For worse and forever
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| German title | For worse and forever |
| Original title | Unhappily Ever After |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Year (s) | 1995-1999 |
| length | 22 minutes |
| Episodes | 100 in 5 seasons ( list ) |
| genre | Sitcom |
| idea | Ron Leavitt , Arthur Silver |
| music | Ray Charles - Hit the Road Jack |
| First broadcast | January 11, 1995 (USA) on The WB |
| German-language first broadcast |
November 22, 1997 on RTL |
| occupation | |
For worse and forever (Original title: Unhappily Ever After ) is an American sitcom , which was broadcast from 1995 to 1999 in a total of 100 episodes on the television station The WB .
In Germany it ran on RTL , Comedy Central and RTL II , and in Switzerland on SF Zwei . The sitcom was created by Ron Leavitt , who had previously brought out the hit series A Terribly Nice Family . With To worse and forever an attempt was made to build on the success with a similar product, but this did not succeed to the desired extent.
action
First season
- (Episodes 1 to 13)
After 16 years of marriage, the newly separated car salesman Jack Malloy moves into a dilapidated apartment, leaving behind his wife Jennifer and his three children Ryan, Tiffany and Ross. In his new home, the loser Jack turns insane when his schizophrenia takes over and he starts talking to a plush bunny named Mr. Floppy, which Ross, his youngest son, gave him as a present. Jack drags him on about people and incidents, which can be part of the series as well as the real world (a favorite destination, for example, is the aforementioned series A Terribly Nice Family , in which Floppy was previously involved).
Second season
- (Episodes 14 to 35)
From the second season onwards , Jack and Jennie decide to try again. Jack Malloy moves back into his old house and from now on lives with his rabbit in the basement.
Third season
- (Episodes 36 to 57)
From here, Tiffany's rival Sable O'Brien appears for the first time, who starred in many episodes of this season. Mr. Monteleone appears for the first time as Tiffany's English teacher in episode 52, The Note Battle . He later moves to the same school as Tiffany. In the 56th episode Off to Harvard , Tiffany and Ryan move from Priddy High School to Northridge Junior College. Barbara Caufield replaces Sable O'Brien as Tiffany's competitor.
Fourth season
- (Episodes 58 to 78)
In the 60th episode ( The House of the Living Dead ), the mother Jennie is no longer there. She burned to death under a tanning bed in the solarium. Jennie makes appearances as a ghost several times in this episode to annoy her family. She says that she will only go into the afterlife if she is properly buried. But then she stays with her family because she would not go to heaven anyway (she should have been a good person for that). In the next episode, Back to Life , an employee of the series announces that she is now back to life . This season, Tiffany starts working for the school newspaper. In episode 78 ( Once Upon a Time ) the Malloy family looks back on the past episodes. This episode is also the first in which Jennie Malloy disappeared again because her family didn't want her to live.
Fifth season
- (Episodes 79 to 100)
In the 80th episode ( Frisky's last fight ), Mr. Monteleone is replaced by the new English teacher Mr. Studebaker. This new teacher can only be seen in one episode. Jack's children point out to him in one episode that their mother ran away with a lesbian . In the last episode ( Mister Floppy's end ) Jack pulls himself together and goes back to work to enable Tiffany to study at Harvard . Jack is so successful at his job that he no longer has time for Mr. Floppy. Mr. Floppy only lives in Jack's imagination and therefore has to die if Jack doesn't talk to him. Towards the end, when he is almost dead, Jack gives up his job to save Mr. Floppy. Jack gives another speech that friendship is more important than success. To conclude, they sing a song together that ends with these lines:
Mr. Floppy: "You'll soon be sitting on the street."
Jack: "But I don't care, because you're my rabbit!"
Trademark
Some of the hallmarks of the series are, in addition to the mercilessly exaggerated characters (among whom Ross is the outsider as "normal"), the dialogues between Jack and Floppy and Tiffany's provocative poses and costumes. The show doesn't take itself too seriously either, and people like to point out that this is a TV show that doesn't want to give the impression of being realistic. Especially when the actors talk frankly about the content of the (as they say themselves) "episodes". This is already clear in the title sequence, in which the cellar, in which the protagonists dance, can be clearly recognized as a studio set.
