Midway through the second-season premiere of "Watching Ellie," one of the supporting characters comments that it's "just like an episode of 'I Love Lucy.'"
Um, no. Not even close.
Unless I missed the "Lucy" episode in which she tried to make her boyfriend — a married man who's not married to her — jealous after he ogles another woman.
"Watching Ellie" (8:30 p.m., Ch. 5) has undergone a drastic overhaul since it last aired on NBC almost a year ago. Back then, star Julia Louis-Dreyfus was indeed perceived as a genuine TV star (NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker called her a "huge television star," which is quite a statement for someone whose only success has been as a second banana on "Seinfeld" and "Saturday Night Live") so she and her husband — the sitcom's creator/executive producer — could do just about anything they wanted. And what they wanted to do was a non-traditional TV comedy that featured the title character, an L.A. lounge singer, living out each episode in real time. And it was filmed instead of being videotaped in front of a studio audience.
And, after a strong start, the show plummeted in the ratings. Which was hardly unjust — "Watching Ellie" wasn't worth watching.
Well, the new-and-improved "Watching Ellie" is certainly a more traditional sitcom. The running-time element is gone, and it's videotaped with an audience. But one thing hasn't changed.
It's not funny. Tonight's premiere finds Ellie trying to talk her boyfriend, Ben (Darren Boyd) into renting an apartment in her building. Which leads to a number of alleged jokes about the grisly murder involving the previous tenants.
Ellie gets in a snit, however, when Ben practically loses the power of speech when he meets the landlord's statuesque, Icelandic niece. So, with the help of her annoying sister (Lauren Bowles), Ellie plots to make him green with envy. Oh, and all this is intercut with Ellie sitting in her therapist's office telling the tale.
It's just as predictable and unfunny as it sounds. As is a second episode NBC sent to critics in which Ellie ends up singing in the subway.
"Watching Ellie" isn't a total disaster. Louis-Dreyfus sings really well.
More so than before, this show is trying to emulate "Seinfeld." This is another group of basically unlikable characters — including Ellie's remarkably annoying, unfunny one-time boyfriend, Edgar (Steve Carrell) — but they're not remotely amusing. Which is a definite drawback for a comedy.
First "The Michael Richards Show." Then "Bob Patterson." Now "Watching Ellie."
The "Seinfeld" curse has struck again.
Let's hope that, unlike her fellow "Seinfeld" alumnus Jason Alexander, Louis-Dreyfus doesn't end up embarrassing herself doing "Kentucky Fried Chicken" ads with pseudo-celebrities from "Joe Millionaire" and "The Bachelorette."
E-MAIL: pierce@desnews.com