Ed Stevens (Tom Cavanagh) hates his job as a contracts lawyer in NYC. When he misplaces a comma costing the firm $1.6 million, he gets fired. He goes home to find his wife Liz in bed with a mailman (not THE mailman). While feeling nostalgia for high school, he flies back to Stuckeyville, Ohio to ask out cheerleader dream girl Carol Vessey (Julie Bowen). The only problem is that Carol doesn't know who he is and she already has a boyfriend. Carol is now teaching at the high school with Ed's old friend Molly Hudson (Lesley Boone). His best friend Mike Burton (Josh Randall) is a doctor struggling to take over the practice from retiring Dr. Walter Jerome. Mike and his wife Nancy Burton (Jana Marie Hupp) has a baby girl. Ed decides to buy the local bowling alley and then starts his small town law office there. Phil Stubbs (Michael Ian Black), Shirley Pifko (Rachel Cronin) and Kenny Sandusky (Mike Starr) are three weirdos who work at the bowling alley. Kenny would later leave to be replaced by the wheelchair bound Eli Goggins (Daryl Mitchell). Warren Cheswick (Justin Long), Mark Vanacore (Michael Genadry) and Diane Snyder (Ginnifer Goodwin) are three of the students in Carol's class who show up prominently in the Ed and Carol saga.
The show starts by hooking the audience on Ed chasing Carol. It also introduces some great fun side characters. It's a great group. While the back and forth between Ed and Carol is fun for awhile, the show does struggle to figure out what to do with the relationship at a certain point. The big showdown between Carol and Frankie does have some problems. Unlike the other romantic connections, Frankie is a simple nice girl and her departure leaves a sour taste. The show is not a ratings juggernaut for the first three seasons. In the fourth and final shorten season, it fades when Ed finally catches Carol and loses the energy of unrequited love. Carol going to NYC doesn't help but the die was cast by then. The last half season is mostly trying to inject some drama as the show wraps up.
The show starts by hooking the audience on Ed chasing Carol. It also introduces some great fun side characters. It's a great group. While the back and forth between Ed and Carol is fun for awhile, the show does struggle to figure out what to do with the relationship at a certain point. The big showdown between Carol and Frankie does have some problems. Unlike the other romantic connections, Frankie is a simple nice girl and her departure leaves a sour taste. The show is not a ratings juggernaut for the first three seasons. In the fourth and final shorten season, it fades when Ed finally catches Carol and loses the energy of unrequited love. Carol going to NYC doesn't help but the die was cast by then. The last half season is mostly trying to inject some drama as the show wraps up.