If you follow On Worse and Forever attentively, you will notice that in several episodes of the series as a running gag jokes about certain people ( e.g. Roseanne Barr , Drew Barrymore , Cybill Shepherd , Barbra Streisand , Michael Jackson or Mickey Rourke ), TV series ( A Terribly Nice Family , Crazy About You ) or general things (aging rock bands that were very popular in the US in the 1990s).
Characters
main characters
- Jack Malloy A father who hates his job as a used car salesman. He is an alcoholic and has dissociative identity disorder . The only positives in his life are his daughter Tiffany and the imaginary conversations with Mr. Floppy.
- Jennifer "Jennie" Malloy She is Jack's sex-obsessed wife. Jack finds Jennie far from attractive. Because of this, she often has affairs with other men. Jennie tries again and again to make Tiffany like her more than Jack, but she doesn't succeed in the long run.
- Mr. Floppy The plush bunny Ross gave his father. He's Jack's alter ego . Mr. Floppy is a big macho and very sarcastic. He can interact with his surroundings in real life, for example blowing out a candle or operating a typewriter, in one episode he sleeps with Jennie, which is a paradox, since he tends to "pretend to be dead" in the presence of characters other than Jack and actually only Jack with can talk to him. Mr. Floppy is also very intelligent, which is why Jack always goes to him when he needs advice.
- Ryan Malloy Jack and Jennie's first child. Ryan is incredibly stupid and naive. He's a nice loser that women find repulsive. Every now and then he has a girlfriend, but by the end of the episode at the latest she broke up with him. His parents are not afraid to tell him that he is an unwanted child.
- Tiffany Malloy The second child. Tiffany is very intelligent and therefore only has the best school grades. She is the most popular girl at her school, very beautiful and likes to dress revealingly, which is why many boys want her as friends. In the series, allusions are often made that her slim figure was caused by anorexia (Jennie: "I can't believe you are eating your own children's food!" - Jack: "She is anorexic and she already has one bean eaten. "). Tiffany is Jack's all-time favorite child. He desperately wants her to remain a virgin and drive out (although she shares the same opinion) Tiffany's male suitors by all means.
- Ross Malloy He is the third child. At the beginning of the series, his parents still like him. But then they pay less and less attention to him. To get attention, Ross even becomes an arsonist. He has a lot of girlfriends at school who go out with him.
Minor characters
- Maureen Slattery Maureen is Jennie's mother. She despises Jack and also hates Jennie for marrying this "wimp." She is dependent on pills and is therefore almost always absent-minded.
- Mr. Monteleone He is Tiffany's English teacher at Priddy High and later at Northridge Junior College. Of all the students, Mr. Monteleone hates Tiffany the most. He only gives high marks to students who share his opinion on a subject. Tiffany often makes fun of his distinctive laugh.
- Sable O'Brien She is Tiffany's competitor at Priddy High School. Sable pretends to Ryan that she is his girlfriend even though she has a boyfriend. She mostly tries to replace Tiffany as the most popular girl in school.
- Barbara Caufield She used to work in television until a monkey took over her job. Like Sable, she is a rival of Tiffany. Barbara first appears on the series when Tiffany and Ryan transfer from high school to Northridge College.
- Barry Wallenstein He is one of Tiffany's best high school friends. She can talk to him like a woman because he's gay. Barry is the stereotype gay. For example, he is a trained hairdresser or wants to join the Navy.
- Amber Moss She is also one of Tiffany's best friends in high school. She is often called a slut for switching partners frequently.
- Paul Zimmerman He is Barry's gay friend and the editor of the Priddy High School student newspaper.
- Caitlin Blackpool She embodies the clichéd Goth ( devil mantis and depressed). Caitlin goes to the same school as Ryan and Tiffany. Ryan drudges her a lot, but Caitlin keeps throwing him down. However, when he fell into a melancholy mood and took advantage of her interest to get her to bed, he was in the hospital for several weeks.
