ALONE AGAIN...NATURALLY

Ellen
Season 4 (1997)

Happy 1997!

New Year’s Eve-themed episodes may be relatively scarce, but the handful that do exist tend to stick to two categories.  One type of episode is that which actually take place on New Year’s Eve and is concerned with the celebrating of the holiday.  The other type, of which this episode of Ellen is a prime example, is concerned with the aftermath of the holiday, primarily the making and keeping of New Year’s resolutions.

Bookstore Manager Barbie

The opening scene does take place on New Year’s Eve.  Ellen is babysitting her boss’ two young daughters.  Their evening consists of playing with Barbies, drinks (presumably of the non-alcoholic variety) with little umbrellas in them, and watching TV.  In other words: my idea of the perfect way to spend New Year’s Eve.  It’s a cute scene, involving Ellen trying to explain to the girls that Barbie isn’t an accurate representation of women and offering up a doll version of herself, “Bookstore Manager Barbie,” as an alternative.  “That’s Ken” one of the girls responds flatly.  

We then cut to Ellen talking with friends and co-workers at Buy the Book about their resolutions.  Audrey, inspired by her Word-A-Day calendar Christmas gift, is expanding her vocabulary.  Joe vows to take work less seriously, the joke being that he already has a terrible work ethic.  And Ellen, inspired by a news story of an elderly woman who went skydiving, wants to live life to the fullest (pre-dating YOLO by over a decade, thankyouverymuch).  In keeping with that she decides to go alone to a fancy French restaurant that she’s always wanted to try but was afraid to go to alone.

Ellen Morgan, Party of 1

The scene at the restaurant is one the episode and series highlights.  Ellen DeGeneres must have thought so to, because she re-created it for an episode of her follow-up series, The Ellen Show, in 2001.  It captures the awkward experience of dining solo at a romantic restaurant, and as someone who also does not enjoy eating alone in public I can relate to Ellen’s uncomfortable yet valiant effort to make the best of it.  The restaurant mistakes her reservation of 1 for a party of 7, so they must remove the six other place settings from her giant table with much fanfare.  She receives a complimentary soufflé with a wedding ring in it, intended for another table.  She’s also chased into the bathroom by a manic fiddler that won’t leave her alone.

A sage bathroom attendant advises her to seek out another activity that she might actually enjoy, so Ellen goes to a pottery studio.  She fends off the flirtations of a fellow potter, played by the always reliably funny Michael McDonald (who also happens to be gay in real life).  They recreate the potter’s wheel scene from Ghost before Ellen snaps back to her senses.  Eventually she ends up back with the bathroom attendant, who gives her further, somewhat vague advice about not giving up her search for happiness and fulfillment.  There’s also a very silly subplot that barely bears mentioning, about Spence and Joe apartment-sitting for Paige and setting fire to her kitchen.

One Guy, One Girl & a Potter's Wheel

It’s a fun episode, though basically just a series of somewhat disconnected, albeit very funny, scenes. Ellen (the character) would come out later in this season so the subtle and not-so-subtle clues were coming fast and often, and this entire episode, from Ellen’s opening scene comparing herself to the Ken doll, to her rejection of the flirtatious potter (symbolically named “Guy”) and her vague unhappiness and search for meaning are all arrows pointing towards Gayville.  The opening New Year’s scene is a lot of fun, and you get a fair amount of discussion about resolutions, post-New Year’s Eve hangovers, and one very persistent fiddler with a metal plate in his head.

New Year’s Quotient: This is a great episode, even one of the series’ best, but in terms of holiday content it only ranks a 2.

See It, Skip It, Own It?
Worth seeing, whether around New Year’s Eve or any time of the year.