Two Guys and a Girl
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Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place (retitled Two Guys and a Girl in its third season) was a sitcom created by Kenny Schwartz and Danny Jacobson that ran on ABC for four seasons from 1998-2001.
The series starred Ryan Reynolds as Michael "Berg" Leslie Bergen, and Richard Ruccolo as Peter "Pete" Dunville. The titular Two Guys were joined by Traylor Howard, who played Sharon Carter (later Carter-Donnelly). For the first two seasons, the series centered around the lives of Berg, an aimless graduate student, who was working at a Boston pizza parlor, Beacon St. Pizza, with Pete. They both attended graduate school together, unlike their College-roommate, Sharon, who worked as the spokesperson (née apologist) for Global Chemicals.
The format of the initial season varied considerably from that of subsequent seasons. The first season featured Jennifer Westfeldt and David Ogden Stiers respectively appearing as Pete's girlfriend, and Mr. Bauer, an insane old man who frequented the diner, pretending that his experiences from films were his own. The second season abandoned these two characters, and focussed more on the interplay between Pete and Berg, and their relationship with Sharon, who lived in the apartment above them. Berg eventually decided to attend medical school and become a doctor, while Pete dropped out of architecture classes to become a firefighter. The second season also introduced Ashley (Suzanne Cryer), a medical school classmate of Berg's who competed with him to be at the top of the class.
By season three, the pizza place had been abandoned entirely, and Berg began his medical residency. Pete became a firefighter and Johnny and Sharon married and became the superintendents of the apartment building they lived in. Berg would go on to date Irene (Jillian Bach), the insane roommate across the hall, and Pete began dating a fellow fire fighter named Marti (Tiffani Thiessen).
ABC decided to bounce the sitcom from midweek to Friday night, leading to a steep drop in ratings. After the show moved back to Wednesday to try to revive the show's flagging support for a two week trial, the plug was pulled. The fourth season ended with "The Internet Show", an hour-long episode in which the fans of the show voted on the outcome online. In the end, they chose to have Ashley fall pregnant with Pete's child, as opposed to either of the other two female characters, or nobody, falling pregnant.
The title sequence for the first two years consisted of a short collection of images of the three, a few cartoon images of them drinking and then the title. The music is often mistaken to be a sample from the Violent Femmes' "Blister in the Sun", but it is an original composition. For the third season, the music and titles were changed to a more refined opening of the three in suits and dresses, dancing around a more-generic piece of theme music.
Two Guys and a Girl now shows weekdays at 4pm on WE, in syndication.
External links
- Two Guys and a Girl Episode Guide (http://www.tvtome.com/TwoGuysandaGirl/season1.html)