Catch 'Illeanarama' at YouTube
Dec 11, 2006, 12:02 PM | by Michael Slezak
Categories: Television, Web/Tech
I remember flipping out with excitement a while back when I read a story that E! was considering picking up a series called Illeanarama, a sort of The Comeback-meets-So NoTORIous mockumentary about the magnificent Illeana Douglas trading in her film career to work in a California supermarket. Let's face it, the woman was so twistedly funny in the short-lived Fox sitcom Action and her all-too-brief guest appearances on Six Feet Under, she really deserves her own small-screen vehicle -- pronto! But after viewing a five-minute clip of Illeanarama at YouTube (thanks to TV Tattle for the link!), I've got to say it looks like Douglas is lucky this project never took flight. You'd think anything with Douglas, a self-depreciating Justine Bateman, and the wonderfully loopy Jane Lynch would be chock full o' laughs, but you would be wrong. Maybe they should've cut back on the tired ethnic stereotypes -- the Indian grocer! the fiery Latina checkout girl! -- and let Lynch mispronounce "Eee-lie-on-ya" a few more times. Which isn't to say I don't want to see, say, Illeanamania! on NBC's fall 2007 lineup. Especially if they pair her with Starting Over's Iyanla Vanzant. (Oh, how I miss the Starting Over house. Don't laugh.)
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