It’s Like, You Know… was an American sitcom airing on ABC in 1999-2000. First airing as a midseason replacement in the spring, it debuted with a seven episode season. It was picked up for the fall and eighteen more episodes were produced, but the last seven were never shown on the network, although they did later surface on cable.
High-strung New York writer Arthur Garment (Chris Eigeman) decamps to Los Angeles to write an exposé of that city's excesses and folly. He stays as a guest of his friend Robbie Graham (Steven Eckholdt), an internet millionaire. Arthur's new circle of friends on the West Coast also includes Lauren Woods (AJ Langer), Shrug (Evan Handler), and actress Jennifer Grey.
Tropes for the Series:
- As Himself: Jennifer Grey plays herself, making self deprecating references to things like her rhinoplasty. Her father plays himself in an episode as well.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Shrug is a trustafarian who doesn’t need to work for a living, and spends much of his time seeking out some kind of activity that will give his life meaning. At one point he tries being a detective, and is hired by Joel Grey to find out what happened to his daughter Jennifer (who's standing right there in the room).
- Fish out of Water: Arthur is this, thanks to the NY/LA cultural differences being emphasized.
- Hellish L.A.: Arthur firmly believes this, and moved to Los Angeles to do research for his book on how awful the city is. In the early episodes, he makes it clear he purchased a round-trip ticket to ensure he'd go back to New York.
- Ivy League for Everyone: Comes up when Arthur is placating a group of Harvard men for a chance to meet John Updike, but they push him a little too far.Arthur: Oh come off it! Harvard’s a party school! Everyone knows it!
Lauren: Harvard was my safety school. - Place Worse Than Death: Los Angeles is played up as both a soulless megacity obsessed with celebrity, and yet a place nobody ever wants to leave because the idea about getting rich and famous - or getting tempted by the glamour of those who are - gets into your head.
- One episode focused entirely on the "L.A. high speed car chase" that seems to crop up once a week in the national media.
- Take That!: The show punched back against Hollywood's obsession with beauty that had driven Jennifer Grey to undergo nose surgery, which had ironically crippled her career - both in-show and sadly Real Life - when nobody could recognize her afterward as having starred in Dirty Dancing.
- Tech Bro: Robbie is an early media example, having invented a technology that can help Jews—which he isn’t himself—observe the High Holy Days remotely.
- Will They or Won't They?: There seems to be a spark between Arthur and Lauren, but the show ends before it's developed.