- Muffy: She goes to high school with Tiffany and Ryan. Although her character appears in several episodes, she has no striking character traits. However, one episode mentions that she is anorexic.
occupation
| role | actor | Voice actor | Season |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Malloy | Geoffrey Pierson | Michael Schwarzmaier | 1-5 |
| Jennie Malloy | Stephanie Hodge | Anke Reitzenstein | 1-4 |
| Ryan Malloy | Kevin Connolly | Dominik Auer | 1-5 |
| Tiffany Malloy | Nikki Cox | Claudia Lössl | 1-5 |
| Ross Malloy | Justin Berfield | Dennis Reuße | 1-5 |
| Mr. Floppy |
Bobcat Goldthwait (voice) Allan Trautman (puppeteer) |
Tommi Piper | 1-5 |
| Amber Moss | Dana Daurey | 1-3 | |
| Barry Wallenstein | Ant |
Jan Makino (season 1–2) Hubertus von Lerchenfeld (season 3) |
1-3 |
| Maureen Slatery | Joyce Van Patten | Marianne Wischmann | 1-2 |
| Sable O'Brien | Kristanna Loken | Stefanie von Lerchenfeld | 3 |
| Mr. Monteleone | Oliver Muirhead | Fritz von Hardenberg | 3-4 |
| Paul Zimmerman | Joel Michaely | 3 | |
| Barbara Caufield | Wendy Benson | Solveig Duda | 4-5 |
| Muffy | Deborah waiter | 4th | |
| Caitlin Blackpool | Faith Salie | Claudia Kleiber | 5 |
Guest appearances (selection)
- Frank Lloyd (actor and stuntman) made 20 guest appearances in On Bad and Forever . He's previously had 15 guest appearances on A Terribly Nice Family .
- David Faustino , who plays Bud Bundy in A Terribly Nice Family , made a guest appearance as Jimbo Basilli on The Tiffany Burger (episode 95).
- Erik Estrada played himself in the episode The Dream of Hollywood (episode 45).
- Allan Trautman , the puppeteer from Mr. Floppy, had several guest appearances: four times as teacher Mr Dunn (1st and 2nd seasons), once as Mr. Pillow in Floppy, the writer (episode 33), once as Mr. Moss in Ryans Affair (episode 73), once as Professor Mendelson in Frisky's Last Fight (episode 59) and once as Mr. Lewolsky in The Average Man (episode 85).
- Bobcat Goldthwait , who lends his voice to Mr. Floppy, made the following guest appearances: as a star in the woods in Ryan's first girlfriend (episode 11), as a host in Valentine's Day (episode 29) and as himself in Ryan's affair (episode 73).
- Bobcat Goldthwait's daughter Tasha Goldthwait played a girl whose name is not mentioned in Is the reputation ruined ... (episode 97).
- Flashbacks to Tiffany and Ryan's childhoods were sometimes incorporated into the series. Here played Chelsea Lynn Tiffany as a child and Tommy Bertelsen Ryan as a child. Lynn and Bertelsen were seen together in the episode On the Run (episode 7). Bertelsen played his role alone in Jack's crisis (episode 30). And Lynn was also seen alone in Ryan's first girlfriend (episode 11). Nikki Cox and Kevin Connolly later played the roles of Tiffany and Ryan, respectively, as a child.
- Seann William Scott played Sable's friend on the beach that day.
Trivia
- Actor Geoffrey Pierson (Jack Malloy) starred in the studio air episode of the sitcom A Terribly Nice Family .
- In the US drama Sub Down - Lost in depth plays Kevin Connolly (Ryan) to Ensign at sea Holliday. Nikki Cox (Tiffany) plays his girlfriend who kisses him goodbye.
- Originally, Hit The Road, Jack was not the theme song of Auf Worse and Forever , but a song sung by Bobcat Goldthwait (voice of Mr. Floppy in the original English). The song was used in the US for the first five episodes until it was superseded by hit The Road, Jack . In the German version of the series, it was decided to use Hit The Road, Jack from the start. The opening credits also looked different for the first five episodes: First you see Jack and Jennie, then the children, then how Jack is thrown out of the house and goes to his new apartment, and finally how someone shoots a robber next to Jack. Neither the original theme song nor the original opening credits were broadcast a second time in the repetitions of these first five episodes of Auf Schlimmer und Ewig in the USA (replaced by Hit The Road, Jack and another opening credits as in the German version ). Nevertheless, the original theme song can also be heard twice in the German version, namely in Brillenschlangen (33rd episode) in the English original and in Mr. Floppy's end (100th episode) in German. In episode 33, Mr. Floppy sings it in the basement and Jack takes a rake on which he plays the air guitar ( guitar music can actually be heard in the background).
- Kevin Connolly directed several episodes.
- Mr. Floppy is spoken in the German version by Tommi Piper , who also dubbed Alf in Germany.
- Nikki Cox was dating Kevin Connolly for a while and later engaged to Bobcat Goldthwait.