October 15, 2007-July 23, 2009 (two seasons, 35 episodes) on ABC.
Seasons 1-2 are available on DVD.
Samantha Newly gets hit by a car and awakes after an eight-day coma to discover that she has retrograde amnesia. She can’t remember anything about her life, but she quickly learns that she hadn’t exactly been a nice person before her accident. Determined to turn her life around, Sam works hard to be a better person while reacquainting herself with her parents; her on-again, off-again boyfriend Todd; her still-conniving best friend Andrea; and her long-lost childhood pal Dena.
After waking from her coma, Sam deals with the shock of rediscovering details about her personal life, including that she barely talked to her parents and had just broken up with her boyfriend before getting hit by a car. She tries to pick up the pieces, returning to her job at a real-estate firm and looking for a new man to date, but things often turn out disastrously. By the end of the season, she’s left her job and is determined to start over with Todd, after getting him to leave his annoying new girlfriend.
Samantha Who? premiered during the 2007-2008 season, which was greatly shortened by the Hollywood writer’s strike. Although the show did well in the ratings and was picked up for a full season, only 15 episodes, rather than the normal 22, were produced for the first season due to the long hiatus during the strike. When the second season premiered in fall 2008, the show had suffered from its time off, and ratings were low. Despite fan and star efforts to save the show, it was canceled by ABC after two seasons.
Christina Applegate as Samantha Newly
Jennifer Esposito as Andrea Belladonna
Kevin Dunn as Howard Newly
Melissa McCarthy as Dena
Tim Russ as Frank
Barry Watson as Todd Deepler
Jean Smart as Regina Newly
Samantha Who? was created by Donald Todd and Irish novelist Cecelia Ahern. Todd and Peter Traugott are the executive producers.
