User reviews

The first two seasons of this are a decent funny sitcom. It is basically about a long time married couple who have a newly married couple move into next to them. This is fine for the first two seasons. However in Season 3 the newly married couple disappear and are erased from history.

It then just becomes about the established married couple. However a few episodes for Season 2 were inserted into Season 3 so the newly married couple just suddenly appear. Season 3 is also out of order so Kenny (who was my favourite character) is living with them with no explanation until later on in the season when he moves in.

Season 4 just loses the plot completely. Kenny disappears. A rich man and his young wife move in (if he was rich why would he live in a working class suburb??) An ongoing joke about the married couples, daughter's boyfriend thinking he is living in a sitcom stops being funny after the first episode the joke appears. One episode involves cartoons of the characters (and jumping a shark). It felt like they knew it was the last season and all the ideas they had for another six seasons they were cramming in. This is without the fact the daughter changes actress four times (twice in Season 4).

It is a shame as the acting is great. The first two seasons were good but it just all falls apart. I really wish I had left it alone after Season 2.

I think this show seems kind of promising, especially since Brad Garrett from "Everybody Loves Raymond" is the star of the show. Brad Garrett plays a guy named Eddie Stamm who is one of those unhappy married guys who has been married for over 8,000 days to his wife, Joy Stamm (Joely Fisher). Then one day a newlywed couple (Eddie Kaye Thomas and Kat Foster) moves in next door and they try to teach the newlyweds on how marriage actually works. I liked the jokes where Brad Garrett is teaching Eddie Kaye Thomas about his marriage life and how everything else is pretty obvious in marriage. I hope this show lasts. This show premiered on FOX, September 2006.

BOTTOM LINE: IF YOU LIKE BRAD GARRETT ON "RAYMOND" THEN YOU WOULD LIKE HIM ON THIS SHOW

Til Death is starting to hit its stride...last week's show which featured the guys at a belated bachelor party was the funniest yet.

Considering the lack of entertaining sitcoms on the air I am surprised FOX would give this show the death slot against Earl and Survivor...not a good idea and one they should reconsider.

I hope FOX figures out a way to attract better ratings or at least gives the show a couple of years...I would hate to see another quality comedy put to rest because of a terrible time slot.

I had my doubts for the first two or three episodes (mildly funny) but the scripts are improving each week...Kudos to Brad Garrett and the rest of the cast...also hope to see more of Will Sasso's character in future episodes.

This show was so good but the new season is horrible. Woodcocks were great - why did they take them out? Kenny was the best character - made me LOL and he is gone. WTF? The Allie and Doug characters are lame - no other word to describe watching them outside of painful. I fast forwarded past most of "the wedding" episode - if I wanted to watch a cartoon I would. Now Til Death has added their political comments to the show in "the wedding" episode. We don't tune in to hear your political agenda. Boston Legal did that and they are off the air. The worst part of the show used to be the one scene in every episode (yes we noticed) where Joely would have her fake boobs (we know they are fake, too) hanging out and now the entire show is horrible. Change is not good - change it back or I'm out and I bet many more people are too.

When first released, 'Til Death was a show that had me in stitches. I cannot remember another sitcom that has made me laugh aloud so often with each episode. Having been divorced twice and single for more years than I can remember, this show takes a look at marriage that will make you roar. What makes it work is the fact that it compares a pair of crazy newlyweds to a couple married over twenty years - The Woodcocks and the Starks.

However, sadly, the show dispenses with the anchor of the show (the characters who play the Woodcocks), and the sitcom sinks to the bottom of ridiculous. Gone are the laughs and the beginning of the slow death that leads to cancellation.

I just felt like I went through another heartrending divorce that has left me convinced I'll never marry again.

Score: Definite 10 before the demise of the Woodcocks; 3 after they left the show.

