Life's Work

In 1996, stand-up comic Lisa Ann Walter was given a second shot at starring in a sitcom. Her first, "My Wildest Dreams," blipped on and off Fox the previous year quicker than you could say 'canceled,' though essentially the premise was the same: Lisa wants more out of life, but she finds herself stuck playing the roles of wife and mommy. This time around, Lisa's struggled to attain a job as a lawyer, and now she's finally out of school and hitting the workforce... but she didn't expect it to hit back. Lisa's coworkers include boss Mr. Nash (the ubiquitous Larry Miller), a nice guy whose ideals were squashed by the legal system long ago; perky Dee Dee (Molly Hagan, "Herman's Head"); pretentious 20-something Lyndon Knox (Andrew Lowery, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, My Boyfriend's Back); and creepy weirdo Matt (Lightfield Lewis, Juliette's real-life brother). On the home-front, Lisa is happily married to basketball coach Kevin (Michael O'Keefe, fresh from a regular role on "Roseanne"), and they have two children: precocious daughter Tess (Alexa Vega, "Spy Kids," "Repo! The Genetic Opera") and "melon-headed" toddler Griffin (Luca/Cameron Weibel).

Nestled between "Roseanne" and "Home Improvement" on ABC's Tuesday night block of comedies, "Life's Work" was expected to be a hit... and it was one. Unfortunately, in the show's final season, viewership was way down on "Roseanne," which had an inane storyline featuring the Conners winning the lottery (clearly not a spur-of-the-moment storyline, as tabloids had earlier revealed that as the plot Roseanne planned for the then-upcoming 1991 season). With ratings down on "Roseanne," the ratings for "Life's Work" were not quite as high as the network had hoped.

"Life's Work" went on hiatus after the January 27, 1997 airing of the episode "Neighbors," guest-starring "Just Shoot Me"'s Enrico Colontoni. During February Sweeps, instead of playing the Valentine's Day episode "Dates" (weirdly, guest-starring "Just Shoot Me"'s Wendie Malick), they replaced "Life's Work" with "The Drew Carey Show." After Carey's Tuesday run was over, reruns of "Ellen" were thrown into the slot, and finally, Dan Ackroyd's short-lived sitcom "Soul Man." It was heavily rumored at the time that the then-head of ABC, Jamie Tarses, didn't care all that much for the show or its brash female lead. Certainly makes sense, given the way the show was treated... though Tarses herself was no certainly angel (check out the page on "Over the Top" for more on that subject...).

When the 1996 season started, ABC had a post-board for each shows, exclusive through AOL's website, where fans and critics of the show could share their opinions. To everyone's surprise, Lisa Ann Walter began posting from time to time, answering questions and doling out info out about the show and its cast. Shortly after "Life's Work" officially went on hiatus, a teenager named Joe (credit where credit is due) and the other people who had been posting banded together to try to save the show. There was an internet petition; and a letter-writing campaign which got huge support in Chicago (where a local paper was backing it) and Massachusetts. Right around the time they brought the show back, someone at ABC got wind of the post-board and it was promptly turned into a restricted area... though message boards for ALL of the other ABC shows were still accessible. Tell me there wasn't a conspiracy.

Finally, on May 27, 1997, ABC was so annoyed at the attention the show was getting that they put it back on the air with three unaired episodes and summer reruns. Shortly thereafter, "Life's Work" was officially cancelled, despite the fact that ratings had actually improved. In fact, according to network research, "Life's Work" had a better Q Rating than "The Drew Carey Show" and held onto 90% of the audience that watched "Roseanne," whose ratings had slightly improved as the season progressed (even newcomer "Spin City" didn't hang onto that much of "Home Improvement"'s audience). Sadly, the cast and crew had to seek out their new life's work, and "Life's Work" was forgotten.... but obviously it wasn't completely forgotten or you wouldn't be reading this.

As an aside... Of everything I've included on this site, "Life's Work" is perhaps the most personal to me. I first got hooked up with the internet while the show was airing, I was one of the people frequenting the aforementioned message board, and I built a small site about the show on GeoCities soon after it was canceled. I suppose you could say that this is the show which was responsible for turning me into an obscure-movie-and-TV historian. So if you're reading, Lisa, thank you. Wish we could have saved your show, but at least your "life's work" helped me discover my own.