Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place (retitled Two Guys and a Girl in its third
season) was a sitcom created by Kenny Schwartz and Danny Jacobson. It ran on ABC
for four seasons from 1998-2001.
Seasons 1 and 2
The series starred Ryan Reynolds as Michael "Berg" Leslie Bergen, and Richard
Ruccolo as Peter "Pete" Dunville. The titular Two Guys were joined by Traylor
Howard, who played Sharon Carter (later Carter-Donnelly). For the first two
seasons, the series centered around the lives of Berg, an aimless graduate
student, who was working at a Boston pizza parlor, Beacon St. Pizza, with Pete.
They both attended graduate school together at Tufts University, unlike their
college roommate, Sharon, who worked as the spokesperson (or apologist) for
Immaculate Chemicals.
The format of the initial season varied considerably from that of subsequent
seasons. The first season featured Jennifer Westfeldt, appearing as Melissa,
Pete's girlfriend, and David Ogden Stiers as Mr. Bauer, an insane old man who
frequented the diner, pretending that experiences from films were his own. The
second season abandoned these two characters, and focused more on the interplay
between Pete and Berg, and their relationship with Sharon, who lived in the
apartment above them. Berg eventually decided to attend medical school and
become a doctor, while Pete dropped out of architecture classes to become a
firefighter. The second season also introduced Johnny (Nathan Fillion), a
jukebox repairman who started dating Sharon, and Ashley (Suzanne Cryer), a
medical school classmate of Berg's who competed with him to be at the top of the
class.
Seasons 3 and 4
By season three, the pizza place had been abandoned entirely, and Berg began his
medical residency. Pete became a firefighter and Johnny and Sharon married and
became the superintendents of the apartment building they lived in. Berg would
go on to date Irene (Jillian Bach), the insane roommate across the hall, and
Pete began dating a fellow firefighter named Marti (Tiffani Thiessen).
ABC bounced the sitcom from midweek to Friday night, leading to a steep drop in
ratings. After the show moved back to Wednesday to try to revive the show's
flagging support for a two week trial, the plug was pulled. The fourth season
ended with "The Internet Show," an hour-long episode in which the fans of the
show voted on the outcome online. In the end, they chose to have Ashley become
pregnant with Pete's child, as opposed to either of the other two female
characters, or nobody, becoming pregnant.
