User Reviews

For a show that took a large number of other awards (if my memory serves this won 10 Golden Globe...nominations or awards, I don't recall which) I can't believe this was only put out to run for part of one season. It wasn't given much of a chance and frankly, I think it may have been over most of the viewing publics heads.

And I'm not happy that it was put in a very difficult time slot and canceled quickly as it didn't have the opportunity to perform. A shame some other network couldn't have picked it up and ran with it, too.

By the time this had any chance to develop a following, Heather Paige Kent had apparently already moved on to another show. Possibly others had as well. Such a shame as this was a funny AND intelligent show.

However, why it is not on DVD yet is a mystery. There's a lotta junk put out there on DVD already from television's past, why not this one?

Seeing some of the new crap shows that are just coming out now made me think of Stark Raving Mad and I'm still wondering why they cancelled it. There are no new shows this year that even compare to Stark Raving Mad. It was one of the few sitcoms that actually made me laugh. I'm hopeful some channel will start to show reruns sometime soon.

Most sitcoms are average families in one form or another, and the foibles of family life. If Castle were made into a comedy and they removed the murder mystery stuff, you would have something like SRM. NBC was really wrong to cancel this. The creator is the same creator responsible for the best sitcom ever written ... Modern Family. Steve Levitan is awesome in his vehicles. This is one that was destined for gold.

There are a couple caveats. Despite the writing, the energy level on the actors seemed to be low. What was with the fake moustache on Shalhoub? It really looked like a cheap Halloween moustache. I think the casting could have been tweaked a bit. I like Shalhoub, but Neil Harris seemed a bit pulled back from his part. Not totally engaged.

I still like the idea of a rich author who is a bit nuts, be it Richard Castle or Tony's character. Putting an opposite in the water with him was genius. Richard Castle had no uptight opposites on his show. The love affair between Beckett and Castle never worked or fit the show. Raving Mad's set was unnecessarily middle class and stark. Definitely not the set decorator that Castle had. I know I keep comparing SRM and Castle, and aside from one is a dramedy and the other a comedy, there were a lot of parallels. Actually I was pulling for the comedy in Castle, not the drama. I don't watch murder mystery shows per se.

I think not throwing a family in SRM like they did on Castle was a good thing. Whereas Castle attempted to be all things ... drama, thriller, comedy, and romance ... SRM attempted to be only comedy. You can only do so much in twenty minutes a week. The commercial interruptions in the broadcast sitcoms are bad enough, without dividing a show into four different pies.

If they had given the same chance to Seinfeld that they gave to SRM, we would be watching reruns on YouTube of Season One only of Seinfeld. A real shame. Its possible that Levitan should reengineer the show ratcheting up the lifestyle and the financial position of the main character. I think the girls should be rethought.

I gave my thoughts online in a conversation with Chuck Lorre about where to take Two and a Half Men, and he chose a winning route. Ashton Kutcher was not perfect, but a good choice, and while the finale was disappointing, the show had some very well done facets such as set decoration, concept, core stars, and half of the episode story lines. I say all that to say Stark Raving Mad was not perfect, but the concept is brilliant, the main stars are fairly close to perfect, and it begs to be binge watched. The writing on Stark was better than the writing on Two and a Half Men. Like I say, the cluttered impoverished looking loft that Ian Stark lives in is more suited to some twenty somethings wanting to be software billionaires who are just starting out, not a successful novelist of horror. Stephen King lives better than Ian Stark.

Enough for now. Have fun.

The NBC execs have quite a wierd streak going as they cancel great shows the general public loves and goes wild for in order to try shows that won't stand a chance. We've all seen Working, Unsolved Mysteries, Quantum Leap and the new Dark Shadows go down the pipe. Great shows, loved by whole cults of loyal fans, MURDERED by idiot and blind TV execs working at NBC. Stark Raving Mad was the Odd Couple of the 90s with Tony Shalhoub of Wings (another great show that ended too soon for me) playing a psychotic Stephen King horror writer with Neil Patrick Harris playing a Niles Crane literary agent as his foil and target of abuse. Rounded out with Ed McClintock, Heather Paige Kent and the beautiful Dorie Barton, the show had great scripts, funny jokes and hysterical unpredictable situations. It was Halloween all year round with this show, and Halloween itself was a little more surreal with this show on the air. The only thing that could possibly ruin this show would be an idiot tv exec with a grudge against a happy viewing public. this show will be sorely missed.

This sitcom was by far the funniest to come out on TV in the last 10 years. Its dark humor it was brilliantly written and impeccably delivered by a wonderful cast.

For all its virtues, the show did the one thing shows are not allowed to do these days: they dared to be different; they were original, and brilliant, and were not afraid to look at difficult subjects (including sexual fetishes, physical disabilities and, in general, the pain of being different.) That they were able to do so without taking themselves too seriously and remaining genuinely funny seems to have escaped audiences and NBC executives alike.