I read the first several messages on the board here, and people who don't like this show seem to be doing so for two main reasons - they think the longer-married couple is too bitter and unhappy, and they keep comparing the show to Everybody Loves Raymond. Well, I hope the show gets at least a few more episodes to reveal to those of you who aren't paying enough attention that Brad's character and his wife do really love each other and are trying to make their marriage better. A related idea the writers could emphasize is that the Woodcock's marriage will get stronger when the kids take off the rose-colored glasses and begin to love the people they married, not the idealized version of those people. And as for comparing to ELR, if you feel you absolutely must, this show is a lot kinder and more loving than that one.

Don't get me wrong, I think Bard Garrett is a fantastic comedic actor but his acting skills aren't exploited at it's best in this show.

The jokes and situations aren't as funny as you may expect from a Brad Garrett show. Also, the whole macho dominated situation is getting old by now.

I don't believe he is comfortable in the show and you can clearly see he looks awkward while performing some jokes. For example, the Bill Cosby spoofs.

Joely Fisher in my opinion is not that funny but she delivers. Eddie Kaye Thomas is a young talented comedian but I don't think he fits in this show. I believe he belongs to movies. Kat Foster is extremely sexy, hot but lacks of some comedic skills, well that's my opinion.

I was never really a huge fan of "Everybody Loves Raymond," but Ray's brother (Garrett) was always my favorite character when I watched the show. Now, after "Raymond" has left the networks, Garrett goes onto his new project "'Til Death." The show is funny. It shows everyday situations that a lot can relate to. It tells about two sets of married couples, one thats been married for 24 years and one that's been married 12 days. While the newlyweds are deeply in love, Garrett and his wife seem to have a strained relationship. I hope this show sticks around for awhile.

With many great one liners, this show is a surefire hit with anyone who's married.

Brad Garrett is the glue holding this together. Everybody else is playing off his character & he is doing fine, much the same way he did well on that Raymond series. In a way Garrett is the Raymond of this series. Fox has been giving this show a chance and is getting rewarded as the show is improving and the ratings are going up.

The scripts have had a wide range from somewhat funny to very funny. At first, it looked like these marriages between the two couples were totally different. The Woodcocks marriage was the eyes wide open smitten stage while Garretts union was the yes we've been together forever stage. The comedy was based upon laughing at how naive the Woodcocks were.

What has happened is that we are seeing the two marriages evolve. Woodcocks marriage is finding out it takes more than being smitten to make things work and they are learning to cope. Garretts marriage is finding out that even though they are comfortable they can still find heat and new things in their relationship. This is helping the show evolve into more than it was when it started.

The actress who is playing Garretts wife on this show is really evolving into a much better comedian as this show grows. Woodcocks wife who is supposed to be the young trophy one is still a bit up on the shelf so to speak. What is going to be interesting is to keep watching as the couples continue to change, in funny sort of ways each show.

There is some class warfare comedy undertones here as Garrett is the long time teacher & Woodcock is the young Administrator who is his boss. This helps the show along at times too.

I liked the original premise of the two couples, one young, one middle aged and the comedy of the differences between them. Kenny was funny as an occasional guest star, but having him all the time now and losing the Woodcoks (Jeff & Steph) has changed the show altogether to something that just isn't that funny anymore. I find myself hating Kenny more everyday and the show too. I caught one of the episodes they shot last season with the Woodcocks. It is out of place with the current story line, but a welcome break. I do so miss the Woodcocks. I do so hope that they bring the Woodcocks back for good. After these three episodes with them air and they're not back, I don't know how I can continue watching the show with Kenny and their current format.

Network: Fox; Genre: Sitcom; Content Rating: TV-PG (some crude humor, mild language and adult situations); Available: DVD; Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);

Seasons Reviewed: 2 seasons

Eddie Stark (Brad Garrett) had a good thing going. After being married for 25 years, he and his wife Joy (Joely Fisher, "Ellen") have been lulled into a complacent lifestyle of low expectations and general acceptance of all of each other's annoying habits. That is, until obnoxiously chipper newly married couple (Eddie Kaye Thomas and Kat Foster) move in next door. Soon Joy is wondering why Eddie doesn't behave like that for her anymore and Eddie is forced to give the new guy marriage advice.

