''Listen Up'' 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 ...

television series created by Jeff Martin, that aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

from September 20, 2004, until April 25, 2005. The sitcom was based loosely on the life and exploits of the popular sportswriter and sports-media personality

Tony Kornheiser Anthony Irwin Kornheiser (; born July 13, 1948) is an American television sports talk show host and former Sports journalism, sportswriter and columnist. Kornheiser is best known for his endeavors in three forms of media: as a writer for ''The Wa ...

. Its principal

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...

was

Jason Alexander Jay Scott Greenspan (born September 23, 1959), known professionally as Jason Alexander, is an American actor and comedian. Over the course of his career he has received an Emmy Award and a Tony Award as well as nominations for four Golden Globe ...

, who was also the lead actor. Despite decent-to-good ratings, the show was canceled by CBS on May 18, 2005; "rising production costs" was the major reason officially given for the cancellation.

Premise

Tony Kleinman is a

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

based sports show host whose sidekick is Bernie Widmer, a former

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

player; together they host the TV show ''Listen Up''. While Tony does talk about sports on the show and in his newspaper column, he strays away occasionally to talk about the daily exploits of his family: his wife, Dana, a fund-raiser coordinator; his son, Mickey, a 15-year-old golf prodigy, and Megan, his 14-year-old, know-it-all, smart-mouthed, soccer-playing daughter.

Cast and characters

as Tony Kleinman, a co-host of ''Listen Up'', a sports talk show * Wendy Makkena as Dana Kleinman, an administrator at

Philadelphia Zoo The Philadelphia Zoo is a zoo located in the Centennial District of Philadelphia on the west bank of the Schuylkill River. It was the first true zoo in the United States; it was chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on March 21, 1859 ...

Daniella Monet Daniella Monet Gardner (née Zuvic; born March 1, 1989) is an American actress, entrepreneur, singer and television personality. Her early roles include Megan Kleinman on the CBS sitcom '' Listen Up'' (2004–2005), Rebecca Martin on Nickelodeo ...

as Megan Kleinman, the teenage daughter of Tony *

Will Rothhaar William Edward Lamar Rothhaar (born January 12, 1987) is an American actor. Early life Rothhaar was born in New York City, the son of Michael Rothhaar and Nancy Linehan Charles, both of whom are playwrights, actors and directors. He briefly l ...

as Mickey Kleinman, the teenage son of Tony *

Malcolm-Jamal Warner Malcolm-Jamal Warner (born August 18, 1970) is an American actor. He rose to prominence for his role as Theodore Huxtable on the NBC sitcom ''The Cosby Show'' (1984–1992), which earned him a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a ...

as Bernie Widmer, a retired

player and a co-host of ''Listen Up''

Episodes

Reception

Critical response

Critical reaction was largely negative. ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

s Robert Bianco wrote that the show makes the "mistake of trying to build a star vehicle around a second banana". A ''

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 ...

'' review called it "a rickety vehicle for Jason Alexander". Critics disagreed on the supporting cast – while ''USA Today'' noted, "When 'Listen Up' focuses on its supporting cast, the show works", ''The New York Times'' referred to a "stiff supporting cast". Matt Rouse of ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

'' wrote, "Forget about the 'Seinfeld' curse, this is just mediocre material and bad casting."

Ratings

The premiere episode drew 11.8 million viewers, while the final episode drew 8.9 million viewers.

References

External links

* * {{Epguides, ListenUp, Listen Up 2000s American multi-camera sitcoms 2004 American television series debuts 2005 American television series endings American English-language television shows Television series about television Television series by CBS Studios Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Television series about radio CBS sitcoms