I guess, funny or not, the show proved a little too grown up for mainstream audiences - those who prefer to sit down in front of the TV and disengage their brains. A show that makes you laugh and think at the same time cannot possibly be successful with those who cannot walk and chew gum at the same time...

The show was funny without having to resort to slapstick and - more importantly - it was a very welcome contrast to the usually bland, politically correct, completely predictable comedy that is so prevalent these days. Too bad it became a victim of its own quality.

OK, here's the scoop... when NBC moved their HQ, they lost tons of videos, including the SRM episodes, so they couldn't put out a DVD set if they wanted. BUT... an enterprising TV station engineer has all but one episode saved to tape. He has made the set (minus one) available on DVD-R. (4 DVDs) They are not the best quality (old broadcast to tape), but they are very watchable. Here's the place to get it:

M&M Distributors inc. The Video Hutt inc. 714 - 718 Bloom St. Johnstown, Pa. 15902 phone: 814-536-5606 email: VIDEOHUTT@Verizon.net

I got mine a couple of weeks ago, and the whole family has had a blast watching them!

If everyone who loved this show would request it to be on DVD maybe it could happen! I think this was one of the best and funniest sitcoms I've ever seen. It was also the best character Tony Shaloub has played. The cast was perfect, the writing was genius and it was so different. After all these years I'm still waiting for something as good. I know it can't be recreated but there are so many DVD's available that aren't as good. Now that Monk is so popular I'm sure people would have an interest who have never seen it before. So! start writing those requests, ask for it in your video stores. Any fans of Neil Patric Harris would also love his performance.

Why, oh why was this excellent show ever cancelled? Twenty-two years later, and I still google it to see if I can watch it again. I search for it every couple of years with no luck. Nobody I describe it to knows what I am talking about; I have yet to find another kindred spirit I can talk to about it. Yet, when I describe the first episode where Ian Stark sets himself up in a tableau so he can gauge Henry's reaction upon discovering him, everyone always says, "Aw, that sounds awesome...I wish I had watched it!" I wish I could re-watch it myself. I almost think I remember the show as being better than it really was, but I seriously doubt that.

Henry McNeeley (Neil Patrick Harris) is a germophobic neurotic. He's a romance novel editor and is put to work with blocked horror writer Ian Stark (Tony Shalhoub). Jake Donovan (Eddie McClintock) is Ian's idiot assistant as he puts on realistic death scenes to test out his writing. Maddie (Heather Dubrow) is the bartender at Ian's favorite club. Tess Farraday (Dorie Barton) is Henry's girlfriend.

This is an odd mix of traditional sitcom with a little bit of weird darkness. The opening song is strange for a sitcom. The laugh track is loud. These are great comic actors but it doesn't get that many big laughs. There are some good stuff here. I would like to love this more but I don't really love the characters.

I miss Stark too. I think this was possibly my favorite sit com ever. I'm glad that Tony Shalhoub is at least on Monk now. He's great on that too... but it's a very different kind of show, and different kind of character.

So, I'm not gonna lie: I'm not much of a "sitcom" fan, and in an era governed by Netflix and Amazon Prime Video binge-watching, I think sitcoms are vastly now a dying breed. However, those rules didn't apply at the start of the millennium, which was probably this show's saving grace (at least for a year). And anyway, I'll admittedly watch anything with Tony Shalhoub or Neil Patrick Harris. Both actors, of course, are remarkably talented and deliver their roles with genuine hilarity and light-hearted realism. I'm not sure if the chemistry between them is as solid as I'd hope, but then again, that heavily reinforces the awkwardness that defines their relationship as writer and editor. Ian and Henry are partners in the literary world, and the tension and irritability that gravitates between them is a significantly underscored theme between the two. And boy do they play it out well!

The problem with the show is the supporting cast. In many regards, Ian and Henry are the only multilayered characters of interest, and their dynamic alone truly overshadows the need for any secondary players. For the most part, it just seems as if there isn't much for everyone else to do, other than to shift the monotony of story material from Ian or Henry, or throw in an occasional chuckle here and there. Furthermore, the supporting cast members are primarily one-dimensional and cliché. Eddie McClintock as Jake is irritating, and his over-the-top, Gomer Pyle likeness is too idiotic and too juvenile to draw many laughs. His comic appeal seems targeted toward adolescents, and his stupidity often borders on ridiculousness. In hindsight, I found myself rolling my eyes every time he muttered a line. Then there's Tess, Henry's girlfriend, who represents the stereotypical spoiled, privileged, upper-class brat. I'm not sure why the producers included her as a regular character, seeming as though she contributed very little other than to serve as Henry's entitled girlfriend. Every statement/action out of her mouth embodies this, so there was nothing much else to anticipate from her role, side from the perpetual whining. And finally, there's Heather Dubrow as Maddie, the friendly bartender downstairs who generally functions as one-of-the-gang, though the writers tease early on about a potential union between her and Ian. Out of all the supporting cast, Maddie had the most wiggle room for additional story material (other than the superficial, promiscuous persona they tacked her with). However, the writers just never followed through.

