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It’s a common problem for couples: one person has a really good friend of the opposite sex, and the partner is skeptical and jealous of him/her. On ‘The Marriage Ref’ (Thu., 10PM ET on NBC), guest judge Jay Leno shared that he and his wife of 30 years had this issue as well — though with a twist.

“I had a friend who was a stripper named Silver Moon,” he explained to host Tom Papa. “Now Silver Moon was my friend. We never had a relationship; I would go to her for guidance. My wife tended to frown on Silver Moon, so we are no longer friends.”

Source: AOL TV

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“I’m retired military, 26 years in the Army,” George says. “My wife is a master social worker, working for Orange County. She comes home at 6, 6:30, walks in expecting dinner to be created. It’s OK. When I left home from Louisiana, Mama had taught me the skills of cooking and cleaning. I’m not lazy. It’s that I like to be asked sometimes.”

The McZeals have seen their part of the show, which was filmed at their home six months ago. Was it a good idea to gon on “The Marriage Ref”?

“I think it helped. We already at our church were in a couples ministry that has helped us,” George says. “It was going to be good either way because we’re Christians.”

Read the full story on Orlando Sentinel

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On the ‘Tonight Show’ (weeknights, 11:35PM ET on NBC), ‘Marriage Ref’ host Tom Papa shared what he considered the best relationship advice ever given to him: to lie.

Source: AOL.

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Tom Papa talked to Star Tribune about Madonna, Jerry Seinfeld and his attraction to ice fishing. Here are some of the highlights:

Q A lot of viewers were also not quite sure what to make of your show. Do you worry that it might be too different?

A Not at all. Who wants another show that’s derivative of something else? This is something refreshing and new. Sometimes it’s a bit of a reality show, but that’s only for two minutes. Somebody gets a prize, so in that way it’s a game show. In other ways, it’s a talk show.

Q I know Jerry knows a lot of famous people, but I’m sure they wouldn’t do it just as a favor. Why are the big names signing up?

A I think a big part of it is that we’re giving them a platform they can’t get anywhere else. Usually someone is pushing a book or a movie and there’s all these pre-interviews. It’s a marketing machine. Here, it’s just three funny, bright people having a blast, letting their hair down. I think that really appeals to them.

Q For one of the promos for the show, you and Jerry flew into Duluth to do some ice fishing. Why Duluth?

A We were just thinking of the funniest things that men do to get away from their wives. We thought that instead of doing it in a studio, it’d be cool to go out on an actual frozen lake. The crew was shocked because Jerry and I took like over 30 pratfalls. We were like kids out there.

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Here are some of the reviews of the first episode of ‘The Marriage Ref’:

EW:
…there was an undeniable spontaneity not only among the premiere’s guest judges — Alec Baldwin, Kelly Ripa, and Seinfeld — but also during the taped segments featuring the couples who provided the arguments. Granted, my defenses were weakened by the mind-blowing Olympics finale that included William Shatner spouting Dadaist poetry, but I thought The Marriage Ref was silly fun.
Hosted by Tom Papa, an excellent stand-up comic (he killed on a recent David Letterman), The Marriage Ref is just what you’ve seen in the ads. We and the judges watched tape of a couple’s outlandish argument, and Papa referees the dispute by concluding, “I’m ready to make the call!”

NY Times:
A simple search of Twitter Sunday night yielded thousands of comments about the show. Some of the comments were upbeat, calling the show “hilarious,” but many more, it seemed, were savagely critical. Television critics were virtually united in their disapproval. “Divorce papers have been filed. West Coasters, you’ve been warned,” wrote Michael Ausiello of Entertainment Weekly.
But the Twitter buzz during the East Coast preview was so bad that Daniel Fienberg of HitFix said “it wouldn’t surprise me if NBC airs an ‘Office’ repeat at 10:30 PT,” shorthand for Pacific time.

Others joked about bringing Mr. Leno back to prime time.

NY Daily News:
Even without a replay, the consensus call on Jerry Seinfeld’s new “Marriage Ref” so far is, “Yer out.”

That’s not what struggling NBC wants to hear about the long-awaited new Seinfeld project on which it spent its most valuable promotion slot, the half-hour after the Olympics Sunday.

But then, “The Marriage Ref” didn’t give NBC much to hang its hype on. It turned out to be a flimsy “reality” show in which celebrities milk a silly videotaped argument between a civilian couple for way more jokes than it deserves and then pick a “winner.”

Time called it “the most God-awful mishmash of a comedy-variety show.” Long-time Hartford Courant critic Roger Catlin said “absolutely nothing funny happened.” Greg Evans of the Huffington Post said Seinfeld “owes us nothing and delivered in spades.”

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Tempers flared as twice-divorced Madonna weighed in with her views on married couples’ real-life domestic disputes in new US TV show The Marriage Ref.

On the show, the pair get the hump when they realise the Ref – US comic Tom Papa – has the power to ignore the votes of the celebrity panel on whether the husband or wife wins the row.
Madonna shouts: “It’s two against two!” after Papa sides against her and Gervais.
Papa, who takes the side of fellow panel member and Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David, tells her: “I have the final say.”
Gervais asks: “What are we here for? It was two to one! Why does he get the final vote?”
Papa says: “You’re the advisers but I make the ruling.”
But defiant Madonna refuses to back down and hits back: “Why? You’re not the panel.”

Read more: Monsters and Critics

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The strong Olympics performance fueled a great premiere number for “The Marriage Ref.” Sunday’s opener pulled a 4.8 rating with 14.5 million viewers, enough to easily win the 10:30-11PM half hour.

