Bette

By far, the best sitcom of the new season. [11 Oct 2000, p.1E]

I'm betting on Bette to get better as everybody settles down and lets the show settle in. [11 Oct 2000, p.1]

She rolls through the show with energy and brass, determined to make you look at her. It's an easy sell because she's telling the best jokes on herself. [11 Oct 2000, p.E1]

She is simply hilarious. Lovable, insecure, over-the-top and hilarious. [11 Oct 2000, p.D01]

Bette is full of good-natured mischief and proves a surprisingly easy fit for Midler. The weaknesses are obvious enough: a need to ease up on the fat jokes and the broad physical farce that's a little too obvious. But the screen loves Midler, which is never more apparent than during a scene that finds her turning a Kid Rock rap-rock tune into a jazzy swing number. You can't write that into a script; it's pure magic. [11 Oct 2000]

There's nothing subtle about the physical comedy in the pilot, as Bette visits a cosmetic surgeon and takes a stab at strenuous exercise. But "broad" is a term Midler has always been comfortable with.

Even couched in a traditional sitcom format that feels deliberately out-of-date - I Love Lucy crossed with Burns and Allen - Bette perfectly exploits Midler's awkward relationship with fame. [11 Oct 2000, p.R2]

The trick for Midler's writers will be to make sure the show is at least somewhat grounded in real-life situations while keeping the inside-Hollywood stuff from being too inside. It's funny, for example, when she expresses vengeful bitterness over losing the 1979 Oscar to Sally Field ("Norma Rae"), but it might not be so funny to hear references to her 1982 celluloid stink bomb "Jinxed." (Remember that one?) [11 Oct 2000, p.D01]

But those looking for a "Larry Sanders"-like view into Midler's world, or even a "Seinfeld"-like simplification of it, are going to be disappointed. This is more like "I Love Lucy" with Midler channeling both Lucy and Ricky. [11 Oct 2000, p.67]

As always with Ms. Midler, you get more than you might have expected. [11 Oct 2000, p.E1]

Most of this is enjoyable, some of it a bit much. But Bette is Bette, as is "Bette." She's a hothouse rose, not a shrinking violet. But on a weekly basis, too much scenery-chewing could make even the "Divine Miss M" wear thin. We'll see how it all plays out. [8 Oct 2000]

She has a lot of spunk, mugging for the camera and poking fun at her career (no fewer than four Midler films get mentioned in the first episode). Next to her, however, the supporting cast is tired and colorless. And how many Bette Midler jokes can America take? [11 Oct 2000, p.F1]

You've got to be something of a Bette-a-holic to take this much of Midler's raging insecurities and slapstick stylings on a weekly basis. Even when she's missing from a scene in "Bette," which is rare, the rest of the show's character ensemble is fixated on her and her bottomless pit of need. [11 Oct 2000, p.C1]

When it comes to her new CBS sitcom premiering tonight, though, [Middler is] the only element jolting the show out of disastrously ho-hum status. [11 Oct 2000, p.96]

All the good jokes come from Midler poking fun at her own image, from her gay fan base to references to "Beaches." Around that, alas, things are numbingly uninspired. [11 Oct 2000, p.6]