Ed

NBC | Release Date: October 8, 2000
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
87
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
30
Mixed:
1
Negative:
1
100
Denver PostJoanne OstrowJun 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: Like the best TV shows, Ed has a profound point beneath its silliness. It seems it's always possible to return to Stuckeyville, the hometown we carry around inside, and see new possibilities. If we let go and embrace a magical dramedy that dares to dream, we may feel somehow ennobled. [5 Oct 2000, p.E-03]
100
Detroit Free PressMike DuffyJun 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: Ed is that rare sort of genuinely sweet television treat...It won't give you sugar schlock. It isn't sticky. And it doesn't go all gooey with prefabricated sentimentality. [6 Oct 2000, p.1D]
100
Deseret NewsScott D. PierceJun 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: If you watch only one new show this season, watch Ed...It's a dry-witted, hourlong comedy with dramatic undertones. It's sweet, funny, earnest, endearing and entirely charming. It's got a great cast -- particularly the perfectly cast Tom Cavanagh in the title role -- and even better writing. [6 Oct 2000, p.C08]
100
Chicago Sun-TimesPhil RosenthalJun 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: Ed is, unabashedly, a feel-good show that dangerously flirts with being too eccentric, too sentimental and way too whimsical...It's nothing short of a miracle that it manages to toe each of those lines without crossing any of them -- the kind of miracle that has you thinking all good things can happen and ultimately will. [6 Oct 2000, p.54]
100
Kansas City StarAaron BarnhartJun 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: This sweet comic drama is the best new show of the fall. "Ed" is not only cleverly scripted but also marvelously cast and filled with little touches that make it absolutely endearing. [7 Oct 2000, p.E1]
100
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesChuck BarneyJun 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: The show probably wouldn't fly for a minute, though, if it weren't for the ineffably engaging Cavanagh, who looks a lot like sardonic comedian Jon Stewart, yet has the laid-back affability of a young Jimmy Stewart. All bright eyes and dimples, he absolutely sparkles in the role. [7 Oct 2000, p.D01]
100
Washington PostTom ShalesJun 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: Even if the new season's shows weren't the blah, bland blanks that most of them are, Ed would stand out. For one thing, it isn't often that the season's best new comedy is also its best new drama. Ed is. [8 Oct 2000, p.G01]
100
Baltimore SunDavid ZurawikJun 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: Ed still believes in the realm of possibility, and perhaps even in magic. And that's part of what makes Ed Stevens such a welcome addition to the prime-time landscape. [7 Oct 2000, p.1E]
100
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: It's far and away the best new show on television this fall. [7 Oct 2000, p.1E]
100
San Diego Union-TribuneRobert P. LaurenceJun 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: A sprightly, beguiling series from NBC and the best new show of this fall season. People say one thing and mean another, as they sometimes do in actual life, and keep talking while they try to figure out what they really mean. [8 Oct 2000, p.TV-1]
100
Cleveland Plain DealerMark DawidziakJun 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: It's where quirky meets quixotic, and the mix is enchanting - equal parts wit and whimsy. [8 Oct 2000, p.11]
100
Orlando SentinelHal BoedekerJun 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: What we have here is a love story, a lawyer show, a man-goes-home plot and a small-town celebration rolled into one. Look closely and you'll see bits of Providence, L.A. Law, Northern Exposure, The Andy Griffith Show and other series in the mix...But what might have been derivative becomes fresh and charming through deft execution. [8 Oct 2000, p.F1]
90
VarietyLaura FriesJun 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: A member of the top of the class of the fall season. Offering more comedy than drama, the show is quirky, with feel-good sentiments lingering beneath clever writing. [6 Oct 2000, p.24]
90
Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertJun 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: Ed has enough potential to qualify as scary. Scary in a "Freaks & Geeks" maybe-I-shouldn't-get-too-attached kind of way. What I mean is that one of this fall's more promising new series is a romantic comedy that NBC seems ready to chuck to the wolves, as it did so tragically to "F&G" last year. [6 Oct 2000, p.D1]
90
Miami HeraldTerry JacksonJun 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: A few shows just sneak up on you. They start quiet, seem too simple, and then, when the credits roll after an hour, you find yourself smiling, wondering what happens next in this quirky world TV has created. That's what happens with Ed. [7 Oct 2000, p.5E]
90
Los Angeles TimesHoward RosenbergJun 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: Great stuff. Not a perfect strike, but close. [7 Oct 2000, p.F1]
90
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenJun 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: But NBC's comedy-drama Ed boasts sweetness, charm and innocence in equal measure. It's also extremely funny, albeit in an offbeat, low-key way. [8 Oct 2000, p.TV-5]
88
USA TodayRobert BiancoJun 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: What the cuts can't remove is the chemistry between Cavanagh and Bowen. They're a lovably winning couple in a completely winning new show. [6 Oct 2000, p.1E]
83
Houston ChronicleAnn HodgesJun 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: It's the old Northern Exposure trick again. Quirks and eccentrics abound, but they could grow on you. It's nicely done, with an air of sweet innocence by David Letterman's production company, with former Late Show producers Rob Burnett and Jon Beckerman at the helm. [7 Oct 2000]
80
NewsdayDiane WertsJun 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: Originally a half-hour sitcom, redeveloped into a light hour, this latter-day "Northern Exposure" creates its own eccentric, cantankerous, sweet and silly world. Can this wacky enchantment last? [6 Oct 2000, p.B51]
80
Newark Star-LedgerMatt Zoller SeitzJun 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: NBC's half-hour slice of small-town life isn't perfect right out of the gate; few shows are. But it's so sure-footed and engaging that it would be a pleasure to see how it turns out. [7 Oct 2000, p.43]
80
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan StormJun 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: Touching and original. [8 Oct 2000]
80
Dallas Morning NewsEd BarkJun 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: Ed also is graced by Molly Hudson (Lesley Boone), another of his former high school classmates. Chubby and vibrant, she's another winning character in a series that's brimming with them. [8 Oct 2000]
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)John AllemangJun 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: You might call Ed a sentimental comedy, soft rather than biting, with the mushy sensibility of a going-home show like Providence turned into an amusing Jell-O salad. Or looked at from another angle - the simple innocence of an Adam Sandler movie, but with brains instead of body functions. [6 Oct 2000, p.R2]
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerJohn LevesqueJun 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: Meeting Mike and Nancy is worth the contrivance, for if this show succeeds it may be due in part to the capable support of Josh Randall and Jana Marie Hupp, who offer occasional relief from the silly plot lines of Ed's life. As the Burtons, recently blessed with the arrival of their first child, they provide Ed with amusing reality checks as he pursues the new woman of his hometown dreams: Carol Vessey. [7 Oct 2000, p.C1]
75
Boston HeraldMonica CollinsJun 6, 2013
Season 1 Review: Ed is swell, as Ed might say. Not quite a strike but a satisfying spare. [5 Oct 2000, p.48]
70
Chicago TribuneAllan JohnsonJun 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: Cavanagh's goofy, lovable performance isn't so over the top as to turn viewers off, and a nice ensemble cast backs him. [8 Oct 2000, p.4]
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchGail PenningtonJun 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: The line between charming and annoying is pretty fine here, and although Ed is indeed a cute show, I finished two episodes feeling more annoyed than charmed. Much of this zaniness seems as forced as the romance between Ed and Carol, which needs more time to develop. Maybe she'll grow to love him. Maybe you and I will, too. [8 Oct 2000, p.F6]
0
New York PostLinda StasiJun 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: Sheesh! This show's about as real as Pamela Anderson's second set of breasts. [8 Oct 2000, p.107]