# Buddies (TV series)

Buddies is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from March 5 to May 29, 1996. It was created by Carmen Finestra, David McFadzean, and Matt Williams and starred Dave Chappelle, Christopher Gartin, Tanya Wright, Jeff Rawluk and Richard Roundtree. It’s a spin-off to Home Improvement.

## History
### Home Improvement connection

Comedians Dave Chappelle and Jim Breuer attracted the attention of TV network executives with their guest appearance on the (4th season) March 14, 1995, episode of ABC's highly rated sitcom Home Improvement. The storyline had Chappelle and Breuer play friends who appear together on Tool Time to ask Tim Taylor advice on their girlfriends. The characters' single outing on the episode proved so popular that ABC decided to give Chappelle and Breuer their own half-hour sitcom.

### Cast changes

After subsequent rehearsals, Breuer was replaced with Christopher Gartin as Chappelle's "buddy". The unique comic timing and chemistry that Chappelle had with Breuer, his real-life friend, was not present with Gartin, and Breuer's abrupt firing exacerbated ill will. This prevented Chappelle and Gartin from developing the rapport and chemistry necessary for the characters' believability and likeability.

### Broadcast

Buddies premiered on Tuesday, March 5, 1996. The show garnered disappointing ratings. Buddies was cancelled on April 3 after airing only five out of the 13 produced episodes. Chappelle himself was not proud of his involvement with Buddies in retrospect:
   It was a bad show. It was bad. I mean when we were doing it, I could tell this was not gonna work.

## Cast

* Dave Chappelle as Dave Carlisle
* Christopher Gartin as John Bailey
* Tanya Wright as Phyllis Brooks
* Richard Roundtree as Henry Carlisle
* Paula Cale as Lorraine Bailey
* Judith Ivey as Maureen DeMoss

## Episode list

| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date |
| 1 | "Pilot" | Andrew Tsao | Carmen Finestra & David McFadzean & Matt Williams | March 5, 1996 (1996-03-05) |
| 2 | "A Room with a Pyew" | John Pasquin | Trish Baker | March 13, 1996 (1996-03-13) |
| 3 | "Regarding Henry" | Andrew Tsao | Sharon D. Johnson | March 20, 1996 (1996-03-20) |
| 4 | "Famous Last Words" | John Pasquin | Mark St. Germain | March 27, 1996 (1996-03-27) |
| 5 | "Marry Me...Sort Of" | Paul Lazarus | Daphne Pollon | April 3, 1996 (1996-04-03) |
| 6 | "Lights, Camera...Yuck!" | Paul Lazarus | Peter Tolan | April 10, 1996 (1996-04-10) |
| 7 | "Pet Peeves" | John Pasquin | Robert Zappia | April 17, 1996 (1996-04-17) |
| 8 | "The Content of Their Character" | John Pasquin | Lisa DeBenedictis & Daryl Rowland | April 24, 1996 (1996-04-24) |
| 9 | "There Goes the Groom" | John Pasquin | Richey Jones & Todd Jones | May 1, 1996 (1996-05-01) |
| 10 | "The PSA Story" | John Pasquin | Bob Burris & Michael Ware | May 8, 1996 (1996-05-08) |
| 11 | "John, I've Been Thinking" | John Pasquin | Art Everett | May 15, 1996 (1996-05-15) |
| 12 | "Engagement Hell" | Andrew Tsao | Steve Gabriel | May 22, 1996 (1996-05-22) |
| 13 | "Whack and Blight" | Andrew Tsao | Peter Tolan | May 29, 1996 (1996-05-29) |

## Home media

Best Buy released an exclusive DVD on May 15, 2005, that contained 10 episodes of Buddies, including all 8 unaired episodes.