''Emily's Reasons Why Not'' is an American television

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 ...

starring

Heather Graham Heather Joan Graham (born January 29, 1970) is an American actress. The accolades she has received include nominations for two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, and an Independent Spirit Award. After appearing in tel ...

. The show, which was based on the novel of the same name by Carrie Gerlach, published in August 2004, was canceled by its broadcaster,

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

, after a single airing on January 9, 2006. The story revolves around Emily Sanders, a successful career woman 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, ...

who has been unsuccessful

dating Dating is a stage of Romance (love), romantic relationships in which individuals engage in activity together, often with the intention of evaluating each other's suitability as a partner in a future intimate relationship. It falls into the cate ...

. She seeks help from a

therapist A therapist is a person who offers any kinds of therapy. Therapists are trained professionals in the field of any types of services like psychologists, social workers, counselors, etc. They are helpful in counseling individuals for various mental ...

who recommends that Emily make a list of ten reasons why each of her dating relationships has failed. The series premise centered on Emily (Graham), an editor of self-help books who is unable to find success in romance. In the premiere episode she ends a bad relationship and adopts a new rule for her romances: if she can list five reasons to break up with a guy, then she does so. Emily gets help from her friends, among them Josh, whose character is strongly based on gay stereotypes. The show was widely considered a less risqué copycat of ''

Sex and the City ''Sex and the City'' is an American romantic comedy, romantic comedy-drama television series created by Darren Star for HBO, based on Sex and the City (newspaper column), the newspaper column and 1996 book by Candace Bushnell. It premiered in th ...

''.

First episode

In the first episode, she is convinced that the man she was dating was

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

when he was actually a devout

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

practicing

chastity Chastity, also known as purity, is a virtue related to temperance. Someone who is ''chaste'' refrains from sexual activity that is considered immoral or from any sexual activity, according to their state of life. In some contexts, for exampl ...

before marriage. His open

virginity Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereo ...

is presented through gay stereotypes, and his preferred sport, Brazilian jiu-jitsu is described as "the gayest sport there is" by Emily's former boyfriend.

Critical reception

It was reported that ABC committed to the show before seeing a script. Despite heavy promotion by both

Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production company, production and broadcast syndication, distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, California, it is a division o ...

and ABC, and a viewing average of 6.2 million viewers, the show was pulled after the first episode due to negative reception; production was stopped after filming six episodes. ABC was said to have spent millions on promotion, including airtime, billboards and radio ads, and considered ''Emily'' to be the "linchpin" of the network's post-

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

Monday-night schedule. The promotion was so heavy and the cancellation so abrupt that some magazines found themselves carrying cover stories about a canceled show. After viewing it, ABC's entertainment president suggested that they considered the show lackluster and unlikely to improve. ''

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 ...

'' attributed the cancellation in part to the extremely unappealing nature of the main character and the portrayal by Graham. In 2006, all six episodes of the show aired on Spain's pay-TV channel Cosmopolitan under the title ''Cinco razones (para no salir contigo)'' ("Five Reasons (to not go out with you)"), on

Sony Entertainment Television Sony Entertainment Television (abbreviated as SET) is an Indian Hindi-language general entertainment pay television channel that was launched in 1995 and is owned by Culver Max Entertainment, a division of Sony Pictures. History This chann ...

, on ORF1 in Austria, and on

POP TV Pop TV is a Slovenian generalist television channel operated by Pro Plus d.o.o., a subsidiary of Central European Media Enterprises (CME), which is in turn owned by Czech investment company PPF. History It was established by ProPlus, CME's Sl ...

in Slovenia. It also aired on the cable/satellite channel

FOX Life Fox Life, now rebranded as Star Life and FX Life, was an international pay television network, launched by the Fox Networks Group in 2004. The network has been discontinued in several markets over time. The network's scheduling has varied wi ...

, in Japan in 2007, titled in Japanese as .

Cast

* Emily Sanders (

) * Reilly Harvey ( Nadia Dajani) * Midas O'Shay (

James Patrick Stuart James Patrick Stuart (born June 16, 1968) is an American actor. He portrays Valentin Cassadine on the daytime soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and tel ...

) * Josh (

Khary Payton Khary Payton (born May 16, 1972) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as King Ezekiel on the AMC horror drama series '' The Walking Dead'' and Dr. Terrell Jackson on the soap opera ''General Hospital'', as well as voicing Cyborg acr ...

) * Glitter Cho ( Smith Cho)

Episodes

Home media

''Emily's Reasons Why Not – The Complete Series'' was released on DVD on May 1, 2012. All six episodes produced were included in the set.

References

External links

* * {{Metacritic television
Washington Post article
in which the programming chief at ABC discusses why the show was canceled and why it got as far as it did. 2006 American television series debuts 2006 American television series endings 2000s American single-camera sitcoms Television shows based on American novels Television series by Sony Pictures Television Television shows set in Los Angeles American Broadcasting Company sitcoms