Cybill (1995–1998) User Reviews

Definitely Enjoyable

[alanna-stlaurent · 8/10 · 1 March 2018]

I just watched all four seasons on Netflix. I vaguely remember this sitcom being on TV in the 90s, I may have even watched a few episodes. But this time I watched all four seasons and it was definitely an enjoyable series to watch.

My biggest issue was of course how the damn series ended...on a cliffhanger! I really wish TV shows would take into account their viewers and not leave us in the lurch with no series wrap-up. I have fallen for this so many times with shows on Netflix. Now, I typically look up the show first to see if its still running, or at least if it ended, there was some closure before I get invested in the storyline and characters. So many shows just get cancelled and NADA. So frustrating.

I actually started to read her autobiography, about half way through. It sounds like there was some drama around this series and obviously it was bad enough they just walked away from the show. You know for sure there was at some point to be a fourth season since it closed with the message "To Be Continued" (your typical cliffhanger for the next season).

Even with that, I enjoyed all the characters, glad they wrote out her daughter Rachel in the last season for the most part because she was annoying. Otherwise the chemistry between the other actors was quite good.

The 90s show

[safenoe · 8/10 · 24 August 2021]

Cybill is one of the best comedies of the 90s, and I'm quite befuddled by the "comparisons" to Ellen's TV comedy. Anyway, Cybill was a groundbreaking show in many ways. It was self-aware, and it had sharp humor for sure.

It's Maryanne that's funny

[lopezpatricia-06139 · 8/10 · 17 October 2019]

I remember this from the 90s and I loved it back then. Now it seems a bit week on sheppards part. So thank god for baranski. Never much cared for the zoey character. But watching it over 20 years on it's still funny and entertaining

We love that series

[Mara123 · 1 October 2002]

My friend and I always watch Cybill, and we love Maryann. Especially when Cybill and Maryann are going to do really bad things to Maryanns Ex-husband.

We always laugh a lot. And we are so thankfull for the people who made this all it lights up our live.

Christine and Marc

Cybill Shepherd basically plays herself, as... "Hey, no wait, come back!!"

[Howlin Wolf · 6/10 · 7 March 2004]

... it isn't actually as rampantly egotistical as it initially might sound. As American comedies go, it's not up there with the likes of "Frasier", but it's gently amusing enough at times. Shepherd's chemistry with her co-stars here almost recaptures the heydays of "Moonlighting", and Alicia Witt as her understudy proved herself to be an able comic actress in many episodes. Certainly it wasn't really anything more than 'fluff', but "entertaining fluff", at least.

More nice things to say. Does it really matter? I doubt you can catch it anywhere now, anyway! Oh alright, it probably represents the best possible use of someone like Cybill Shepherd.

Two Women Against "A Man's World"

[theowinthrop · 10/10 · 1 August 2006]

This series was a welcome surprise for several reasons. It had an agreeably vicious bite to it, in the way the main characters could fight back in the end of each episode. It showcased Cybill Sheppard in her finest comic role (even better than her "Mattie Hayes" in MOONLIGHTING). It really introduced a talent that existed but had not been able to shine before: Christine Baranski, as Cybill's friend (one can almost say spiritual sister) Maryann. Finally, it took a harsh, but realistic look at the way men control the world - and in particular how hard it is for single female parents to cope.

The story is simple: Cybill Sheridan is an attractive actress in Hollywood, who really has never had the success you would expect. Week after week we watch Cybill getting jobs in commercials, episodes of questionable television series, and third rate movies. Of course, as we watch the acting gigs we get a series of spoofs of typical television and movie fare that we swallow all the time. In fact, one of the best set of episodes were obviously planned as a commentary on Shepherd's initially rewarding, but gradually disillusioning work with Bruce Willis on the earlier successful series MOONLIGHTING. In any event, true stardom constantly eludes our heroine, usually due to decisions that are in the hands of producers or directors (usually male). Occasionally it is due to a female rival, but that is a rarity.

Cybill's problems are compounded by having to raise two daughter, Rachel Robbins (Dedee Pfeiffer) and Zoey Woodbine (Alicia Witt), by herself. Rachel is the daughter from Cybill's marriage to stuntman/actor Jeff Robbins (Tom Wopat) and Zoey is the daughter from a second marriage to novelist Ira Woodbine (Alan Rosenberg). Both daughters consider their mother an eccentric disgrace who interferes with them, but the two sisters are unable to make a really united front, as Rachel is conscious of her attractiveness (as the series progresses she gets married and has a baby), and Zoey - while not adverse to sex or love - is more cerebral (being the daughter of a novelist this makes sense). The two ex-husbands are realistically drawn. While they and Cybill can have arguments at the drop of a hat, both men share intimate histories with her so that they can also remain fairly decent friends.

