having never even heard of it before, and there were some things in early episodes that made me go, "Huh???"  Like showing Dave moving in to Max's apartment even though I was sure they'd already shown him living there.

I'm really glad to hear about the re-ordering.

All three seasons are on Roku and they have only a short commercial break about 1/3 of the way in.