Dharma & Greg is an American television sitcom that aired from September 24, 1997, to April 30, 2002.
It starred
Jenna ElfmanJennifer Mary "Jenna" Elfman is an American television and film actress. She is known for her role as Dharma on the ABC sitcom Dharma & Greg and as Billie on the short-lived CBS sitcom Accidentally on Purpose....
and
Thomas GibsonThomas Ellis Gibson is an American actor who is perhaps best known for his roles as Daniel Nyland in the Medical drama series Chicago Hope, as Greg Montgomery in the comedy series Dharma & Greg, and as Supervisory Special Agent Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner in the highly-popular CBS drama, Criminal...
as Dharma and Greg Montgomery, a couple who married instantly on their first date despite being complete opposites. The series was co-produced by
Chuck LorreChuck Lorre is a writer, director, producer and composer who has created many American sitcoms, including Grace Under Fire, Cybill, Dharma & Greg, Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory...
Productions, More-Medavoy Productions and 4 to 6 Foot Productions in association with
20th Century Fox Television20th Century Fox Television is the television production division of 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, and a production arm of the Fox Broadcasting Company...
for
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. The show's theme song was written and performed by composer
Dennis C. BrownDennis Challen Brown is an BMI award winning American film and television composer. Most notable for the music of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles along with Chuck Lorre, and Dharma & Greg.He is a member in ....
.
Created by executive producers Dottie Dartland and Chuck Lorre, the comedy took much of its inspiration from so-called culture-clash "fish out of water" situations. The show earned eight Golden Globe nominations, six
Emmy AwardAn Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
nominations, and six
Satellite AwardsThe Satellite Awards are an annual award given by the International Press Academy. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards.- Film :*Best Actor – Drama*Best Actor – Musical or Comedy*Best Actress – Drama...
nominations. Elfman earned a Golden Globe in 1999 for
Best Actress.
Cast
Jenna ElfmanJennifer Mary "Jenna" Elfman is an American television and film actress. She is known for her role as Dharma on the ABC sitcom Dharma & Greg and as Billie on the short-lived CBS sitcom Accidentally on Purpose....
as
Dharma Freedom Montgomery, née Finkelstein, Greg's wife and a
flower childFlower child originated as a synonym for hippie, especially the idealistic young people who gathered in San Francisco and environs during the 1967 Summer of Love. It was the custom of "flower children" to wear and distribute flowers or floral-themed decorations to symbolize altruistic ideals of...
. She is overly cheerful and sensitive, but she is also more compassionate and forgiving than most people. Despite her trust in the goodness of people and persistent good intentions, Dharma is not naive. She understands the real world, employs sarcasm and receives it well. Dharma perseveres in expressing her personality and her identity even in the face of an overwhelmingly opposing world. Dharma encourages Greg to seek happiness rather than fret about practical issues like money. She is named after the concept of
dharmaDharma means Law or Natural Law and is a concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion. In the context of Hinduism, it refers to one's personal obligations, calling and duties, and a Hindu's dharma is affected by the person's age, caste, class, occupation, and gender...
in
Indian philosophyIndia has a rich and diverse philosophical tradition dating back to ancient times. According to Radhakrishnan, the earlier Upanisads constitute "...the earliest philosophical compositions of the world."...
. Once, a Native American friend of her father's gave her the name "Crazy Man's Daughter".
According to Chuck Lorre's eleventh vanity card (see below), he and Dottie Dartland originally conceived
Dharma & Greg as "a series revolving around a woman whose personality is not a neurotic product of societal and parental conditioning, but of her own free-flowing, compassionate mind".
Thomas GibsonThomas Ellis Gibson is an American actor who is perhaps best known for his roles as Daniel Nyland in the Medical drama series Chicago Hope, as Greg Montgomery in the comedy series Dharma & Greg, and as Supervisory Special Agent Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner in the highly-popular CBS drama, Criminal...
as lawyer
Gregory Clifford "Greg" Montgomery, Dharma's husband. He is an upright, uptight, decent, though sometimes surprisingly open-minded man. Greg's life was hopelessly banal before he met Dharma and married her on their first date. Since then, he has played
straight manA double act, also known as a comedy duo, is a comic pairing in which humor is derived from the uneven relationship between two partners, usually of the same gender, age, ethnic origin and profession, but drastically different personalities or behavior...
to the antics of his
eccentricIn popular usage, eccentricity refers to unusual or odd behavior on the part of an individual. This behavior would typically be perceived as unusual or unnecessary, without being demonstrably maladaptive...
wife. Though his relationship with Dharma has been rocky at times, Greg has never been shown to regret their marriage. He is an alumnus of elite schools,
Phillips Exeter AcademyPhillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...