Cybill's war with the male controlled systems is mirrored by that of her friend Maryann Thorpe. In some ways Maryann (as fleshed out so well by Ms Baranski, who garnered several Emmy Awards for her performances) is "the Fonz" in CYBILL (though not in total effect: Henry Winkler's subsidiary character took center stage of HAPPY DAYS, whereas Cybil Shepherd maintained shared central stage with Ms Baranski in CYBILL). Originally Maryann was a neighbor who drank and pill popped too much. But gradually we learned that this sophisticated and sexy lady turned out this way due to the misfortune of marrying Dr. Richard ("Dr. Dick" as she sharply, memorably calls him) Thorpe. We never see Thorpe (we hear his screams several times). A successful surgeon, he married Maryann (who was a first rate nurse) and then constantly cheated on her with other women. This drives her to the oblivion of booze and pills, but she also lives for occasional acts of vengeance against the Doctor, who finally divorced her. They also had a son, who appears occasionally in the series.

The humor of the show was actually sophisticated and high, despite the actual grimness of the situation for the heroines. The series only lasted four years - the bitterness at the base was just too much for it to become a permanent popular series. But for those four years it managed to be as successfully subversive in demolishing television stereotypes as more successful shows like ROSEANNE had. To the end it remained subversive - the last image of the series was of Cybill and Maryann being under arrest for murder. We never learn what was the outcome.

very warm and extremely funny!

[sherif_mohsen · 10/10 · 8 December 2002]

Now it's really a shame that they stopped producing "Cybill". It really was a one of a kind TV show. It was so warm (always brining up with mother-daughter funny fights), and extremely funny. Seriously although ALL episodes contained hilarious scenes, sometimes they'd just be really meaningful. Cybill plays a PERFECT mother, besides being so easy and natural. Also Mary-ann, Zoey, Jeff and Ira were all funny to a great extent. They perfectly matched their TV character. Does anybody know a petition thing or anything we can do, to let them reproduce the show?!

A decent enough sitcom

[studioAT · 3/10 · 28 April 2017]

This is a decent enough sitcom, I grant you, but I certainly wouldn't say it's the best of it's generation or indeed ever.

It's a well written, well performed sitcom, that features some good supporting actors at times stealing the show from right underneath Cybil Shepherd.

I don't think every episode is necessarily laugh out loud funny, or that great, but it joins a long list of perfectly acceptable comedies from around this period in US TV history.

It's worth a watch, but there are better out there.

Cybill is the Best

[sunnette · 10/10 · 15 May 2006]

I have loved Cybill Shepherd ever since Moonlighting and have seen every single movie she has ever been in. She is a greatly diverse actress. She is also a great Jazz singer. Her book Cybill Disobeidance is wonderfully candid and funny. I love her free spirit and her love of life. You feel like you are in the room with her when you watch her act. By far the best show of hers was Cybill. Her on screen chemistry and antics with Christine Baranski were top notch (look out Bruce Willis!) and it brought out Cybills best acting. It was also very interesting how it was based on her life. No other show is more deserving to be released on video in the USA!!!

Only one good thing about this show....

[onevestalfan · 4/10 · 24 March 2022]

The only good thing about this show is Christine Baranski's portrayal of MaryAnn. She is the only funny character on the show and everybody else is just mediocre at best. If you're a fan of Christine, you'll enjoy her performance.

What a cast

[buckrulze · 25 February 2012]

Although I was never aware of this show while it run during it's 95 thru 98 seasons I have caught all the reruns on the TV Guide Channel. I wish I had know of it back then so that I could have written and had begged for them to keep it going. It truly was a laugh a minute series. The chemistry between all the actors was so well casted but I have to say that the writing and the back and forth of Cybill and Mary Ann was magic. I have always loved both these actresses but I have to say that Christine Beranski's talents have been so underrated. I would love it if they were to ever bring it back or even just do an anniversary show. Does anyone know why it wasn't renewed? Bad time slot? Network decision? I always thought that Cybill would had been a much better lead in the movie version of Mama Mia. Wonder if she was every considered.

Truly that good

[tommy5677 · 10/10 · 14 May 2019]

In my opinion one of the funniest sitcoms ever. Superb writing. Love Cybill here even more than Moonlighting. I wonder if she's still an LGBT ally.

Very Funny

[Big Movie Fan · 22 September 2002]

Before this show aired in 1995 I wasn't expecting much even though I had always liked Cybill Shepherd but to my surprise I enjoyed it very much and it was one of the better 90's comedies.

