Remembering Kelly (twice)

Hey, did you ever hear of Kelly Kelly?

No, not the wrestling character played by Barbara Blank: I'm talking the 7 episode TV show starring Shelley Long. I was a big Shelley Long fan (I typically give up on Cheers rewatches about the time Coach dies, the only Rebecca storylines I like are the Robin Colcord ones because Roger Rees is just awesome), and she even made Money Pit watchable (Hanks was pretty terrible in it).

I never heard of this show until I just happened to see a promo on an old VHS tape. It starred Robert Hays (Striker from Airplane!) as a fireman who married Shelley Long's character Kelly, but his last name is Kelly and therefore you just figured out the name of the title. The only other notable about the cast is that a grown up Chrissy Seaver (Ashley Johnson, who oddly enough was later in two episodes of another sitcom that had the word "Kelly" in the name) played the obligatory hot daughter. Babylon 5's Claudia Christian was in an episode too.

It sounds like the Sound of Music inspired promo ad was the most creative part of the entire show. It's ranked #104 in IMdB's "cancelled catastrophes" list (the aforementioned Married to the Kellys is ranked #101 oddly enough). That sandwiches it in between Deadline starring Oliver Platt, and Brother's Keeper starring absolutely nobody you've ever heard of.

So at least they can say they're considered better than Father of the Pride (the animated show about Siegfried and Roy's soon-to-be-vicious white tigers), Fat Guy Stuck in Internet (a lame Tron ripoff where a computer hacker gets sucked into the internet and an evil CEO tries to get him killed in cyberspace), and two horrible Andy Richter sitcoms (Andy Barker, P.I. and Quintuplets).

Strangely enough, ranked at #32 (so worse than Kelly Kelly is Heartland, the sappy Alberta-based drama which definitely was not cancelled: it has over 200 episodes and has run longer than The Beachcombers or Street Legal.