It would seem that TV viewers asre no longer enticed to watch a show simply because a star is the title character. Look at last season’s shows starring the likes of Bette Midler, John Goodman, Geena Davis and Michael Richards. Well if future episodes of The Ellen Show are like the first, it shouldn’t be long until this one joins the other vehicles. Watching Ellen’s new shpw was a painful experience… not only because it was torturously formulaic, but because I did want to believe it would be funny, but she has missed the mark. The premise is a former successful CEO of a dot com company is forced to move back from the big city to smalltown America. Oh yeah, she’s also gay. Wasn’t this almost the same premise as Goodman’s show Normal, Ohio? Anyway, Ellen just seems uncomfortable… with the script and with her costars. Perhaps this was a character quirk the producers were after, but it looked like she was not a competent actor for this role. If The Ellen Show is an indicator of the other star vehicles this season then Jim Belushi, Richard Dreyfuss, and Daniel Stern better get their audition tapes ready.