Cybill Shepherd played Cybill Sheridan, a Hollywood actress. She had two daughters who caused her problems at times and two ex-lovers called Ira Woodbine and Jeff Robbins. Her friend was Maryann Thorpe, played by the talented Christine Baranski.

Cybill was great. The characters were all very convincing, the dialogue was top-notch at times and it was consistently good throughout it's run. You could do worse than check it out next time it airs because it was a real gem in the mid-90's.

Ingenuis comedy Series.

[Felicityfan_4ever · 5 July 2002]

When i heard that MOONLIGHTING star Cybill Shepherd was returning to television, i was thrilled. And after seeing the series, i was even more thrilled. as CYBILL is without-a-doubt one of the best comedy series i've ever seen. Cybill Shepherd was just brillant in this series, as was mutliple Emmy-Winner Christine Baranski. This series featured first-class writing, and first class acting, and launched the careers of a bevy of young stars, including Danny Masterson (that 70's show), Alicia Witt (Urban Ledgend), Peter Krause (Sports Night, Six Feet Under and Dede Phiffer (For Your Love, yes michelles sisters!).. The only complaint i have is that Ms. Shepherd never got an Emmy for her work on this brillant series.

It's back on Oxygen

[dmpyron · 25 March 2002]

Cybill is a delight all around. Witty and smart, with absolutely no socially redeeming value, which makes it all the better. The show has almost no supporting cast, everybody on it shines.

If you get Oxygen, watch it. And "Cybill" is NOT a chick flick. :-)

Love this show!

[spyceworks · 28 July 2004]

I have a general recollection of this show when it first aired but somehow didn't get into it at the time. Now that it is running on Oxygen and I've been watching - it is a hoot! I simply love Christine Baranski (possibly fueled by her fun performance as John Larroquette's -sp?- wife in a recent TV show).

The two of them are similar to Patsy & Eddy of Absolutely Fabulous - just not quite as weird.

Sure hope they will put the show on DVD. I know as soon as I start to record on VHS, they will. lol

It is a show that one has to get into the characters and that may take watching a few times. (Quite similar to the series "Soap" in that way) Once you do , it is addictive!

Comic at its best - and beautiful at that!

[richlieu · 28 May 1999]

Not since Murphy Brown with the absolutely fabulous Candice Bergen have I enjoyed a sitcom so much - even if in Germany it is dubbed in......(you guessed it)...German.

The two main caracters show immense wit and insight into life´s little problems - and it seems that they enjoyed themselves thoroughly during the shooting of the series.

Cybill is no doubt one of the world´s most beautiful women!

A prime entry on Oprah's "cash cow" cable network, OXYGEN!

[gregcouture · 6 May 2003]

I haven't yet been able to determine if all the episodes of this frequently very funny sitcom have been purchased for its current syndicated run on Oprah Winfrey's OXYGEN cable TV channel. I do know that I am now familiar with every single episode that has been shown, some of them four, five, six, seven...I've lost count!...times. Thank goodness for VCRs which allow us to tape the rebroadcasts; fast-forward through the many, many, many commercials; and skip past episodes that have finally worn out their welcome. (Certain ones, though, are the product of scriptwriters at the top of their form - admittedly superficial to the nth degree but sharply witty to a degree rarely attained by television writers since America discovered that mindless fun is a guilty pleasure, sufficient to distract us from the world's harsher realities.)

But I have to admit that this is one professionally done TV series, with a wonderful cast, headlined by Cybill Shepherd as the titular star and her tart-tongued best friend played with unwavering aplomb by Christine Baranski (whose makeup, hair styles and wardrobe were, and perhaps still are, the envy of every woman who would like to show off her privileged financial status.)

Wonderful

[TheCowSays · 6 July 2000]

This show was great. Christine Baranski is hilarious throughout the entire run of the show. It's a wonder why they don't show reruns of it at all. I wish they'd show it on USam with other shows that ended much too soon, such as Boston Common, The Naked Truth, and Ned and Stacy (of course without the cancellation of Ned and Stacy, we wouldn't have Will and Grace.) I love USam, although it would be rather degrading to put a show so wonderful as Cybill on USam next to the vast majority of the shows on USam that DID deserve to be cancelled (i.e. Working and The Jeff Foxworthy Show.)

One of the greatest comedies of all time!!