,
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, and
Stanford Law SchoolStanford Law School is a graduate school at Stanford University located in the area known as the Silicon Valley, near Palo Alto, California in the United States. The Law School was established in 1893 when former President Benjamin Harrison joined the faculty as the first professor of law...
.
Susan SullivanSusan Michaela Sullivan is an American actress, known for several notable roles on various television programs. Sullivan played the role of Lenore Curtin Delaney on the daytime soap opera, Another World ; waitress Lois Adams during the first season of the comedy It's a Living, Maggie Gioberti...
as
Katherine "Kitty" Montgomery, Greg's extravagant mother. In the beginning of the first season Kitty was generally represented as a manipulative, controlling woman who only had higher aspirations for her son. As an elite socialite, Kitty was initially quite displeased to have Dharma and her parents join the family, but over the course of the series, Kitty broadens her limited country club world to become part of a larger family, becoming a major part of Dharma's life, while remaining lovingly manipulative.
Mitchell RyanMitchell Ryan is an American actor most recently known for playing Edward Montgomery on the sitcom Dharma & Greg. He also worked with his on-screen wife from Dharma & Greg, Susan Sullivan, in the short-lived series Julie Farr, M.D..Ryan was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in Louisville,...
as
Edward Montgomery, Greg's eccentric father. His philosophy for dealing with his wife, Kitty, involves remaining as uninvolved as possible. Head of Montgomery Industries (though he keeps working only because he can see little tugboats out the window) and at odds with Dharma's father, who calls him "Ed" and whom he calls "Finkelstein." Edward is a graduate of the
University of Notre DameThe University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
, of which he is fiercely proud, and partially resents Greg for considering Notre Dame to not be "good enough" for him. Ed is often seen drinking
martinisThe martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth, and garnished with an olive or a lemon twist. Over the years, the martini has become one of the best-known mixed alcoholic beverages. H. L. Mencken called the martini "the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet" and E. B...
and
ScotchScotch whisky is whisky made in Scotland.Scotch whisky is divided into five distinct categories: Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Single Grain Scotch Whisky, Blended Malt Scotch Whisky , Blended Grain Scotch Whisky, and Blended Scotch Whisky.All Scotch whisky must be aged in oak barrels for at least three...
.
Mimi KennedyMimi Kennedy is an American actress, author and activist.-Early life:Kennedy was born Mary Claire Kennedy in Rochester, New York, the daughter of Nancy Helen and Daniel Gerald Kennedy. She got her start in theater with the Rochester Community Players, appearing in Agatha Christie's "Spider Web"...
as
Abigail Kathleen "Abby" O'Neil, Dharma's free-spirited, caring mother, who encourages her daughter and son-in-law to produce children: "Feel free to have
sexIn biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...
anywhere." Although they have a grown daughter and later a son, she and Dharma's father are not married. She and Larry were engaged and held the wedding ceremony but still did not marry to "stay under the radar". Unlike her "lifemate" Larry, she immediately accepted Greg, though she still constantly annoys and conflicts with his parents. She is a militant vegan, which is a never-ending source of trouble. During her pregnancy in season 4, however, she did make exceptions because of her food cravings.
