Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Generally I don't write many reviews because usually everything's already been said at least once. But that is not the case with "The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer". (Premise: Abraham Lincoln had a black butler who was the only brains of the White House during the Civil War. Call it a US version of Blackadder the 3rd.)This series has gained a reputation for being a turkey, but in reality, there wasn't really that much wrong with it. But we never found out because after 4 episodes it was canceled under false accusations of racism (5 episodes remain unaired). And, I have some proof for this: One year later there was a historical comedy about the first American colonists, called "Thanks". It has six episodes and if you watch it, you'll see that it's very comparable, basically following the same pattern, with the same level of humor as "Pfeiffer", perhaps it's even less funny. But look it up, and you'll find it has a rating of 8.5, more than double the 4.2 that "Pfeiffer" has now. If you watch an episode of both shows, I think no-one can deny that "Thanks" is in no way superior, the only difference is that Pfeiffer's reputation has become a self fulfilling prophecy: We've been told that it's rotten, so we find it easier to spot bad points (cognitive bias, as it's known scientifically). Of course, this doesn't mean everyone has to suddenly like this show. The British do this sort of thing better, I know. Perhaps Pfeiffer was too much like Blackadder and American audiences couldn't deal with it when it was their own history that was being turned upside down. Hopefully there will one day be a chance to see all 9 episodes. Actually it's unlikely (I've only seen 3 myself). But IF that ever happens, judge it for what it really is, not for what others have been repeating about it.

Back in 1998, I was present for the taping of an episode of The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer. Thankfully, I'd managed to block it from memory ever since. But something this evening brought it to mind and, unable to remember the name, I found myself entering "abraham lincoln sitcom" into Google.Kinda wish I'd let that sleeping dog lie.I have to say, I don't understand the defense of the show. There are those who will tell you that the show was canceled because it was too controversial. Those people are fooling themselves. The problem wasn't that the show was racially insensitive. The problem wasn't that it was irreverent. The problem wasn't that it was juvenile. The problem wasn't that it was raunchy. It was all of these things, but there are plenty of drop dead funny shows that encompass all of the above.The problem was that it was painfully, painfully, PAINFULLY unfunny.You know the scene in Swingers when Mikey just can't put the damn phone down, and with every message you bury your head deeper in your hands, your skin crawls and your stomach churns as you watch this poor guy surrender, bit by bit, every last shred of dignity he's ever possessed? That's how I felt for the cast. Desmond Pfeiffer wasn't broad, ironic or self-aware. That set was where broad, ironic and self-aware went to die. It was beyond unfunny. It was negative funny. All the funny things I'd seen in the month preceding and two months following the taping? Completely negated and rendered unfunny by Desmond Pfeiffer. Rehashing the same old tired, overused, unfunny sex jokes in a different setting doesn't make them fresh and amusing. And it doesn't help matters when the show is convinced -- CONVINCED -- that it's absolutely hysterical.The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer is the annoying, drunken lout at the party who belts out the one about the farmer's daughters that you've heard at least 127 times (screwing up the punchline, no less), but who's convinced his retelling is a work of comic genius because he's smashed and he's wearing a lampshade on his head. It's not funny. It's just hard to watch.

Sure this wasn't the greatest show on TV, but it seemed that those opposed to it (because of it "racial insensitivity") just wanted to get TV air time. The sole African American character (Chi McBride) the most intelligent! And the show tried to to meld well-worn characters into modern (albeit crude) comedy. By contrast the newer "Still Standing" (with Jami Gertz) is TOTALLY unfunny, and even rips off entire scenes (and plot lines) from another unfunny "hit" show ("Yes, Dear"). Maybe it's because I like history, but I can't believe this was off the air faster than any of those endless "Friends" clones.

"The Secret Diaries of Desmond Pfieffer" was a television show that, sadly, only lasted for four weeks, during which the show and its premise was constantly derided and mocked by the media and largely ignored by the television viewing public.True, a sitcom about Abraham Lincoln's sarcastic black butler sounds silly, and it is, but luckily the show carried a sense of self-awareness. Despite one atrocious episode (in which the drunken Ulysses S. Grant faces down his bowling demons) the show 's remaining three were not pitifully stupid, as some folks would have you believe.The cast was top notch: Chi MacBride (who was Cyrus in Peter Jackson's under-rated "The Frighteners") is simply superb as the title character: A dignified and intelligent overwieght black man, truly a rarity among prime-time role models. Max Baker was the image of perfection as Nibblet, the inbred indentured servant, and Dan Florik was suitable as the Bill Clinton-meets-Gerald Ford Lincoln.The show isn't perfect, though. Many jokes fall flat, and the woman playing Mrs. Lincoln is quite annoying.But the show had its moments, as evidenced in the episode in which Desmond, Nibblet, and Lincoln are stranded behind Confederate Lines. Desmond has convinced the Southern soldiers that he is, in fact, a white Confederate spy disguised as a black Northern free slave. One Southerner inquirers, "It must be awfully hard on you to even temporarily go through life as a Negro."To which Desmond replies "Oh, it hasn't been that bad. I have been able to get a lot more white women!"It will be missed.