Greetings,
A lot of great actors and actresses have been on shows that lasted only one season. Some more than others. One fine actress who has had to endure this is Miss Jennifer Love Hewitt. In the nineties, she was on such "One Seasoner's Club" contenders as Shaky Ground, The Byrds of Paradise and McKenna. But today, I'm going to focus on a short-lived series of hers that I actually watched, Time of Your Life.
Time of Your Life aired during the 1999-2000 season and was a spin-off of Party of Five. Love (yes, I'm calling her 'Love' in this thing!) played a character named Sarah Reeves Merrin in both shows. In Party of Five, she was mostly known as Bailey's girlfriend. Or so I've been told. Yeah, I didn't really watch the show all much, but I was a big fan of Love's. Still am. So I decided to follow her to the show, Time of Your Life. In that spin-off, her character heads to New York City to find information about her biological parents. And she makes a new group of friends. And that's really all I can remember about it.
Well, that's all I could remember about it. Then, I did a bit of research, and it served to jog my memory. At least enough to give you all a quick synopsis of the plot and the characters.
As I mentioned, Sarah goes to New York to find her roots or whatever. She ends up staying in an apartment that her mother once lived in, where she rooms with Romy, an actress. They also have this landlord named Cecilia, who I seem to remember being a bit mean, or somewhat standoffish, at least in the beginning. Then, there was Joss, a girl with whom Sarah works at a bar, and J.B., a guy who lives in the building across from the girls and is Romy's boyfriend...occasionally. Oh, and of course, we need a love interest for Love. Enter John Maguire or Mag, as he was called, because why not? He worked in a music store and was Sarah's also occasional boyfriend. Man, I guess no one had a super steady relationship on this show.
Anyway, besides Jennifer Love Hewitt, this show had some decent actors that may look familiar. We got Johnathon Schaech, probably best known for his role in That Thing You Do!. Pauley Perrette, best known for her role on NCIS, and Jennifer Garner, best known for ... being Jennifer Garner. So, yeah, I'd say the cast was pretty solid, and the show most likely had a built-in fan base from Party of Five. So what went wrong?
Frankly, who knows? At the time, Jennifer Love Hewitt was very popular, but I guess the show just didn't catch on with audiences. Sometimes, that just happens. Or, perhaps, their target audience was busy watching the debut season of Angel. The ratings were kind of low, and apparently, FOX tried to save it by putting it on hiatus for five months. Huh? Then, they made an attempt to bring it back in the summer, dubbing it "Summer of Love". Get it! Puns! Well, that didn't work either, and the show got cancelled.
So, did it deserve a second season? Um, yes and no. I think sometimes, with a spin off, the people making it can get a bit complacent, thinking that since they clearly already have a fan base, they don't have to try so hard. I'm not exactly saying that's what happened here, but when I watched it, I felt like they could have tried a little more. But I didn't think it was that bad, and I do love Love, so I think with another season they might have improved things.
And there you have my thoughts on Time of Your Life. Not great, but not bad. Does it really matter though? We still have the adorable Jennifer Love Hewitt around. What more could we want?
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
