Let's face it. Seinfeld was over and it left a pretty large gaping hole in the comedy lineup. But then this quirky new show comes out of nowhere on another network. Let's give that a try. It looks different. But it wasn't. It was more Seinfeld. There was a different cast, but it was definitely Seinfeld. There were two Jerry's, two Elaine's, and one guy who was a cross between George and Kramer (Shrug). No, I wasn't shrugging my shoulders. His name was Shrug. No other explanation given.
In the first season, they made a point out of someone somewhere saying, "It's like you know." It just always came up somehow in conversation. It reminded me of the second season of Get A Life (another funny show cut short) where Chris died at the end of every episode. Yet somehow it all worked.
As nearly every reviewer has mentioned, this show was very much like Seinfeld. Obviously the people who made the show knew of the similarities, because in one of the episodes, Arthur (the guy from New York who was like Seinfeld #1 in the show) went back to his old apartment in New York. You guessed it. It was Seinfeld's apartment. It even had the bicycle hanging up and everything. It was the same set! This was one of the best situational sight gags ever, because it would make no sense at all if you never watched Seinfeld. Hey, some people didn't.
Now as far as I know, Jennifer Grey (Elaine #1) is only the second person ever to play themselves as a regular in a TV role. Jerry Seinfeld did it and later Tori Spelling did it in So Notorious. And before you say Drew Carey, he really didn't. He played Drew Carey the cubicle worker, not Drew Carey the stand-up comic. Jerry Seinfeld played himself a stand-up comic who previously hosted the Tonight Show some times in the past. And Jennifer Grey played herself, the actress from Dirty Dancing. Joel Grey came on for an episode and played her father, which he really is. But he wasn't a regular, so he doesn't count.
OK, enough comparisons to Seinfeld. This show was good on its own. Given a longer run, it would have been great. Seinfeld also had poor ratings at the start and look where it ended up. Dang it!
It's Like You Know never stopped being funny. The car chase episode was funny. The one with Joel Grey was funny. Even the last few episodes were funny. One in particular was where Robbie and Shrug took off to go see America. So they left Los Angeles and drove to America. The humor didn't stop there. They started thinking weird thoughts. And then they started hearing each other's thoughts and talking via mental telepathy. "Hey, we can read each other's minds. Do you believe this?" "How can I? It's not believable."
Sadly, this series died with less than a whimper. They never came out and said it was canceled. It just wasn't there anymore. If you recall, they were just starting up the new "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" game show, which was the hottest thing to hit ABC since
ever. It seems It's Like You Know was canceled to make room for yet another run of Millionaire 30 times a week. This eventually proved to be a major mistake for ABC as they took a massive ratings plunge once viewers lost interest in Millionaire. But the damage was already done. Would ILYK return now? The answer would not come from ABC. It came from the other networks as those actors started popping up on other shows.
Regis Philbin killed It's Like You Know.
