Before Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds Headlined A Forgotten ’90s Sitcom

It’s odd to think about megastars of Ryan Reynolds’ stature once being up-and-coming actors. But the man behind Deadpool had to start somewhere, and that somewhere was an Italian restaurant in a 1990s sitcom: The young Canadian actor played a medical student in “Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place.”

The series ran for four seasons and was renamed “Two Guys and a Girl” after its second season due to the show’s abandoning the titular restaurant entirely. More importantly, it gave Reynolds his breakout role, with the young actor playing Michael Leslie Bergen, a Bostonian slacker who eventually enrolls in medical school and who lives with his best bud, Peter Dunville (played by Richard Ruccolo). The pair co-starred alongside Traylor Howard, who played the titular “girl,” Sharon Carter. 2002’s “Van Wilder” might have been Reynolds’ breakout movie role, then, but many a ’90s kid would have been exposed to him for the first time with this ABC sitcom.

Of course, “Two Guys and a Girl” wasn’t Reynolds’ first acting gig. He made his small screen debut as Billy Simpson on the Canadian teen soap opera “Hillside,” which was known as “Fifteen” in the United States. He got his start in film with 1993’s “Ordinary Magic.” In fact, by the time he was cast in “Two Guys and a Girl,” Reynolds had a solid résumé, having appeared in the 1996 “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” TV movie alongside appearances in “The X-Files” and “The Outer Limits” revival.

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Ryan Reynolds honed his craft on Two Guys and a Girl

“Two Guys and a Girl” finished Season 1 with an average of 12.9 million viewers, which was far behind “Friends” at 24.4 million, but was a significant enough viewership to make “Two Guys and a Girl” the 37th most-watched series of 1998 (out of 157) and keep the show going for a second season. Much of that was down to Ryan Reynolds himself, whose undeniable charm was a big part of why the sitcom enjoyed the success it did.

As Michael Leslie Bergen, or Berg as he was known on the show, Reynolds exuded all the cheeky charm he’s since parlayed into a career as one of the most successful movie stars in the world. In fact, long before he starred in mega-hit “Deadpool & Wolverine” (which became the most-watched live-action film on Disney+ in 2024), Reynolds seems to have honed his particular brand of sitcom-friendly comedy on this show and has carried the rhythms he developed on “Two Guys and a Girl” with him throughout his career. Berg would often get his friends into trouble or scupper their careful plans, and Reynolds played it all with an over-the-top manner heavy on physical humor.

Two Guys and a Girl has become mostly lost since its cancellation

The debut season of “Two Guys and a Girl” enjoyed an average viewership of 12.9 million, but that number had fallen significantly by the fourth season; ABC’s moving the series to a Friday night timeslot also likely didn’t help. The show struggled with its new schedule, and even after ABC put it back in its original Wednesday slot, “Two Guys and a Girl” couldn’t rekindle the magic. It was canceled in May 2001, the same month it aired its final episode.

Unfortunately for fans, that finale was a cliffhanger. “The Internet Show” aired on May 16, 2001, and saw fans voting online for how the characters’ stories should play out. Four separate endings were shot, with a different female character being pregnant in each one. Fans had to decide whether Sharon, Ashley (Suzanne Cryer), or Irene (Jillian Bach) would become expectant mothers, or whether none of the characters would. In the end, viewers picked Ashley but they never got to see the outcome of their voting as “Two Guys and a Girl” was canceled before the character could give birth at the end of what would have been the show’s fifth season.

Today, “Two Guys and a Girl” is dangerously close to becoming lost media. The series is unavailable to stream at the time of writing and doesn’t appear to be available on any digital platforms — perhaps it’s time for a revival of the show in the age of streaming? Of course, YouTube has plenty of clips, but if you’re eager to revisit Ryan Reynolds’ breakthrough TV role, the show is available on DVD via Shout! Factory, which in 2018 released an 11-disc set back that included all 81 episodes.

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