I admit I came to The Marriage Ref, after seeing the commercials, kind of dreading it, thinking it was going to be a pre-fabricated affair, with funny lines fed to the celebrity judges by show creator Jerry Seinfeld and his staff. For all I know, that may be the case, but 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!”

The two spats this week were READ FULL STORY »