Also starring are Patricia Heaton, Fred Willard, Ayda Field and Laura Marano. Jim Burrows is directing, and Christopher "not that one" Lloyd and Steve Levitan are the creators. That's enough star talent both in front of and behind the cameras that you'd think it would be, if not a sure thing, then certainly a safe bet.
But somehow, I had a feeling it wasn't going to be that easy. And sure enough, although about a dozen critics have really liked the show, it's mostly been getting average reviews.
Based on the pilot, it really doesn't deserve much better...this was pretty laugh-poor. There were a few, but they were small and far-between....and the "big guns" didn't land any of them. Even allowing for the reality that Grammer has typecasting issues beyond most actors' wildest nightmares or that I've never really been a fan of Heaton's...that's not good.
(In Grammer's case, he's also not helped by the idea that crossed my mind of what a wonderful part this would have been for the late Phil Hartman. But obviously, we can't blame anyone on the show for that.)
Willard was funny once or twice...but he's also playing the same character he's been playing, with different names, since roughly 1974. Another bright spot is Marano, an 11-year-old performer who looks like she might be that rare child actress worth watching.
But poor Ayda Field-formerly Jeannie on Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip.
The role she's playing could be filled (and I use the word advisedly) by any Stuff model willing to mouth sub-Kelly Bundy gags. She certainly has the body for it, but I take it as an article of faith that an actress who's been on an Aaron Sorkin series deserves better. Even a failed one (noble though it was).
And stage vet Josh Gad's youthful news director character smells like it wants to be Murphy Brown's Miles Silverberg with computer nerd and fat-guy jokes larded on.
Really, the whole thing feels like nothing so much as a "wannabe" sitcom. The jokes are fresh only inasmuch as they're about what I would expect a college freshman to come up with. Shortly after we learn that Heaton and Grammer had a one night stand 10 years ago, he uses the newsman's announcement "This just in."
Do you really need me to tell you what her response is?
Even with Burrows textbook direction ("it's always funnier moving") as a guide, jokes like that can't be saved.
The plot mechanics are, if anything, even less subtle, including one "twist" that I saw coming just from reading some of the reviews. It's not they gave much of anything away...it was just that easy.
I dunno. Maybe Benson's satirical novel is still too fresh in my memory for me to laugh at anything other than the most wonderful sitcoms (ah, NewsRadio, how I miss you). Or maybe the sitcom really is dead this time.
But, I'm old enough to remember the first time I read people were saying that...it was just before a little series called The Cosby Show hit.
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