Watching " 'Til Death" I had the kind of thought that my usually optimism TV watching mind never lets me have: maybe there just isn't anything else for a sitcom to say about marriage. In "Death" a newly married couple experiments with pornography, wives use sex to get new patio furniture and a husband refuses to put his name on a girly birthday gift his wife bought. And so on. In typical sitcom fashion the women are hot and domineering and the men are either wimps or slobs. "Til Death" is not ashamed at all of being a studio audience sitcom. I honestly feel like I'm watching a remake of something I've seen years ago, just re-cast with Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher in the leads.

With "Death", Fox is loudly touting the return to TV of Brad Garrett. And with good reason, the multi Emmy-award winning actor was a breakout star on "Everybody Loves Raymond". In lull episodes Garrett's Robert could always be counted on to turn a one-liner into a huge laugh. And I'd watch Joely Fisher read the phone book. Garrett and Fisher have the veteran acting chops to balance out the amateur silliness of Thomas & Foster.

As you can imagine the show is nothing to get excited about. Naming the newlyweds the Woodcocks is only the beginning of many odd, lame sex jokes. The gags are broad and silly, nor are they tethered to anything more than a sitcom reality shaped by decades of cliché. Fox is asking Garrett to work magic with a script that is well beneath him, but the guy is such a pro he is able to get a few scattered laughs out of this material. Anybody can be funny with good material but it takes real talent to make OK material funny. It's that commitment that makes "'Till Death" better than "According to Jim", "Yes, Dear", "The King of Queens" and other bottom-of-the-barrel family and not-so-family sitcoms.

While playing a totally different character, Garrett's involvement only heightens the reality that " 'Til Death" is the kind of marriage sitcom that "Everybody Loves Raymond" was an evolution away from. Both are realistically cynical towards marriage and family, but "Death" doesn't have the depth or reason behind it. The situations are just as minuscule but on "Raymond" they always revealed a greater, nastier truth. On "Raymond" the arguments often built to an epic meltdown. Here our couple gets in a mild spat and make up happily at the end. Oh yeah, the old sitcom happy ending is back. The days of shows like "Married… with Children" and "Unhappily Ever After" that looked at marriage with cliché-busting, anti-establishment acerbic pessimism are gone, reverting back to this Oprah-esquire feminized view where everybody fights but underneath it they all love each other and there isn't a problem that can't be solved in under 30 minutes of TV time. I thought we'd gotten past all this.

If you expect more from your comedy don't even slow down here. Go in with low expectations and " 'Til Death" is an empty, inoffensive, fairly watchable sitcom. This is the type of show that I would probably be forced to watch if I was over at someone else's house. But with Garrett and Fischer at the helm, this one isn't as agonizing as it could have been.

* * / 4

Brad Garret was the funniest actor on Everybody loves Raymond. I believe he's one of the finest comic actors in television. I very much anticipated his new show Till Death. The first few episodes were a disappointment only because the relationship between the couple seemed to caustic to be believable. I suppose it was meant to contrast with the newlyweds next door. Others must have thought the same way because later episodes have toned it down a bit and you can now believe that like most real couples they may not always get along but actually love each other. The actress who plays the wife seems to have been given the go ahead to show a lot more femininity. I believe she's about the only comic actress they could have found that could hold her own with Garrett. She great in the roll. The couple next door are perfectly cast and a great foil for the older couple. They've resisted the temptation (unlike "Back to You")to introduce too many characters into the cast. I'd really like to see Garret again in the movie roll her was born to play, the Jackie Gleason biography from a few years back. I can't help thinking that this show reminds me a lot of THE HONEYMOONERS, a classic worth emulating.

This show is so hilarious that I nearly fall off my seat every time I watch it. It is well written, the actors are perfect for their respective roles (the only exception being Kat Foster, who plays Steph), and anyone who had been married for longer than three years can definitely identify with both couples on the show. In the age where it seems that sitcoms have gone the way of the dinosaur, it is refreshing to sit down each week to half an hour of carefree, uncomplicated, laugh-out-loud, slap-your-knee hilarity. Don't get me wrong, I love the new wave of serial television shows that really make you think, make you angry, make you cry; but every now and then you really just want a little unambiguous comedy.