Alan RachinsAlan Rachins is an American television actor, best known for his role as Douglas Brackman in L.A. Law, which earned him both Golden Globe and Emmy nominations, as well as for his portrayal of Dharma's hippie father, Larry, on the hit television series, Dharma & Greg...
as
Myron Lawrence "Larry" Finkelstein, Dharma's "hippie" father. He is a stereotypical sixties radical who frequently rants about various conspiracies, a lot of which revolve around
Richard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
. He also thinks he's wanted by the FBI, but when Greg discovers he's not, his family goes to great lengths to prove to him that he still is because this is a source of great pride to him. Despite this, he manages to get along with Edward, often when both are sick of dealing with their wives. He homeschooled Dharma in American history, passing on his conspiracy theories, such as the latest Apollo mission secretly burying the missing minutes of the
Watergate tapesThe Watergate tapes, a subset of the Nixon tapes, are a collection of recordings of conversations between Richard Nixon and his fellow conspirators plotting a break in to the Watergate Hotel. U.S. President Richard Nixon and various White House staff started communicating on February 1971 and...
on the moon. It is often alluded to that Larry is a chronic user of
marijunanaCannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
, though never shown. In the season 4 episode
Mother Daughter Reunion, Dharma mentions that Larry has a resistance against most drugs after frequent use. In the pilot episode Abby introduces his usual cluelessness with "he blew out his short term memory back in 1972". He sometimes becomes a "pothead savant" and reveals skills such as his talent for carpentry and his music.
Shae D'LynShae D'lyn is an American actress. She's best known for her role as Jane Deaux/Cavanaugh on the ABC sitcom Dharma & Greg and as Cousin Vicki in National Lampoons' Vegas Vacation.- Biography :...
as
Jane Deaux, Dharma's friend. She considers all men more or less evil; over the course of the show, her hair went from black, to red, to blonde. She married Pete Cavanaugh in Season 2, and made an attempt to divorce him after 6 weeks. They eventually divorced in the premiere of the fourth season. She and Dharma met when Dharma dialed a wrong number. D'Lyn left at the end of the fourth season, though she had one "guest appearance" in season five.
Joel MurrayJoel Murray is an American actor who has starred in film and on television.-Early life:Murray, one of nine children, was born and raised in Wilmette, Illinois , the son of Lucille , a mail room clerk, and Edward J. Murray II, a lumber salesman. Murray, along with his siblings, grew up in an Irish...
as
Peter James "Pete" Cavanaugh, Greg's friend and colleague at the Justice Department. A particularly bad, lazy lawyer, he was married to Jane for a time. His entire life can be summed up by the interior of his apartment: a massage chair surrounded by empty take-out containers, next to which is a small refrigerator and a stack of
pornoPornographic films are motion pictures with the purpose of promoting sexual arousal in the viewer, often featuring depictions of sexual activity. They are sold and rented out on DVD, shown through Internet and special channels and pay-per-view on cable and satellite, and in adult...
tapes. A high-class entertainment center is in front of this. It is said he wears adult diapers to football games. Greg once said of his friend: "Pete went to law school in
BarbadosBarbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
; he failed the Bar eight times. The last time because he threw up on the exam." In season 1, he mentions that he worked as a plumber's assistant during college. Pete marries Jane in the second season because neither of them wants to be alone on Valentine's Day
Helen Greenberg as
Marcie, One of Dharma's Co-Op friends; nasal-voiced
receptionistA receptionist is an employee taking an office/administrative support position. The work is usually performed in a waiting area such as a lobby or front office desk of an organization or business...
, whose vocabulary primarily consists of the words "I'm sorry." Greenberg joined the main cast in season five, she also played a different character in the episode "Drop Dead Gorgeous".
Susan Chuang as
Susan Wong, One of Dharma's friends from the Co-Op, she is seen as Marcie's counterpart. Susan also pulls a "Dharma & Greg" with a lawyer, Darrell Gottlieb, hired by Kitty in a community garden spat (her wedding, along with Dharma's accident, was the Season 4 finale). Chaung joined the main cast in season five, she also played a different character in the episode "Looking for the Goodbars".
Other characters
- Celia (Lillian Hurst
Lillian Hurst is a Puerto Rican actress and comedienne. Hurst made her debut as a television comedian in the early 1960s. She participated in various Off-Broadway and movie productions in the United States.-Early years:...
) — Kitty and Edward's HispanicHispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
maidA maidservant or in current usage housemaid or maid is a female employed in domestic service.-Description:Once part of an elaborate hierarchy in great houses, today a single maid may be the only domestic worker that upper and even middle-income households can afford, as was historically the case...
