TV
2009-10 Midseason
2009 Fall Season
2009 Summer Season
2008-09 Midseason
2008 Fall Season
2008 Summer Season
Best Of 2009
Best Of 2008
Best Of 2007
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
Recent/Upcoming
Movies & Specials
87
The Pacific
HBO, 3/14
51
Who Is Clark Rockefeller?
Lifetime, 3/13
59
The 39 Steps
PBS, 2/28
79
Reporter
HBO, 2/18
84
Temple Grandin
HBO, 2/6
83
Soul Train: The Hippest Trip in America
VH1, 2/6
52
A Family Is a Family Is a Family: A Rosie O'Donnell Celebration
HBO, 1/31
Recent/Upcoming
Series Premieres
62
Ugly Americans
Comedy Central,
Wednesday
80
Justified
FX,
Tuesday
52
The Price of Beauty
VH1,
Monday
52
Sons of Tucson
Fox,
Sunday
34
High Society
CW,
Wednesday
54
Who Do You Think You Are?
NBC,
Friday
61
Parenthood
NBC,
Tuesday
77
Southland Season Two
TNT,
Tuesday
49
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
NBC,
Weekdays
41
The Marriage Ref
NBC,
Thursday
62
The Ricky Gervais Show
HBO,
Friday
59
How to Make It in America
HBO,
Sunday
64
Prison Wives
Investigation Discovery,
Wednesday
62
Survivors
BBC America,
Saturday
43
Past Life
Fox,
Tuesday
56
Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp Season Seven
VH1,
Monday
59
Undercover Boss
CBS,
Sunday
44
The Michael Vick Project
BET,
Tuesday
44
Kell on Earth
Bravo,
Monday
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed shows.
In Case Of Emergency
EMAILPRINTSERIES: ABC, Wednesday 9:30p (30 minutes)

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 23 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 18 votes
Read user comments
Rate this show >
Show Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Created By: Howard Morris
First Air Date: January 3, 2007
Summary
Starring Jonathan Silverman, Kelly Hu, David Arquette, Greg Germann, Lori Loughlin, Jackson Bond, and Lee Reherman
A handful of high school friends stumble back into each other's lives many years later in this mid-season ABC comedy.
Episode Guide & More Info: More about this show at TV.com
Also On The Web: Official Show Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
You get the feeling that if this show is given enough time to find its strengths and understand its characters, it could be around for quite some time.
Read Full Review >People WeeklyTom Gliatto
It's a good cast, and Arquette's peculiar charm is always welcome. But I'm tired of comedies about the desperate infantilism of panicked adults. [8 Jan 2007, p.35]
The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley
"In Case of Emergency" is uneven, more antic than witty.
Read Full Review >Detroit Free PressMike Duffy
A haphazard farce that fails to find a consistently funny groove.
Read Full Review >Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker
In Case of Emergency puts these characters through sadistic slapstick.
Read Full Review >USA TodayRobert Bianco
It's kind of like Friends if every character had been outlandishly contrived, every situation had been stripped of every humorous moment, and every attempt at sentiment had felt cheap and unearned.
Read Full Review >Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Its writers are clearly addicted to the tired conceit of giving us three jokes per script page, no matter how played-out the jokes, no matter how predictable the pratfalls.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Lori Loughlin co-stars as an emergency room doctor who's dragged into their lives in ways so sitcommy they make robbing Mick Jagger look like a halfway decent idea.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Germann [is] the only good thing in the show.
Read Full Review >Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Where The Class is warm and charming, Emergency is crude and overdrawn.
Read Full Review >San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
It becomes clear rather quickly that there's nothing funny going on here and, by the second episode, the show seems out of ideas for its paper-thin premise.
Read Full Review >SalonHeather Havrilesky
There doesn't seem to be a point to the madness here, and that gives this one the expected life span (and the charms) of a housefly.
Read Full Review >VarietyBrian Lowry
Somewhere trapped inside this shrill, irritating comedy is a better show that emerges only in fleeting glimpses, amid the manic tone and Catskills-comic humor.
Read Full Review >Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
A peculiar piece of work that's a whole lot creepier than it means to be.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles TimesPaul Brownfield
[It] instantly displays a commitment to slapstick in direct proportion to a state of comedic denial.
Read Full Review >Newark Star-Ledger
There's a desperation to the whole affair, a sense that if the creators just keep the pace fast and the jokes tasteless, everything will be fine.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-IntelligencerMelanie McFarland
"The Class," not a terrific sitcom by any stretch of the imagination, trades in this quarterlife crisis nonsense each week far better than "Emergency" does.
Read Full Review >Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Never thought a TV comedy would leave me wistful for Silverman's NBC bomb "The Single Guy," but "In Case of Emergency" manages to do just that.
Read Full Review >Washington PostTom Shales
Dreadful... unwatchable... There's nothing unlikable about the rest of the cast [other than Arquette], but their attempts at farce make you just want to get away from them.
Read Full Review >San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesCharlie McCollum
[It] may be the worst, most annoying comedy to turn up on the networks this season.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this show is 6.9 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Lin W gave it a3:
The writing is ok, the acting is nickelodeon level and the concept could be interesting if it wasn't such a dishoveled mess. the jokes which could have been funny were all over-acted and fell flat. just wait for thursday and watch my name is earl instead. i can't imagine this show generating any positive buzz and sticking around.
Peggy F gave it a0:
Stupid and trashy. Lousy writing;not funny. Uncomfortable to watch.
Andrew S gave it a6:
The show has it's moments, especially with the situational comedy and the outlandish ways things are resolved. I didn't mind myself enthralled with the series, but it's decent.
J J gave it an8:
This just shows how out of touch most of the mainstream media is. This show ain't bad. One of the critics even said The Class was good. Now that is one of the worst shows I've ever seen.
Mickey F gave it a10:
I think this show is hilarious. Every show has to get started. Even Fraiser, one of the critics' most favorite sitcoms ever, started w/ elements they seemed to forget about later: Daphne was almost insane at the beginning w/ all of the psychic stuff. They completely played that down later on. That said, this show seems to be starting just fine. It has funny actors, funny characters, funny situations. Given time and maybe a better timeslot, I think this sitcom could do well.
Raisa J gave it a0:
It does not get much worse than this insipid mess.
Ron W gave it a10:
One of the best!