All in all, it's a funny series...but the "insanely funny" moniker is overstating just a bit. I like that often times, it will venture into just enough "taboo" for a hardcore laugh, and the slapstick is never too excessive. The producers were brilliant to cast both Neil Patrick Harris and Tony Shalhoub as leads, but unfortunately, the two men simply couldn't bear enough weight to carry this sitcom full-term.

And to the producers, just an FYI: Ditch the laugh track next time.

Chemistry is good. Shalhoub is brilliant but the lack of women had turned this into a no-no for the major audience. The best scene that i remember is Neal Patrick and his pregnant cousin playing a prank on Shalhoub .... she gives birth on Halloween to a monster ... fake of course .... u have to see the rest ... but needless to say it generated enough laughter beating all the other sitcoms i have watched including Friends but excluding Coupling on BBC.

Other scenes include a diary entry by shalhoubs roomy/secretary...a goofy idiotic guy usually found only in sitcoms .It goes

" My Computer usage has increased.....maybe in the future a network of these computers can be used to share information ....This world wide web of computers may become the way of communication in the future...mail could be sent electronically..."it continues in this vein...so shalhoub who is reading the diary asks the guy what happened as he had invented the internet before anybody else....then looks at the next entry ...."Smoked POT for the first time". "Smoked Pot" "Smoked Pot" "Smoked Pot" "Used computer to hide Pot"

Watchit if u can

There seem to be a lot of people who love this series, and mourn its cancellation, but after watching the pilot on Youtube, I don't see why. It's a very conventional sitcom with a pretty typical and unconvincing odd couple set up. Shalhoub is a terrific actor, and he's fine in this, but the script is very mediocre.

Maybe it gets better? I have seen series that had a bumpy start, and perhaps all this love comes from somewhere. After all, the creator of this show created Just Shoot Me, which started off quite poorly but improved after a few months. But I just have no inclination to give another chance to a series that is so predictable and obvious and unoriginal.

Looking through all the comments on this show, I see that I am not the only one who couldn't understand the cancelling of this show. But that's water under the bridge, now. BUT WAIT - we have so many shows, including Sports Night, going to DVD. Would it be impossible for NBC to bite the bullet and release it to us fans and include any unaired but taped episodes? What a bonus, what a thought - it'll never happen, right?

I just watched a couple episodes tonight on YouTube, I didn't even know the series existed! I thought it was pretty good but something seemed a little off to me-it was that I didn't like the Tony Shaloub character. He was a little bit too egocentric and mean. I usually adore Tony Shaloub in anything, I just didn't like the character to have so little sensitivity. I would watch him progress through a scene, and I KNEW that there were so many other layers which he could have given the character. I suppose I expected more of the sweetness of Antonio from Wings, or the complexity of Monk.

Regardless, overall a good show. It's really interesting to read the comments here from back, what is it REALLY 17 years ago???? People wondering if Neal Patrick Harris will go on to do anything more, I guess all he'd done was Doogie Howser M.D. Also I note as I get older how quickly that which interests us and is the talk of the time fades into the past......Also interesting to see people commenting on Shaloub before 'Monk'. Along those lines of thought, just read today that Mary Tyler Moore has died at the age of 80, and Debbie Reynolds/Carrie Fisher just died a few weeks ago.....People who were such icons....Who even thinks about the Mary Tyler Moore show nowadays, everything changes so quickly in our society. It's not like societies in which there is little cultural/technological/societal change for hundreds of years, or one in which the tribes stories are told from generation to generation with a kind of continuity and sense of reassurance that the 'tribe' is stable and the same. Loss of a sense of conectedness...."Future Shock": I remember a time before personal computers, before cell phones, digital cameras, before color TV, before VCR's, DVD's, and I remember when TV shows/movies etc. took their time to unfold, with a rhythm which was much more natural.

It's a shame this show only lasted like one season. I found it to be really funny. I like Tony Shalhoub in almost anything that he does, and he was great as an eccentric, more goofy version of Stephen King. He never fails to haul in the laughs, with his childish little pranks. And then we introduce his roommate: an anal retentive young man with obsessive compulsive disorder. A great combo! Neil Patrick Harris shows off his comic skills, as opposed to playing the serious doc on "Doogie Howser, M.D." I think Harris has a good head on his shoulders, and if he keeps up the good work, he can succeed in the biz. Hopefully, he will, because I don't want him to become another Macaulay Culkin.

