NewsRadio
A New York City all-news radio station staffed by characters too smart for their own good: a boyish news director, a pompous anchorman, an eccentric billionaire owner, and the kind of ensemble whose timeslot NBC moved eleven times because the network never quite knew what it had.
NewsRadio premiered on NBC on March 21, 1995, and ran for five seasons and 97 episodes until May 4, 1999. Created by Paul Simms, it was set at WNYX, a fictional AM all-news station in New York City, and it built its comedy entirely on the workplace ensemble: Dave Foley as earnest news director Dave Nelson; Phil Hartman as Bill McNeal, the pompous anchorman; Stephen Root as Jimmy James, the eccentric billionaire owner; with Maura Tierney, Andy Dick, Vicki Lewis, Joe Rogan as handyman Joe Garrelli, and Khandi Alexander rounding out the chaos.
It was critically adored. The writing was sharp, the performances were generous, and the workplace setting let it breathe in ways network sitcoms usually couldn't. But NBC never knew what to do with it: the timeslot changed eleven times across the run, and it never got the Must-See-TV push or the stable lead-in its cast deserved. Phil Hartman was killed in May 1998, between seasons four and five, and the show handled the loss with a single respectful beat onscreen — Bill McNeal's sudden heart attack — before Jon Lovitz stepped in for the final season, taking the role out of friendship with Hartman.
The show ended in 1999, quietly, without fanfare. Its reputation has only grown since: TV nerds have spent decades pressing it on friends, and every performance — especially Hartman's Bill McNeal — has only gotten sharper with time. It's remembered now as one of the decade's best workplace comedies, and one of its least appreciated.
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