. She is given constant support from Larry, who views her as "oppressed". When Kitty and Edward are out of town, Celia and her family move into the Montgomerys' mansion and invite their friends over, pretending it's their house. (appears in 16 episodes)
- Marlene (Yeardley Smith
Yeardley Smith is a French-born American actress, voice actress, writer and painter. She is best known for her long-running role as Lisa Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons....
) — Greg's legal secretary whom he fired and then re-hired. She is snide, rude, and a bad secretary in general, though a better "lawyer" than Pete. (appears in 17 episodes)
- George (Floyd Westerman) — an elderly Native American, who came to live with Dharma and Greg in the episode "Indian Summer"; he died at the end of the episode, but his ghost sometimes appears to Dharma to offer her advice. (appears in 4 episodes)
- Charlie (Kevin Sorbo
Kevin David Sorbo is an American actor best known for the roles of Hercules in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Captain Dylan Hunt in Andromeda and Kull in Kull the Conqueror.-Early life:...
) — a university professor going through a divorce who falls in love with Dharma. His affections, particularly a love letter and offering to drive Dharma home on a rainy day, cause Dharma and Greg to briefly separate in a story arc that alienated many viewers of the show. (appears in 4 episodes)
- Young Greg (Mathew Weiss) – Greg as a young boy (appears only in pilot). Falls in love with Dharma instantaneously when the two swap glances for the first time while barely missing each other on the subway—years before they finally meet and marry on their first date.
- Young Dharma (Megan Butala) – Dharma as a young girl (appears only in pilot). Megan is Jenna Elfman's niece (her brother's daughter), as told by Elfman herself in the audio commentary to the pilot episode from the DVD release.
- Stinky — Dharma's and Greg's dog; a long-haired mutt.
- Nunzio (Bud 1997–1998, Butch 1998–1999, Twiggy 2000–2001) — Stinky's dog, a Welsh Corgi; Dharma's gift to Stinky on his Bar Mitzvah.
Awards and Nominations
Primetime Emmy Awards
- 1998 Nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Jenna Elfman)
- 1999 Nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Jenna Elfman)
- 2000 Nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Jenna Elfman)
Golden Globe Awards
- 1997 Nomination for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Series (Jenna Elfman)
- 1998 Nomination for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy Series (Thomas Gibson)
- 1998 Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Series (Jenna Elfman)
- 1998 Nomination for Best Musical or Comedy Series
- 1998 Nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries, or TV Movie (Susan Sullivan)
- 1999 Nomination for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy Series (Thomas Gibson)
- 1999 Nomination for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Series (Jenna Elfman)
- 1999 Nomination for Best Musical or Comedy Series
Ratings and cancellation
The series was a top-25 fixture in the US during its first three seasons, first airing Wednesday at 8:30 pm, then at 8:00. It was moved to Tuesdays at 9pm during its third season where it experienced a dramatic ratings lift thanks to a lead-in of the then red-hot
Who Wants to Be a MillionaireWho Wants to Be a Millionaire is an American television quiz show which offers a maximum prize of $1,000,000 for correctly answering 14 consecutive multiple-choice questions of random difficulty. Until 2010, the format required contestants to correctly answer 15 consecutive questions of increasing...
. As ratings for that series waned in 2000/2001,
Dharma & Greg suffered a similar fate, compounded by NBC moving
FrasierFrasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...
into the same time slot. As
Millionaire fell even further and was moved off the night in the fall of 2001, ABC tried to rebuild a Tuesday night comedy block consisting of
Dharma & Greg,
What About Joan?What About Joan? is an ABC sitcom that aired in 2001 for 2 seasons . It starred Joan Cusack as Joan Gallagher, a Chicago schoolteacher and the comedy of her day-to-day life. It co-starred Kyle Chandler. It was produced by James L...
,
Bob Patterson and
Spin CitySpin City is an American sitcom television series that aired from September 17, 1996 until April 30, 2002 on the ABC network. Created by Gary David Goldberg and Bill Lawrence, the show was based on a fictional local government running New York City, and originally starred Michael J. Fox as Mike...
. The move was ill-fated, however, with sophomore
Joan lasting just two episodes and
Patterson five.
