By Daniel A. Marley
On January 11, 2012, NBC released a new sitcom for their Wednesday night lineup. From the comedic styles of Chelsea Handler comes Are You There, Chelsea?, a series that focuses on a young woman who lives outside of Newark, New Jersey and is surrounded by a wide array of friends and family congruent and opposite to her opinionating and alcohol-depending behavior. This is based off Chelsea Handler’s 2008 novel Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea. The show is aired on Wednesdays at 8:30 PM eastern and 7:30 PM central on NBC.
ABOUT
Are You There, Chelsea? focuses on the problems of a sexually active and party-going young adult named Chelsea. The character of Chelsea works at a sports bar and spends her free time engaging in parties and other functions that surround her with alcohol and attractive men. In the beginning of the series, she gets arrested for driving while intoxicated and under the influence. From that incident, the following episodes revolve around her and how her life has changed because of her DUI charge— from her behavior amongst her friends and family to her work life and sexual encounters and desires.
The character of Chelsea is played by actress Laura Prepon. Prepon is mosly known for her role as “Donna” in the sitcom That 70’s Show. Ironically, in relation to That 70’s Show, the character of Fez played by Wilmer Valderrama was in one episode of the series playing one of her lovers in the episode “Those Damn Yankees.” Prepon plays the character well, giving Chelsea that sexy and rebellious nature that perfectly complimented the character portrayed in the novel, similar to her persona in That 70’s Show.
Chelsea Handler, the host of the E! Channel program “Chelsea Lately,” plays the recurring character of Sloane, Chelsea’s sister. Sloane is a new mother who appears in the series still pregnant and then later in the first episode gives birth to her child. Her husband, who is briefly mentioned in the series, is currently fighting in the United States military in the Middle East. Handler is the most important person to the acting and contribution of the show. The show is based off her book Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea (2008, published by Simon Spotlight Entertainment), a collection of humorous memoirs about her life. The book was such a success that NBC picked up the book and turned it into a series back in 2011.
Lauren Lapkus plays the character of Dee, Chelsea’s roommate. Dee is the exact opposite of Chelsea. While Chelsea is outgoing, Dee is more socially awkward. Her character gets taken advantaged of and gets the nickname of “Dee Dee” because of Chelsea’s reliance of her being the designated driver. Even though she does get taken advantaged of and sometimes gets mocked by her peers, she is still good at heart. Lapkus is an up-and-coming actress best known for her appearance in a Snickers commercial with Joe Pesci and Don Rickles.
Other characters in the series include a motivated bartender with goals named Rick (Jake McDorman, Greek), Chelsea’s partner in crime named Olivia (Ali Wong), Chelsea’s over-qualified co-worker with Dwarfism named Todd (Mark Povinelli), and Chelsea and Sloane’s big-mouthed and big-hearted father named Melvin (Lenny Clarke).
The production companies that worked in the creation of this sitcom include Bonanza Productions, 4-to-6 Foot Productions, Carsey-Werner Entertainment, Borderline Amazing Productions, and Warner Bros. Television. Each company has some background in producing comedies, and all have so far done well with this program.
Bonanza, a production company stationed out of Decatur, Georgia, has worked on a variety of television programs including Vampire Diaries and Mike & Molly.
4-to-6 Foot Productions is a small production company that use to work on the set of Dharma & Greg, a show that received mixed reviews for their style of humor.
Carsey-Werner Entertainment, based out of Encino, California, worked on a series of popular television sitcoms like The Cosby Show, Roseanne, 3Rd Rock From the Sun, and That 70’s Show. It is believed that Carsey-Werner has helped cast Prepon in this show to play Chelsea, but none of this information is published.
Borderline Amazing Productions was founded by Handler and Tom Brunelle, stationed in Los Angeles. The production company has helped Handler produce her show on the E! Channel Chelsea Lately.
Warner Bros. is a name synonymous with entertainment. William T. Orr founded this production company stationed in Burbank, California in 1955. He was well known for producing western and detective programs in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. They have been credited for their production and programming work with sitcoms like Dukes of Hazzard, Full House, Murphy Brown, and Friends.
ENHANCED CONTENT
The main program website can be found on http://www.NBC.com/are-you-there-chelsea. This site, like all other NBC-owned programs, contains information about the show and cast, video clips and photo galleries from previous episodes, and news articles and other related content that pertain to the episode aired or relate to the show. The navigation bar at the top of the page also directs website visitors to the show’s Facebook and Twitter pages, featured games that focus on people’s favorite drink and your ideal roommate, and NBC’s online store where people can purchase Are You There, Chelsea? and other sitcom merchandise.
The Facebook and Twitter pages for Are You There, Chelsea? share the same function: to keep viewers informed about the upcoming episodes and post news and other information on the cast and other content related to the show. One of the posts from the person that runs the Facebook page posted a link about rapper Snoop Dogg serving community service for a drug charge. The producers of the show use these outlets to reach out to their audience.
This is a very effective means of communication to reach out to their audience. Their use of social media is proper and in no way harmful to the show. In fact, it offers an interaction that most shows fail to do with their audience. Their open discussions about the show, the characters, and happenings in the world that pertain to a particular episode’s plot line show this. They need to continue to do what they do best and other programs on the television need to follow their example of program-to-viewer interaction.
