Ellen DeGeneres has gotten into gardening and raising chickens since we last heard from her, but that’s not the full, comprehensive list of recent changes in her life.
“Oh yeah, I got kicked out of show business,” she reminds us (and herself via a faux list of goings-on crumbled up in her pocket — a very-Ellen deadpan delivery) in the trailer for her new Netflix comedy special “For Your Approval.” Well done and well-delivered.
Some “comeback” specials — or at least their trailers — might end on mere requisite elephant-in-the-room acknowledgment. Ellen’s stays right on topic, addressing her falling out of favor with Hollywood after a Buzzfeed exposé revealed allegations of a toxic workplace environment at her daytime talk show. Basically, a bunch of former staffers claimed Ellen was not as nice behind the scenes as she appeared when the cameras were rolling.
“Here’s the problem. I’m the comedian who got a talk show and ended the show every day by saying ‘Be kind to one another,’” DeGeneres says in the trailer for the September 24 global release. “Had I ended the show by saying ‘Go fuck yourselves,’ people would have been pleasantly surprised to learn that I’m kind.”
Good point, though it probably wouldn’t have helped Warner Bros. and Telepictures syndicate “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” for 19 seasons.
At the time of the “For Your Approval” announcement, Ellen promised us three things: 1) “Yes, I’m going to talk about it,” 2) “Yes, this is my last special,” and 3) “Yes, Portia really is that pretty in real life.”
Ellen and her wife Portia de Rossi are producers of the special, her second for Netflix following 2018’s “Relatable.” (Boy, has that adjective changed.)
Ben Winston also produces “For Your Approval” for the London/Los Angeles-based Fulwell 73 Productions; Joel Gallen directs the special, which is DeGeneres’ first (televised) time back on a stand-up comedy stage in six years. OK, really it’s a theater — DeGeneres is still a draw.
“I didn’t go into this business for money. It was about healing my childhood wounds. I thought, if I can make people happy, then they’ll like me. And if they like me, I’ll feel good about myself,” she says in the trailer. “And all I can say about that is: Thank God for the money.”
