Her stand-up act was hilarious and her star continued to shine. She was a supporting actor in shows like "Duet" and "Laurie Hill" before she landed her own series, "These Friends of Mine" in the spring 1994 – which, of course was changed to "Ellen" in the fall due to another little show on NBC called "Friends" (don’t recall what happened with that one).

Ellen did very well in the ratings for the first few years and, and under the glare of the media microscope, became the first show to have a gay lead character when her character came out in the second-to-last season of her show.

The show's ratings went steadily down the next season, partly due to viewer backlash of the character and the actress coming out as a lesbian and also due to DeGeneres failing to keep her promise to ABC and the fans that the program would not become "too gay." Or it could have declined simply because the show wasn’t funny anymore.

Whichever the reason, only a few years later, "too gay" certainly wasn't a problem for a young NBC show called "Will and Grace," which has since leaped to the top of the Nielsens. Other attempts at gay shows such as "Normal, Ohio" and "Some of My Best Friends" have not been as successful, proving that gay isn’t always funny. Funny is funny.

"Ellen Again" is the working title for the new show starring DeGeneres that actually mirrors "Normal, Ohio" in many ways.

Both shows star a big name actor whose character moves back home from Los Angeles; both star characters are gay and both have sisters who are losers at love and life. A show that failed miserably with a similar storyline would not be the direction I would choose for my comeback vehicle.

However, Ellen has spoken and will speak some more if CBS picks up the pilot for the fall schedule (barring interference from a Screen Actor’s Guild strike).

This is Ellen's third series script for CBS, as two very different variety show ideas were scrapped in favor of this gay sitcom that focuses on Ellen and her small hometown.

I got a copy of the script and was hoping for something that would be interesting, but alas, there is nothing new here, making the idea of a variety show sound ever-so appealing.

Old Ideas, Stock Characters and Too Much Ellen

The script starts out with Ellen talking with her staff at Ellen's dot-com company "Homelearn.com" – a company that combines the computer with learning. Not exactly a new concept. And in an effort to be even more clichéd, after a few pages of Ellen-esque dialogue, we learn that the company has suddenly gone under. What a surprise.

The meat of the story is Ellen's hometown, and the odd people who populate it. Ellen, no fount of normality herself, makes most of the oddball characters seem saner than she is. Her mother is an eccentric and her sister is the classic sitcom character who falls in love with the wrong men.

The Set-Up: Home Again and Gay

Ellen has traveled back to Clark, Louisiana (by car) from Los Angeles to accept an award bestowed upon her by the town, which of course, loves her very much. She nonchalantly announces to her old prom date and teacher that she's gay, and in the very next sentence they have her set up with the gay P.E. teacher, Bunny, who takes her to the only gay bar around, 125 miles away. But wait, the hilarity continues.

Ellen finds out that her company has gone under, and is too embarrassed to accept the award she has traveled home to receive. But the whole town knows that she lost the company and they still want to honor her, so Ellen decides to stay and teach at the high school and move back home.

Still awake?

The Script: A Whole Lot of Ellen

There is some hope for the script, written by Carol Leifer and Mitchell Hurwitz with assistance from DeGeneres, but only if there is more of other people and less of Ellen in future episodes. As she has demonstrated, DeGeneres is at her best when she's the supporting one, the unwilling participant whose reactions can feel like gold.

There are a few pages in the script where it is entirely Ellen and very little everyone else and it feels forced.

To make this show work, Ellen should picture herself as Andy Taylor in "The Andy Griffith Show." Griffith was the glue that held everyone together. The mayhem around him was sort of like the planets revolving around the sun, but the sun didn't have to be the center of all plots or all dialogue. Moments where all Andy said was "But…" and was cut off again, were among the best moments.

To find the real stride in this series and to shift the focus off of the gay card, is the way to make this show successful for the general public.

The show does have one thing going for it, however. The part of Ellen's mother is played by Cloris Leachman, the best older actress out there besides Ellen Burstyn. If Cloris and Ellen can work together to create comic gold, there could be some great scenes from this show. I'm not counting on that happening, but one can always hope.

Is it too late to consider that Ellen variety show?

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