Dharma & Greg and
Spin City shared the 8pm timeslot for the rest of the season, despite ever-declining ratings. The final episode aired on April 30, 2002 to just 6.8 million viewers, compared to the 20 million the series had peaked at just two years previously.
| Season |
Season Premiere |
Season Finale |
TV Season |
Ranking |
Viewers
(in millions) |
| 1st |
September 24, 1997 |
May 20, 1998 |
1997–98 This was the United States broadcast television schedule on all six commercial television networks for the fall season beginning in September 1997. All times are Eastern and Pacific.New series highlighted in bold....
|
#25 |
13.9 |
| 2nd |
September 23, 1998 |
May 26, 1999 |
1998–99 This was the United States broadcast television schedule on all six commercial television networks for the fall season beginning in September 1998. All times are Eastern and Pacific.New series highlighted in bold....
|
#25 |
13.5 |
| 3rd |
September 21, 1999 |
May 16, 2000 |
1999–00 |
#14 |
15.76 |
| 4th |
October 10, 2000 |
May 22, 2001 |
2000–01 This was the United States broadcast television schedule on all six commercial television networks for the fall season beginning in September 2000. All times are Eastern and Pacific.New fall series are highlighted in bold....
|
#38 |
12.3 |
| 5th |
September 25, 2001 |
April 30, 2002 |
2001–02 This was the United States broadcast television schedule on all six commercial television networks for the fall season beginning in September 2001. All times are Eastern and Pacific.New fall series are highlighted in bold....
|
#82 |
8.1 |
DVD releases
20th Century Fox20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is the home video distribution arm of the 20th Century Fox film studio. It was established in 1976 as Magnetic Video Corporation, and later as 20th Century Fox Video, CBS/Fox Video and FoxVideo, Inc....
has released the first season of
Dharma & Greg on DVD in Region 1. Season 1 & 2 have been released in Region 2 & 4
| DVD Name |
Ep # |
Release dates |
| Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 |
| The Complete 1st Season |
23 |
June 13, 2006 |
June 20, 2007 |
January 11, 2007 |
| The Complete 2nd Season |
24 |
N/A |
April 1, 2008 |
January 22, 2008 |
Season 2 was released in Australia as a Region 4 PAL on January 22, 2008, with a picture of Dharma and Greg dancing on the cover. It is available in Japan as a Region 2 NTSC format with a picture of them sitting down for the cover art. In the spring of 2008, the second season was released in Europe (Netherlands) as a Region 2 PAL as well. All countries have different covers, and all are using the "dance shot".
Vanity cards
The vanity card for Chuck Lorre Productions at the end of each episode included a message written by producer and show co-creator Chuck Lorre, expressing his personal views on a variety of subjects. Because the card only appeared on the screen for a brief moment, it was usually readable only by those who recorded the program and paused it (although the complete collection of cards has now been posted on Lorre's website.
Messages were also included on the vanity cards for later Chuck Lorre Productions shows, such as
Two and a Half MenTwo and a Half Men is an American television sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 22, 2003. Starring Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, and Angus T. Jones, the show was originally about a hedonistic jingle writer, Charlie Harper; his uptight brother, Alan; and Alan's growing son, Jake...
,
Mike and Molly, and
The Big Bang Theory.
Crossovers
Elfman and Gibson had a cameo appearance in the
Two and a Half MenTwo and a Half Men is an American television sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 22, 2003. Starring Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, and Angus T. Jones, the show was originally about a hedonistic jingle writer, Charlie Harper; his uptight brother, Alan; and Alan's growing son, Jake...
episode "
Nice to Meet You, Walden Schmidt"Nice to Meet You, Walden Schmidt" is the ninth season premiere of the comedy series Two and a Half Men and the first appearance of Ashton Kutcher as Walden Schmidt, "an internet billionaire with a broken heart". It is the 178th episode of the show, and the first episode without former lead...
". Their characters are not named either in the dialogue or the credits (possibly for legal reasons due to
Men being produced by a different studio), but they appear to be based on Dharma and Greg. While the couple remain married, Greg seems overly tired by his responsibilities and marriage, even going so far as to sarcastically hint at divorce to Evelyn Harper (along with a self-inflicted gunshot gesture) when leaving.
See also
External links