Follow the show on Facebook "Are You There, Chelsea?" at http://www.facebook.com/NBCChelsea and on Twitter at @NBCChelsea.
EPISODE SYNOPSIS
Episode 111: “Boots”
Air Date: March 21, 2012
While discussing Chelsea’s upcoming court date for her DUI back in Episode 1, Chelsea and her co-workers entered a conversation about their dreams and goals. While everyone wants to aspire to become a professional in the fields of journalism, acting, and entrepreneurial studies, Chelsea’s goal is to own a $700 pair of handcrafted thigh-high boots. Though not properly elaborated in the text of the episode, Chelsea claims that the boots will help drastically change her life for the better. She gets playfully harassed for this dream, because it is not properly realistic.
The following scene is her and Dee at the courthouse, where Dee grows a sexual attraction to the clerk played by Andrew Daly (Mad TV). There, she is given community service as part of her punishment for her DUI. She has been assigned to help tutor underprivileged children at their local community center, where Dee works and who will supervise her during the service. At the tutoring session, Chelsea is assigned to help a young man named Warren. Warren is sexually attracted to her and gets accused of stealing Chelsea’s phone while she stepped away to talk to Dee for a brief moment. He hid the phone between his crotch. His defense is “researching the Louisiana Purchase” because he does not have a computer or phone to look up information. Chelsea does not believe him and refuses to help him throughout the duration of her service.
After her community service, Chelsea returns to her job and helps Rick with the mixology contest at the bar. Rick’s mixed drinks were not to the liking of the judges and his peers. For the following round, Rick used Chelsea’s “Bang! Bang!” cocktail to her discretion. The drink was a favorite and was declared the victor of the contest. Rick and Chelsea split the prize money, which was enough for her to buy her desired boots. After she bought the boots, she gained a lot of sex appeal from the men between the specialty store and her apartment. This feeling of sexual desire was what she yearned for in the acquisition of this type of footwear.
When she returned home to show Dee and her friend Olivia her new boots, Olivia finds a link on Chelsea’s smart phone to the Louisiana Purchase. She feels a sense of guilt for wrongly accusing the child of stealing her phone that causes her to lose enjoyment in her new boots. While her and Olivia were drinking and in an intoxicated state, Chelsea goes online and purchases a computer for the community center. The computer we can assume costs the same amount as her new boots. Because she felt guilty about the Warren situation, she decided to return her boots and use the money to buy the computer. At the community center during the closing scene of the episode, she is applauded for her donation and apologizes to Warren. Dee signs her paperwork and tells her she can go home, but Chelsea decides to stay and help out longer.
You can watch the full episode here at http://www.hulu.com/watch/342485/are-you-there-chelsea-boots#s-p1-so-i0
Are You There, Chelsea? AND THE COLLEGE STUDENT
This NBC program is something that most college students can relate to. The demographic of the show, middle class American citizens 18 to 45 years of age, suggests that the people who watch the show are college students who are also fans of That 70’s Show and Chelsea Lately. The behavior of the characters and the situations that the protagonist is in are something that college students can relate to at different levels.
The situations that Chelsea finds herself in are similar to the dilemmas that most college students encounter in their daily lives, though an actual institution is not present in the series. These situations include desires for material goods, relationship issues, balancing work and social life, and the consistent battle between law and ethics. Each episode delivers a variety of different attitudes and behaviors on how each situation should be approached, with the closing scene elaborating on the correct methods that should be taken. I, myself, am a college student who can relate to this show in some ways. As a busy college student, I need to learn how to delegate my academic and social life properly and understand where and when ethics exceeds law and law triumphs over ethics.
Those students who are very outgoing, love to party, and can freely express themselves in public without caring about the opinions of others can relate to Chelsea and Olivia. Students who feel used and shy around people and feel subconscious about them can relate to Dee. Young men who have goals but feel restricted by their peers can relate to Rick. Those who feel confident about them and do not feel any restraint from their physical limitations can relate to Todd. Students who feel overwhelmed with numerous problems and have barley anyone to fall back on and seek guidance can relate to Sloane.
DAN MARLEY’S REVIEW
After following the series since January 11, I feel that Are You There, Chelsea? is a good program that does not need to make any kind of drastic change. The storyline is very consistent and does not digress into something irrelevant. The plot of each episode also connects well with the college student, although no mentions of an institution are present. There is a perfect balance between characters and plot, where every person and every conflict are given proper time to do what they need to do to contribute to the plot and the protagonist’s behavior.
The only negative that does somewhat bother me is the transition into maturity of the character Chelsea. The first ten episodes of Are You There, Chelsea? are fixated on Chelsea’s problems, where she would learn a valuable lesson about her actions and then continue to act the same way in the following installments. It is not until this episode I reviewed where we see her behavior begin to change. I am aware of the need to maintain the attention and desires of the audience, but I can’t help but feel that someone out there feels the same way about this program. If I had the opportunity to start from square one, I would have instead shown this change of behavior and coming into maturity after the sixth episode. Besides this mini criticism, this is a great program and should be a popular program amongst the college communities.
