It’s been a long time since I would watch TV shows regularly, especially weekly episodes airing on TV. My how things have changed in the last twenty years or so since ABC’s Two Guys, A Girl, And A Pizza Place first aired. This series, which many compare to the more popular and much longer-lasting Friends show, is a textbook late ’90s comedy, for better or worse. While it ran for four seasons and eighty-one episodes, with an internet-voted season finale, I’m not sure I ever got through the first season.
This wasn’t really because the quality of the show was bad, though. In fact, the writing and acting in Two Guys is pretty strong. In re-watching some of the series — I haven’t made it through the whole thing during this review period — a lot of the material holds up well and the show has re-earned a lot of smirks and some chuckles out of me. Much of this is due to Ryan Reynolds, now of Deadpool fame, for his almost Ace Ventura like timing, antics, and humor. Playing opposite of Ryan is Richard Ruccolo whose personality on the show is intentionally quite the opposite of Ryan’s laid back persona. Living together as college roommates, and working together for that matter at a local Boston pizza pub, provides ample opportunity for the duo to ‘clash’ in humorous, almost Perfect Strangers like ways.
Several other key characters were a big part of the first season, including the well-cast pizza place owner and the borderline crazy teacher that Richard’s character (Pete) has that confuses his own life with that of movie plots. It provides for some predictable yet often well-injected humor. Traylor Howard provides another comedic slant that spices things up although sometimes in an annoying way. Later in the series run, future star Nathan Fillion helps balance her character out.
In typical ’90s sitcom fashion, these thirty minute episodes are primarily about relationships and life in general. There’s a lot of borderline-whinnying between the characters about their lives, but it’s all pretty stock material for the time. Watching it today feels more about nostalgia than watching a time-tested, gem of a show, but as I mentioned it’s still entertaining, although I’d suggest watching it in spurts. On a side note, hearing a laugh track (or perhaps it was a live studio audience, but I doubt it), was kind of surreal. It had been years, literally, since I watched a show with a laugh track. Anyway, ultimately, and obviously, the quality of the show is up to the individual. For me, it’s a decent nostalgia trip and background TV for one to two episodes at a time, and a chance to finish a series that I never did many years ago.
In terms of the DVD release itself, it’s good, but barebones, which isn’t too surprising. Ryan Reynolds and Nathan Fillion, the two biggest stars from this show followed by Traylor Howard, have all long since moved on to bigger and better things. Getting them back in for commentary or a roundtable was just not on the menu. Instead, the only extra feature is the alternate series ending. It’s a bit of a shame, but series purists will appreciate that all eighty-one episodes are finally available in a convenient package. Furthmore, the presentation quality is quite nice, with a clean image and sound and solid packaging. Seasons 1 & 2 are in a case together and 3 & 4 are in their own separate case. The inside jacket have a disc-by-disc list of episode numbers and names, and the discs themselves are clearly labeled and color-differentiated based on season.
With that, let’s get to the summary…
