Nicole Sullivan (right) with Christopher Titus (left) and Zack Ward (center) on Titus.

Nicole Sullivan appeared on the November 28, 2000 episode of Titus. In this episode, she plays Carol, the ex-girlfriend of Tommy (David Shatraw). They only dated for three months ten years ago, but apparently, Tommy became so obsessed with her that she had to obtain a restraining order against him. When he sees her car in a parking lot, he contrives to meet her. Taking Titus's advice that he "run into her" literally, he rams her car, then leaves a note telling her that he rammed her car - and signs it with Titus's name, knowing the consequences which would ensue if she knew that he rammed her car. [Titus was unaware of the restraining order.] Carol shows up at Titus's auto body shop, and when she finds out that Tommy is there, all hell breaks loose. Panicking, the trio (in addition to Titus and Danny, Titus's brother, played by Zack Ward, is there) prevents Carol from leaving, afraid that she might call the police; she retreats into the office; the impasse continues until Titus's girlfriend (played by Cynthia Watros) shows up and ultimately, the truth is revealed: she never formally broke up with him ("I thought he'd take the hint when I started ignoring him, like all my other boyfriends"). Finally, a catharsis is reached in which Carol tells Tommy why she hates him and even that she regrets that she lost her virginity to him. Even so, Tommy still claims that she didn't break up with him, much to the frustration of Titus and the others.

Overall, I thought the quality of the show was good, although I am not someone who views Titus on a regular basis. Titus, in case you've been living in a coma for the past few months, airs on Tuesday nights after That 70's Show. Fox first aired this show in Spring 2000 as a mid-season replacement which was to air after That 70's Show; presumably, what Fox was looking for was a show that could retain its lead-in's ratings, or which at least would not fare significantly worse. In fact, Titus did very well in this time slot; in fact, the 1999-2000 Nielsen ratings listed Titus as having scored a 6.0 rating, which was slightly better than That 70's Show, which earned a 5.8 (although admittedly the figures for Titus were for fewer episodes). This prompted the Fox Network to order another thirteen episodes of the show; I'm pretty sure the show has been renewed for the full 2000-2001 season. I myself have not seen that much of the show: I saw the pilot episode and perhaps one or two others along with this one. But the reasons for the show's appeal are evident even to the casual viewer. Unlike most sitcoms, which try desparately to be the new "relationships" comedy about twentysomething single people who live in a major city (a la Friends) or the next "workplace" comedy, Titus tries to be different. The show centers around a twentysomething guy who runs his own auto body shop specializing in customized cars. His father (Stacy Keach) was abusive and also remarried several times; his broken family is the source of much of the humor in this show. Titus was also a long-haired doofus in high school and apparently was essentially shunned by the in-crowd; his current girlfriend was one of the popular girls at his high school. Scenes in the show are interspersed with black and white scenes showing Titus in a spartan room, in which the main props are a chair which looks suspiciously like an electric chair and a light bulb hanging from the ceiling. There are also flashbacks to Titus's formative years. Some critics might compare the format of the show to the format of Seinfeld during the first season, which would often include scenes of Seinfeld performing a monologue on material germane to the plot - this are essentially analogous to the black and white vignettes in Titus. But even so, the fact that the show reaches back ten years for its inspiration distinguishes itself from the hordes of sitcoms that try desperately to copy more current hits. And for the most part, Titus is original, and succeeds in its mission, without much even in the way of set changes (this whole episode takes place in Titus's garage, not counting the monologue bits and the flashbacks to Titus's youth). I was not impressed enough to add Titus to my list of "must see" shows, but I was still impressed.

As for Nicole Sullivan's performance, the character she plays here is a variant of a character she has played on many other sitcoms. That is, her character is largely defined by her relationships with men. There was, for example, her second appearance on Fired Up which dealt with her divorce and attempt to find a meaningful relationship after the divorce; the development of her character on Talk to Me seemed to a large extent to center on her crush on Rob (David Newsom). Similarly, here she is interesting because she is Tommy's ex-girlfriend. Thus, this is not really much of a departure from her at all; still, she gets some excellent lines in here (the abovementioned line when she says that she thought he would get the point when she started ignoring him was one of them). The last scene in which she slams her ex-boyfriend against her car repeatedly, something which she claims she has wanted to do for years was one in which she injected enough emotion to make it believable without giving into the temptation to make it completely over the top.

If I had to criticize this show, I would note that the idea of Titus still hanging out with the same people he went to high school (even his girlfriend is an ex-classmate) ten years later with seems rather contrived. [I live within a few miles of my old high school and I haven't talked to any of those people in years.] Still, it's not as if this element can be changed now, and it does make for some amusing moments (via flashbacks). I liked the reference to Night Ranger, too. [Didn't they do Sister Christian, which is considered by some to be the original power ballad?]