[Andrew Hopper · 2 August 2002]

I am a big fan of Cybill Shepherd and have loved her comedy sit-com. Every episode throws up unforgettable laughs and memories and Cybill and Maryann form a unbreakable bond. All the actors perform excellent roles and always make the show a delight to watch. I haven't really seen any other American comedy to match this! Far better than "Will and Grace" or "Friends". Please don't lower yourselves to that trash!!! Monkeys would perform better!! It is such a shame that they stopped making other Cybills......please do more..... We need you!!

Instructive

[arth_fawr · 12 April 2004]

I had been aware of Alicia Witt in my filmic peripheral vision, but this series converted me into a fan. My father told me; 'Always meet a girls mother before considering getting serious - you will spend the next 25 years watching the daughter become her mother.'

Spending 25 years watching Alicia Witt become Cybil Shepard? Where do I sign? Julia Sowala becoming Jennifer Saunders? Maybe not.

I had become aware of Alicia Witt in my filmic 'peripheral vision', but not as a comic actress. It defies dramatic, though not comic convention for a pretty girl to take comic risks, deal with their vulnerability, and send herself up. Toy with my expectations, why don't you.

Christine Baranski may have walked away with every scene she was in, and have an order of magnitude more scope for layered, funny, and subtle comic acting than Megan Mullally from 'Will & Grace', but Alicia Witt is the real find of this show. Bravo and fair play to Cybil Shepard for not using her veto to remain the prettiest actress on the show.

Always loved this show... but

[joeyjoefus · 3 May 2019]

Always loved this show, but you have to admit that without the great Christine Baranski it would of never lasted 4 seasons. And did anyone on the writing staff realize that Cybill's mother died twice. Once in season 4 episode 13 (Bakersfield) when actress Audra Lindley actually died and they played her death into the script with the untimely death of Cybill's mother, and again in season 4 episode 21 (Daddy) when her mother dies of a heart attack while Cybill's father is visiting her.

Lovely cast in an All-American version of AbFab.

[danindenver · 27 December 2003]

It didn't take long for me to recognize this as an Americanized version of Absolutely Fabulous. And I was pleasantly surprised to note that this was a well-done version of a popular Britcom. Many attempts to clone British comedy fail because the producers want to copy everything about the original except the harshness and cruelty that run to the very soul of the piece.

This production worked pretty well because they created a good show from scratch. The producers of Cybill copied only a few general elements of AbFab, leaving out the harshness, but keeping a bit of the cruelty for fun. The diabolical antics of Maryann, along with her stage presence, were the spice that kept each episode alive. Then there is the ominous daughter who rebels by going out and getting adult jobs. Cybill, herself, is a somewhat stable, single-mother type who repeatedly finds herself in Lucy-style comic situations.

Of course, like most American comedies, they must end every episode by resolving all of the conflicts. You wouldn't want to leave the viewer feeling uncomfortable, would you? Perhaps they should just tuck us in and bring us milk and cookies in the morning. And that is why this good sitcom could not become a great sitcom. I'll grant you, it is difficult to imagine this wholesome all-American girl being anything other than such. Can you imagine a comedy where the beloved matronly star behaves like, say, Martha Something on a bad day...? So, by trying to quell the emotional storm in the viewer, they take away the strong feelings that would make everyone talk about this show around the water cooler the next day.

Finally, there is the hook - the look - the guilty pleasure of watching a beautiful cast perform. I don't think it was an accident that all of the other female cast members were even more attractive than the former supermodel.

Life Begins

[theoneandonlyjimmypage · 29 July 2016]

Life Begins.Yu are in the drivers seat...do you feel like you cant bear all of this following.It sometimes is a little baby learning experience.Familiar faces.Familiar places.Things that could never happen.Stuff you shouldn't do.Combined for fun.Sometimes its a torrid love affair.Sometimes a "long chain of events".the great and right on trendy stuff, wonderful memories, forgettable brushes with a lack of planning over whelmed by lack of output ....living breathing shared experiences...... A JOURNEY.and as we all know life is a journey not a destination.this is what I want!to see! To feel.Cybil, tho not the first of its kind may inspire you to start "living."

Missed its mark

[whiskeyhill · 8 November 2002]

The show has always struck me as a poor-man's "Absolutely Fabulous" - the escapades of two moderately attractive, wealthy, divorced women who are best friends. They fall into situations that would make Lucy and Ethyl scratch their own heads. The comedy revolves around their views which stem from their own self-indulgence. The character of Cybill's daughter, Zoe, is usually an unwilling witness to the goings-on, and handles the situations with dread.

Christine Baranski steals the show, while Cybill Shepherd comes off as flat and without conviction. I don't mean to slam the show, but I do feel that it was not all it could have been. Worth watching.