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Mr. Seinfeld spoke with The New York Times about “The Marriage Ref” , here are some of the highlights:
Q.
You’ve just started taping the earliest episodes of your first new television series in more than a decade. How does it feel so far?

A.
That aspect of television is a lot of fun for me. We think of something, and then a week later it’s in front of an audience. There’s a complexity in solving the basic problem of “What is this show?” But having solved that, there’s a simplicity now to doing it that I’m really enjoying. My body was like “You’re making another television show?” All those sensations of doing it from 12 years ago and the previous nine come back. But because it’s all in such a different way, it’s fun.

Q.
You weren’t necessarily angling to get back onto television, but you got swept up in the idea for “The Marriage Ref”?

A.
Yeah. If an idea’s good, you become its servant. If you’re pushing it, working it, fixing it, whipping it like a racehorse that’s going too slow, it’s probably not that good an idea. A good idea has a — what’s the word? — a draft suction, that you get pulled into it. It took years for the American public to get into our universe when I did “Seinfeld.” It was like “Oh, now I understand what they’re doing.” This has none of those aspects. This universe is known already. There’s still a strong flavor of misanthropy here, that you will not mistake. Even in this most important institution, this most romantic subject, you’ll feel the flavor.

Q.
Who are some of the people you’re planning to have as celebrity panelists?

A.
Of course my pal Larry David. Matthew Broderick. Alec Baldwin was my No. 1 get, because to me, he’s just such a funny thinker. Last night, there was this issue, and Kelly Ripa had to decide, whose side are you on? You’ve seen her on talk shows, you can watch her every day on her show. You’re not going to see her face a dilemma like this and watch her sort it out. So you learn a little bit about her. It’s interesting.

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In preparation for the show “The Marriage Ref” Jerry Seinfeld gave an interview to StarPlus, here are the highlights:

Q: What do you and your wife fight about?

Jerry Seinfeld: There’s only one thing. I don’t think it’s a good enough issue for the show but whenever we go to the theatre I get very nervous about being late because I’m a well-known person I hate to go into the theatre late. I get very anxious about getting out of the house on time.

Is she habitually late?

No, she’s not, but I get anxious and if she’s just a couple of minutes late, I always go, “It’s the theatre. Why do we have to do this?”

How do you keep the bickering of couples from just getting annoying in this show?

We pick out the ones, you’ve never seen a couple fight over “The dog’s dead. Should we stuff it or not?” I want to see how that works. I think there’s an unlimited supply of this. Well, here’s the most interesting thing about the show to me. Maybe not to anybody else. Couples in fights perform. Regular people that are so boring you’d never want to spend ten seconds with them. When they are fighting, they are hilarious. They say funny things in funny ways like the way you want, you would want an actor to do it. That’s what’s been the most discovery of the show is these couples are funny.

Why do you think that is?

Because emotion drives comedy. Emotion and conflict is the essence of comedy.

Don’t you think that some couples won’t want to watch this show because they can see people fighting at home? Like it’s a little too close to the bone?

No. It’s a relief. It really is a relief. It’s a relief to go, “Well, at least we don’t have that one.” Or, “We do have that one. Let’s see who’s right and who’s wrong.” So either way it kind of pulls you in.

How many celebrity judges are on the panel at a time?

Three. They’re not judges. They’re just advisors.

Almost like lawyers in a way, making a case for either side?

Yeah. We just really want to get some conversation going. That’s why to me it’s really a talk show. I really want to create interesting conversation. I am one of those comedians who is hopelessly stuck on the old Johnny Carson Tonight Show where the guests would stay on the couch and would interact with each other. I’m trying to create that here because I want people to engage with each other, not just with Tom and not just through some boring monologue about how their basement flooded and they couldn’t find a plumber.

Have you disagreed with the outcomes at all?

Yeah, sometimes. Yeah.

What fight subjects are off limits that you won’t touch?

Anything to do with kids, anything that makes you uncomfortable, that seems like the marriage might be in any real trouble. You know what the fights are? You ever go out with another couple for dinner and before the appetizers get there, one starts talking about, “You know what he did the other day?” And you talk about the things that annoy you about your husband, and they start doing the same? All of those subjects at dinner that you would feel comfortable talking to your friend, your couple friends with, that’s what we deal with. That’s really 85 percent of marital difficulties is ridiculous problems.

What about gay marriages?

Oh, yeah, they’re in.

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Following the Closing Ceremony of the Winter Olympics on Sunday, Feb. 28, after 16 days of competition involving figure-skating judges, ski-jumping judges, hockey referees and officials of all sorts, NBC has determined that what viewers want to see is more refereeing – this time of marital disputes.

But NBC could use a winner right now, and it’s betting on a proven champ. Jerry Seinfeld is executive producer of “The Marriage Ref,” and it comes from his Columbus 81 Productions, along with Ellen Rakieten Entertainment.

As for calling it “The Marriage Ref,” Seinfeld says, “We’re going to make a call in favor of the husband or the wife, very similar to the way it’s done in sports, because we felt the sports simplicity is what’s missing in marriage.”

In each episode, candid video is shown of a couple having an argument, very likely an argument they’ve had many times before. The topics vary, but according to Papa, they won’t be the sorts of things that lead to marriage counseling or divorce court. Nothing “hurtful,” in other words.

After the argument is shown, Papa throws it to a rotating panel of actors, comedians and sports stars who weigh in with their opinions. But there are no experts. You may ask, why not?

Weighing in are Seinfeld, Alec Baldwin and Kelly Ripa. After they deliver their opinions, Papa makes the final call. The winning spouse then gets a prize, and Papa believes that no prizes will be later hurled in the losing spouse’s direction.

Read the full story on The Daily Herald