First i like to start out i don't watch much TV or movies. I kind of finding boring to sit in front of a TV. I like the fact that the show takes place in Philadelphia. I was born and raised there and to be honest one gets tired of the same locals NY, Chicago, San Fran etc. This kind of show has been done before and one can say it sort of a spin off or Raymond. The two main characters really shine through in the show. It's quirky and Brad does an excellent job. His co-star is bodacious and the two mend well together. I say give the show a chance and stop watching crappy reality shows. Shows like these have a hard time making good ratings because America has come accustomed to junk reality shows.

I started watching this show about the time it was cancelled. I just never thought it looked interesting. I was so wrong! The humor is sometimes dry, which I enjoy, and always relatable. It's both clever and funny. It's generally light and just good fun. Great show.

This show is hilarious.

The previous person said that Eddie was "Unhappily" married. This is completely off base.

The show isn't about that at all... It's about how things change.

The young newly weds move in next door... This reminds Eddie and his wife Joy about what they're not anymore... They've been married for 20 years, and have (a) kid(s) (can't remember how many they have...?). Things change a lot.

To me, this is a show about real life. The real little things that happen.. It's a lot like Everybody loves Raymond, except not parents, and the wife is actually funny too.

This was actually quite a funny sitcom comedy for the first two seasons. The perky newly wed Woodcocks were in sharp contrast to the 20 year married Starks. I frequently laughed out loud and looked forward to watching it. There were plenty of pointed insights into relationships and married life in general.

Then something bizarre happened in season 3. The Woodcocks their next door neighbors disappear with no explanation offered & Eddie becomes big brother to a full grown black man (an absolutely ridiculous story line). Then the black man moves in with them. Then we have a cast of black characters added on. Were the producers including Brad Garrett who is also the lead actor cynically chasing urban African American TV ratings? Would love to know the thinking behind this.

The show becomes desperately unfunny immediately after that. The show then stopped after season 4. A mystery....

My husband and I went to the taping of the pilot of this series and we were glad we did. The show was cute, the writing was realistic and funny, and the actors worked together wonderfully. Each line of dialogue was something that we've either heard from a family member or had said to each other in the course of our relationship. (The woman in the older couple asked her husband to look at the really icky paper cut she has on her hand...what wife hasn't done that?)Hopefully this gets picked up by the network and we can see the rest of the episodes. We know we'll watch it. (we saw this on our honeymoon and we thought it was so neat that the younger couple in the show was on day 12 of their marriage and so were we!)

A friend called me and told me to watch this show as he said they actually showed the front of Abington Hospital in Abington, PA. Well, I thought this was awesome as I worked at Abington Hospital for seven yrs. Since moving to Florida in 2002, I've missed the place. Actually there was a scene recently when one of the characters was in the hospital and my friend and I agreed that it looked exactly like an Abington Hospital room. Besides working there, I spent a lot of time there as a patient so I am even more familiar with the rooms than I ever wanted to be.

There was also a scene during one show where Joely Fisher was working and answered the phone as "Cheltenham Travel" It's really cool to be able to turn on the television and really, really feel at "home".

Kudos to the person who chose the setting for the show. It's awesome to have a show set in an actual location that you're entirely familiar with!! I wonder though, does Abington get some type of payment for the location shots of the front of the hospital??

Lisa Chadwick

We loved to watch Everyone Loves Raymond, and when we saw that Brad Garrett had his own show we started to watch it on Roku. The first two years was great with the Woodcocks! Made us laugh. Could relate to their everyday issues. Then it started going downhill. Did not like the comedy of JB Smoove, want smooth for us and then when the daughter was changed and moved back home, Hated it! The counting of the days begun! They should have stayed with the original cast. Would have run a lot longer in my eyes.