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.

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

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

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