Shark Bytes

I worked on this show. It was actually doing OK in the ratings. Not great, but not bad either. Then in 1994, The Northridge Earthquake caused a lot of damage to the soundstages on the Warner Brother's lot. (Where Cafe Americain was shot). As it turned out, our stage - stage 5 - suffered very little damage. Only one light fell and it was stopped by it's safety chain. On another soundstage, a whole exterior wall fell down. On the stage where George Carlin's sitcom was being shot, all the sound and video equipment was thrown to the floor and then a water pipe broke overhead flooding everything. The equipment sat in the water for several days before the stage was declared safe to enter.

At first, we thought we had been spared. Within two weeks we were even back in production. However, some of the stages that had been damaged had shows that were much higher rated than ours and the decision was made to cease production on Cafe Americain and give our stage to one of the higher rated shows.

So Cafe Americain jumped the shark after the Northridge Earthquake.

This turkey is listed as being one of the WORST shows of all time. I agree that the writing was really bad.

Crisp writing, atypical setting, interesting and original supporting characters, are among the reasons this show was such a gem. I wish it were available on DVD or YouTube. It was not Matt LeBlanc, but rather Luigi Amodeo who played the role of Carlo Benini, the Italian boyfriend of Sofia Milos' character.

This is by far THE WORST show to ever air on television! Valarie couldn't even save this mess.

I actually loved this cubic zirconia among diamonds.(And tons of glass!)Who wouldn't love a show with our cutesie Valerie?I've been to Paris a few times and no,this was more the "Disney World Showcase"version of it but it was cute and as harmless as a Canadian-made movie of the week on Lifetime.Now I just wish she'd get her weight off all the way,get the hell away from that creepy Kirsty Scientolalley and star in a new show.I like her and I am soooo picky about that!

By far the worst writing ever. It was obvious that the writers had never been to Paris.

If there's one saving grace to the show, it was that Eddie Van Halen actually appeared on the show (since who knows when Eddie will ever resurface on television outside of drunken mishaps)

This was a cute show and I remember being disappointed when it was cancelled. Valerie had red hair and wore a lot of long dresses, and she ran around like she was manic, talking a mile a minute. She was probably desperate to have another hit and it showed. I knew when Eddie guest starred it was all over.

The hardest thing about watching this show was trying to keep up with it's "time slot this week" as the network moved it (without notice) every other week. Typical sitcom in that many of the characters were way over done, but same could be said of MASH or Cheers. Her Sydney character had a better footing, but in both cases the writing and casting were weak. As far as the silly "translating English to English" goes, there ARE people who do that function. Try some of the on-line dictionaries with "That chick is so cool, she's the hottest one here..." change it to French and back to English... good luck. And it was ONLY a "setup" writing device to get her stuck in Paris -- it wasn't the basis of the whole show. Having been to Paris twice, the French cold shoulder (apartment manager)does happen, but nearly never when you TRY to speak some French which Holly did more than once (as in "the plumber" episode). It deserved better. Ms. Bertinelli tags the time slot as the major killing point. Couldn't argue with that. Jump the Shark? NO

This was by no means a stinkbomb!It was as cute as Valerie herself and a refreshing idea for a sitcom.I remember it well,have it on disc now(from tape)and miss it.It along with Baghdad Cafe were two "gastronomical"shows both charming and brilliant that were either not given enough chance or the viewers were just not getting their share of the insults and sex they were used to on other sitcoms.

This show went into the tank almost from the get-go. I only watched it because I had a crush on Valerie Bertinelli at the time. (Okay, I still do!) The premise of the show was that Holly was given in job in Paris translating English idioms into regular English. (Yeah, that's plausible.) I knew the show was headed for a quick exit when David Lee Roth made a cameo appearance in one episode.

I really liked this show. I remember there was one character (Matt LeBlanc, maybe) who had a very minor role in every episode with his beautiful supermodel, French girlfriend. He would leave to use the restroom or something by signaling out an innocent male bystander with "You see her? You look at her; I kill you; you die!" I still enjoy saying it sometimes myself.

I loved this show! I remember this episode about one of the regulars at the cafe was an American who was transferred by his company to Paris for a year. The whole year he never went to any of the sites of Paris, and he was telling Holly (the Valerie Bertinelli character) this and she took him all over to see the Eiffel Tower, the Lourve and other places that most people in Paris for the first time would actually go to. After the quick tour and it was time for him to leave France he regretted that he wasted the year because he fell in love with Paris. I remember this episode so vividly because that same year I had been transferred to a small city in central Florida, and I had been used to living in a metropolitan city my whole life. I wished I had been transferred to Paris.

This show was just starting to gel when NBC pulled the plug. It got decent--not rave but decent--reviews from from critics, but never found an audience. And here's why: It had as it's lead in show that awful, AWFUL sitcom "The Mommies". Now THAT, not this show, was the stink bomb! All the moms did was complain about their basically nice husbands (including the late David Dukes, a good actor), and ignore there bratty kids, including a "precocious" little girl you just wanted to shove down a drainpipe. Cafe Americain deserved better! Lila Kaye as the cafe owner was great (even though they wanted Marian Ross, who rightfully believed the role didn't suit her). Jodi Long as the former dictators wife was a caricature, but a funny one. Valerie was well-suited in the self deprecating lead, and looked great! (Ellen DeGeneres, who tried out for the part, would've been all wrong.) This show was MUCH better than Val's last attempt at a sitcom, the unfunny "Sydney" where she played a detective. They tried to move it to a new night once or twice but it was too late. That's a shame.

The show was already doing poorly enough in the Nielsen ratings, but when Valerie's then-husband, Edward Van Halen, made a cameo appearance in the opening minutes of one episode as a street musician, that smacked of desperation. Entertainment Tonight spent more time talking about it than Mr. Van Halen actually spent on camera during his appearance.