From The
Hollywood Reporter
TV review: 'The Tom Show' (Thursday, September 4, 1997)
By Irv Letofsky
"The Tom Show" on the WB heralds the re-re-re-return of Tom Arnold to network
TV, although the series, perhaps with ironic pretensions, is set on morning TV
on KOGD in St. Paul, Minn. Arnold has a freewheeling likeability, but this
excursion is halting and stumbling and ultimately falls down.
The premise is unamusing, the script could use some punching up, and the
performances need rehearsal time.
It's a coming-home, starting-over concept. After 15 years of marriage,
single-name TV star Maggie (Shannon Tweed) noticed that husband Tom (Arnold)
was, as she told her national audience, a rude, dumb, sweaty louse. In the
settlement, Tom ("Mr. Maggie" to some) agreed to forgo the California split of
the $160 million sale of her series in exchange for joint custody of their two
daughters.
Kenlon (Lisa Wilhoit), at an aggravating, devastating 13 years of age, and
Alissa (Mika Boorem), a milder 9, miss the old home in Hollywood with the pool,
tennis courts and indoor bowling alley. Here they have a small apartment within
smelling distance of the Mississippi River, with wafts from the stockyards in
South St. Paul. Can't they go back and live with Mommy?
Tom, hoping to jump-start his career, any career, hires on as producer of the
sagging, 43-year-old "Breakfast With Charlie," starring the sagging Charlie
Dickerson (Ed McMahon, launching a new career). Tom's idea to jump-start the
show is to bring on a sassy young co-host (Shawnee Smith). Charlie quits, of
course -- but not for long.
At least in this starter, most everybody seems uncomfortable, including star
Arnold and celebrity-announcer-nonactor McMahon.
"Breakfast With Charlie" may get some ratings, but "The Tom Show" is
questionable.
THE TOM SHOW
The WB
Clean Break Prods.
in association with Universal Television
Creators-executive producers Tom Arnold & J.J. Wall
Co-executive producer Kevin Kelton
Supervising producer David Raether
Producer Doug Jackson
Director Howard Murray
Director of photography Frank Doll
Production designer Dahl Delu
Casting Dava Waite
Editor Gary Anderson
Music Snuffy Walden
Cast: Tom Arnold, Shawnee Smith, Ed McMahon, Mika Boorem, Lisa Wilhoit, Michael
Rosenbaum, Shannon Tweed, Tasha Smith, Kevin Farley, Danton Stone, Angela Paton,
Bob Bouchard, Joey Nader, Troy Spurlin
Airdate: Sunday, Sept. 7, 9-9:30 p.m.
Celebrities discuss being fired
excerpt from NY POST/By MICHAEL GILTZ, 10
March 2002
SHAWNEE SMITH
What series?
--"The Tom Show" starring Tom Arnold on the WB, which last aired on March
of
'98.
How did it happen?
--"I was in Barneys New York buying a bathing suit to go to Hawaii for a
vacation on the first day of Christmas hiatus," says Smith. "Tom
[Arnold] calls
me on my cell phone and says, 'Umm, they're not going to have [your
character]
back after Christmas.' They'd already cancelled the show and just wanted
to save
the salary, basically, because it was a sinking ship. "They owed Tom
Arnold so
much money it was easier to do the last four shows instead of just
canceling
it. And I was the easiest character to knock out. "I was like, 'Okay, I
guess I
better put my bathing suit down and cancel the trip. Merry Christmas!'"
"TV is
hardcore. When you hit the jackpot, you hit it way above what any normal
person
should get. But you usually have so many strikeouts." "Getting fired from
"The
Tom Show" is pretty hardcore."
Where is she now?
--"Becker" on Mondays at 9:30 on CBS. [moves to Sundays at 7:30 CST this
fall]