"Stark Raving Mad" was very funny, and hopefully they'll show the reruns on USA. As for Shalhoub and Harris, good luck in your future endeavors.

My score: 7 (out of 10)

When I first saw an ad for this show, I thought it would only last one episode. When I saw it, I laughed hysterically. Tony Shalhoub is hilarious, as is Neil Patrick Harris. I didn't think that we would see him past Doogie Howser. Hopefully this will be around for a while. It never fails to cheer me up when I am down.

Well, those morons at NBC have done it again! One of the funniest shows on TV these days is about to longer be on TV. Obviously, judging by both the people who have previous written here, and the fact they won a People's Choice Award for Favorite New Comedy, "Stark Raving Mad" was well loved, despite what those stupid Neilson ratings say. But even if it had come back, chances are they'd toy with it and try to "fix" it and end up screwing it up worse anyway, like NBC always does with Thursday night shows (Jesse, The Naked Truth, Veronica's Closet, Suddenly Susan. . .)!

Tonight, they finally aired another good one, the much delayed "The Pidgeon" episode with Wes Craven. I saw absolutely no promotion for this episode, which should have aired during "guest star week" last week. Although there's another new one listed for next week, "He's Gotta Have It," judging by next week's commercials, it probably won't air. What a waste to spend the money to make these shows, when they don't bother to air a lot of them!

Perhaps through cable this series will have an afterlife in the future. But until then, we will miss you, Ian Stark, Henry McNeeley, and associates. And a big THANK YOU to NBC for killing another of their increasingly few, hysterical sitcoms!

OK, I wasn't as broken up as when they cancelled Bakersfield PD, the early canning of which was one of the great Media Crimes of the 20th century, but axing this one was a big mistake! As was mentioned by others with taste, the show kept getting better and better and was coming into its own. This they only give one year but Veronica's Closet was allowed to smell up the tube for three years? Yeah, that makes sense. I can only hope that SRM and Sports Night will be picked up by another network and the talents (including the mind-tinglingly pretty Heather Paige Kent) will continue in the series. Loved the theme, too.

They cancelled Star Trek, Quantum Leap, News Radio as well as 'letting go' the talents of Howard Stern, David Lettermen, Norm MacDonald... need I go on? To sum it up, NBC has a history of making the biggest mistakes in television history and they continued that tradition by cancelling this series. Stark Raving Mad was a hysterical and brilliant show and far better than any other new NBC show. It was more classy like The Odd Couple. I said it before and I'll say it again: NBC, cancelling this series makes you the dumbest network in the world without a doubt. And with a network like Fox around, that saying something.

I absolutely LOVE this show! It's one of the best shows in the line up since the first seasons of Friends. Neil Patrick Harris and Tony Shalhoub are perfect foils... one neurotic and fresh, the other free and seasoned. Jake is fantastic, injecting the innocent, almost senseless humorous comments that draw a laugh almost every time. The execution of the humor is fresh also, delivered in such a way that we should see it coming but don't. With some time, this series could make a lot of people split their sides laughing. The chemistry among the cast is evident and wonderful... I can't wait to see more!

This is one of the best Comedy-Series of all times. Tony Shalhoub as writer Ian Stark is brilliant, also Neil Patrik Harris, star of "Dougie Howser", as his lector. The difference between both makes this comedy so funny. Don't miss it!

I have been watching this series each week knowing that it could be better, when last night the Oct. 14, 1999, Four colds and a funeral, everything started to click for the series. The writing and timing were great, the guest stars were great, especially the little girl at the end who you feel so sorry for while she sets you up for the final hilarious punch line. I look forward to more like this one.

Seeing the previews for this show right before it first aired, I was a bit weary, thinking it was just another Frasier/Friends rip off. I love Frasier and I love Friends, so I wasn't in the mood for another show just like the both of them, but what I got was something even better.

Who would have thought Neil Patrick Harris had a flair for comedy? His portrayal of Henry is a mixture between Frasier's "Niles" and Friends' "Chandler" and boy oh boy, Tony Shalhoub is brilliant as Ian, the greatest sitcom character since sliced bread. What will he do next? It's great! The other characters (Jake, Tess, Maddie) add a little flavor to the rantings of Henry and Ian.

In closing, I hope this show lasts a very long time as it really is a brilliant show and should NOT be missed!

I've seen almost every episode of this show, and I have to say that I really love it. Tony Shalhoub is hysterical - I didn't even think he could be so funny. The show is witty, subtle, and it's even got a little bit of a "Seinfeld" feel to it. I don't know if that's a stretch, but what I'm trying to say is that the show is the funniest on TV for me right now, and I really hope that people pick up on this show, and realize how entertaining it is. It makes Thursdays funny again, that's for sure.