''Hitz'' is an American

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

that aired on UPN from August 26 until November 11, 1997. The series follows two record industry executives (

Rick Gomez Rick Gomez is an American actor. He is known for portraying Radio Technician Fourth Grade George Luz in the HBO television programming, television miniseries ''Band of Brothers (miniseries), Band of Brothers'', and "Endless Mike" Hellstrom in t ...

and Claude Brooks) and their boss (

Andrew Dice Clay Andrew Dice Clay (born Andrew Clay Silverstein; September 29, 1957) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He rose to prominence in the late 1980s with a brash, deliberately offensive persona known as "The Diceman". In 1990, he became the f ...

) at Hitower Records in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Cast

as Jimmy Esposito *

as Robert Moore *Claude Brooks as Busby Evans * Rosa Blasi as April Beane * Kristin Dattilo as Angela * Spencer Garrett as Tommy Stans

Episodes

Production

Although UPN had initially ordered 13 episodes, by October the network had ordered nine more episodes for a total of 22. However, by December the series was canceled before production on the last six episodes was complete.

Reception

Caryn James of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' called the series "relentlessly unfunny."

Ken Tucker Kenneth Tucker is an American arts, music and television critic, magazine editor, and nonfiction book author. Early life and education Tucker was born in Manhattan, New York City, New York, and raised in Stamford, Connecticut. He earned a ...

of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' rated the series as one of the worst of the year. Howard Rosenberg of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' wrote that ''Hitz'' is "prime time at its flat-out dumbest and unfunniest."

''Hitz'' retooling

'' Variety'' stated in July of 1997 that UPN's CEO Lucie Salhany said the network was retooling ''Hitz'' in an attempt to tone down the down the series after complaints that the program was misogynitic. The ''Hitz'' producers told an audience at a meeting of the TV Critics Association in Southern California that they will introduce a strong female character that will stand up to Andrew Dice Clay's boss character, Jimmy, that . The chaacter of Jimmy, executives also said, was modeled after Sony music chief Tommy Mottola.

References

External links

* 1990s American sitcoms 1997 American television series debuts 1997 American television series endings American English-language television shows Television series by CBS Studios Television shows set in Los Angeles Works about the music industry Television series about fictional musicians UPN sitcoms {{US-comedy-tv-prog-stub