It's helpful to know a little bit of backstory before we get into the facts about this show, because it directly relates.
Eric Schaeffer was an NYC cab driver who had show business ambition and was a talker. He would use his job of shuttling people around town to hone his craft: entertaining his rides with witty banter, which he then parlayed into a pitch to any producers, directors or stars who happened to land in the back seat of his taxi.
This somehow actually worked, as he and his friend, Donal Lardner Ward, were able to scrape up enough money and get enough help through Schaeffer's constant chatting and persistence to create an indie film called "My Life's In Turnaround," essentially their life story of wanting to turn their life story into an indie movie.
That film got some attention at a couple of festivals and did good enough B. O. to set up Schaeffer and Ward for a deal at Fox to do a sitcom... their life story, now as a TV series.
"Too Something" (as the program was originally titled) was about a writer named Eric (Schaeffer) who was too worried about negative criticism to do any writing. He lived with his friend Donny (Ward) in Donny's parents' vacated sprawling apartment (the only way these two could live in a place like that). Donny's ambition was to be a photographer, but, similarly, he didn't want anyone to see the shots he took.
Obviously, you can't make money from material that never gets created or seen, so these two slackers wound up working in the mail room of a Corporate Law firm, and have what would be a wacky neighbor (Mindy Seeger as the funniest, most bizarre and most New York character in the show) who is a professional dog walker, as a roommate to cover their expenses. Her uproariously caustic comments were always tempered with the cutest pooches around.
A new lawyer at the firm is Maria (Portia de Rossi in her first television role) who Eric is instantly smitten with... and it didn't hurt that they lived in the same building, too. Suddenly, this loser had a reason to try and become a success!
This program's main contribution to society was arguably "The Self High Five," which was extending your arms, bringing them up and hitting your hands together over your head, in celebration of something great you did, when nobody else is around.
Meanwhile, the show had the slot on the schedule right after Fox's Crown Jewel, "The Simpsons" (back when "The Simpsons" was still "Appointment Television") but people didn't understand the title. The producers decided to have a contest to let a viewer change the name of the show. That's how it became "New York Daze."
For the record, MY suggested new title for the series was "The Portia de Rossi Show." Technically, I was right, as she was the only one who extended and improved her career after this sitcom, with whichever title you like, got canceled.
