The Wedding Bells

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The Wedding Bells

The title card of The Wedding Bells.
Format Comedy-drama
Created by Jason Katims
David E. Kelley
Starring KaDee Strickland
Teri Polo
Sarah Jones
Michael Landes
Benjamin King
Chris Williams
Missi Pyle
Country of origin Flag of the United States United States
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 7 (2 unaired) (List of episodes)
Production
Executive
producer(s)
Jason Katims
Jonathan Pontell
Producer(s) David E. Kelley
20th Century Fox Television
Running time 60 min.
Broadcast
Original channel FOX
Picture format 480i (SDTV),
720p (HDTV)
Original run March 7, 2007April 6, 2007
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

The Wedding Bells is a short-lived American television comedy-drama that debuted on FOX on March 7, 2007. The series was greenlighted after the network became interested in a series centered on wedding planners. The network approached David E. Kelley to create the show, and he essentially remade a rejected pilot he created for ABC in 2004 entitled DeMarco Affairs which starred Selma Blair, Lindsay Sloane and Sabrina Lloyd as three sisters who inherit a wedding planner service. Though the show had a moderately strong premiere, it faded in the ratings and was cancelled after seven episodes had been produced and five episodes were aired.[1]

Plot: A group of wedding planners are dedicated to giving their clients the perfect wedding.[2]

Contents

[edit] Plot

The Bell sisters, Annie (KaDee Strickland), Jane (Teri Polo) and Sammy Bell (Sarah Jones), inherited "The Wedding Palace" after their parents' divorce. David Conlon (Michael Landes), photographer for the wedding palace and ex-boyfriend of Annie's whose tension-filled dealings with her are clearly the result of pent-up sexual chemistry; and Russell Hawkins (Benjamin King), Jane's husband and the company COO; round off the cast.

Then there's wedding singer Ralph Snow (Chris Williams), who always aspired to be the next Lenny Kravitz, but instead is stuck crooning endless cover songs and retro medleys for unappreciative wedding guests. Amanda Pontell (Missi Pyle) adds to the frenzied scene as a former bridezilla client who becomes a board member of The Wedding Palace.

[edit] B-plots through the brief run of the series

  • The relationship between Wedding Palace assistant Debbie (Sherri Shepherd) and another wedding singer (Cleavant Derricks in a recurring role). Her biological clock is ticking and he is cautious about getting married again, as his first marriage ended badly.
  • The very rich (but socially awkward) Amanda Pontell's efforts to fit in with the three Bell sisters.
  • Sammy Bell's (Sarah Jones) efforts to be seen as a whole woman, not just as a sexy woman.
  • Sibling rivalry between Jane (Teri Polo) and Annie (KaDee Strickland) -- there is a history of Jane's boyfriends becoming attracted to Annie -- and Jane and Sammy -- Sammy has read in Jane's diary that Jane is jealous of Sammy's breasts.
  • Had the series gone on, another secondary plot might have been about Russell's efforts to franchise the Wedding Palace. Christopher Rich played a potential investor with Las Vegas connections in the last aired episode.
  • A couple of episodes had Heather Tom and Nicholle Tom as buxom blonde sisters who would crash weddings. Debbie would inevitably throw them out.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Criticism

The first two episodes of The Wedding Bells garnered poor reviews and low ratings. Critics cited the superficial relationships between the sisters as a weakness. Some claim that Kelley lacked the flair to write for women, after his successful run with Ally McBeal.

However, the fifth episode of The Wedding Bells ("The Most Beautiful Girl") represented a turning point of the series and many fans consider the writing to have improved as Kelley delves further into character development.

[edit] References

[edit] External links