Season 1 • Episode 13
LatestEllen decides to go Clark's fanciest restaurant all by herself after not finding anyone to go with. There she runs into Catherine, who's on a secret date with Rusty, whom Ellen thought was still hooked up on her since high school. Ellen tags along on their dates, and they decide to break up since it stopped being fun. Their only worry is how Ellen is going to take the break up. Meanwhile, Pam thinks Mr. Munn has a crush on her and Mr. Munn takes advantage of that after Ellen warns him about Pam's feelings.
When her high-profile start-up Internet company goes belly up, Ellen gives up her high-powered career and heads back to her small hometown to put her life together. She gets a counselor at her old high school and moves in with her eccentric mother and unlucky-in-love sister.
Acting
Cloris Leachman steals every scene as unhinged mom Dot.
Writing
Mitchell Hurwitz's dense joke layering before Arrested Development.
Direction
Multi-cam warmth with single-cam ambition in staging.
Creators
Ellen DeGeneres, Carol Leifer, Mitchell Hurwitz
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This aired just four years after Ellen's 'The Puppy Episode' made history; CBS gave it the Friday death slot and pulled it after 13 episodes.
The dot-com bust premise aged weirdly well—watching Ellen lose everything in 2001 hits different post-2022 tech layoffs.
US
