The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 02, 1996, Page 4, Image 4
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BT his was a show that,
to coin a phrase
from David Spade,
I liked better when
Molly Ringwald stars
in this terrible rip-off of every
twenty-something sitcom in the
TUNE history of bad television. The
jokes were stale, the delivery
* of those jokes was amateurish,
. and it was possible to tell where
iowmes the cue card guy was standing
Wednesday8:30 p.m. in almost every scene.
?. To make the show
* 'out of four ) worse, the producers added a
laugh track to give those tired
jokes a longer titter, making me feel insulted that someone
was trying to imply that "this is when you should laugh."
Molly Ringwald's character, Carrie, is a waitress with her
friend Shannon (Jenny Eleman doing an impression of a poorman's
Tori Spelling). Curt is Carrie's friend that constantly
asks her out, and of course she refuses because they are "just
friends".
Curt (Ron Livingston) uses several different funny lines
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go out with me now?", and, after insulting Carrie, he asks
"Are we still friends?" to which she replies "No!" Even Ray
Charles could see the next line was "Then now will you go
out with me?"
In the pilot, Carrie's other friends Denise and Brian
(although each cast member called him Ryan at least once>
are getting married. They break up the night before the
wedding, and Carrie feels it her job to help them reconcile.
The marriage crisis is solved when Ryan (or Brian or whatever)
looks his significant other deep in the eyes, and in a tearjerking,
heart-wrenching moment, says "Honey, I love you
more than the Celtics".
I don't know if the same people that invented the laugh
track also invented a track player to simulate a crowd saying
"Awwww...", but it is hard for me to believe that it was an
unsolicited response.
If this show lasts the entire year, it'll only be because ABC
has no better mid-season replacement.
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BW hat is wrong
with men? How
sick are some of
the concepts by
some of our behaviors?
How does a woman
, . stick with a man who is this
stereotypical male that
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TUNE constantly does and says stuff
jxt to drive her crazy?
All of these questions
** n r? ji are answered in the pilot of
Men Behaving Badly ^ Behavin^ Badl/ Jan)ie
P'm' <Rob Schn?der of "Saturday
* cc x Night Live" fame) plays a beer
u 0 our swilling, unshaven, unemployed
man who lives in filth with his
roommate Kevin (Ron Eldard).
Kevin has a girlfriend (Justine Bateman of "Family Ties")
who stays the night in the pilot episode. As Jamie is sitting
on the couch watching television, Kevin sits next to him.
Jamie asks Kevin "Isn't Sarah (Kevin's girlfriend) staying
the night tonight?" Kevin then proceeds to ask Jamie a deep
moral question- "If you are having [relations] with your
girlfriend, and she falls asleep during... I mean, you know,
it was consentual when it began..."
After a little debate, Jamie compares the situation, "Okay,
let's say she let you drive her car, and she's in it. If she falls
asleep while you're driving, do you pull over to the side of the
road and wait for her to wake up?" Kevin then asks "Can we
really compare driving a car to having [intimacy] with your
girlfriend?" Jamie responds, "Depends on what kind of car
it is."
That was just the beginning of this crazy show, which
included a hilarious scene of Jamie going to a job interview,
and ogling a picture of his interviewer's daughter. A beautiful
woman (Anna Gunn) moves next door to Jamie and Kevin,
then asks them if they can let the phone repairman in since
she'll be away for a while. Jamie then reasons that "since she
gave me the key, she's expecting me to go through her stuff
a little." Kevin replies, "Hey, don't tell me man, you're preaching
to the choir."
This pilot episode touched on many topics, including a
very serious discussion between Kevin and Sarah about having
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a baby, and plays itself as though it is already an established
hit series.
I see this show breaking out of the pack, and beginning
to create a strong following, guaranteeing it at least another
year. It will almost certainly touch off debate about some of
the risque topics it is not afraid to approach.
n Jamie Foxx used to
dazzle audiences
with his wide array
of off-beat characters
"In Living Color". He was also
nnarious as me crazy nexi^
^ door neighbor on "Roc", playing
? a fellow who was, to put it
TUNE mildly, not-right-in-the-head.
|{^ Now Foxx has
branched off onto his own show
The Jamie Foxx Show on the WB network, "The
Wednesday, 9:30 p.m. Jamie Foxx Show">a vehicle
WB clearly intended to showcase
(out of four) the wackiness of its star.
Foxx shines as Jamie
King, a hotel worker with a strange sense of humor, an
unpredictable personality and a puppy-love crush on the
beautiful Fancy (Garcelle Beavais), a co-worker at the hotel.
Fancy wants nothing to do with her crazy co-worker, but the
two manage to maintain a friendship with the required sitcom
sexual tension.
The cast includes Garrett Morris (from pre-Eddie Murphy
"Saturday Night Live"), Ellia English and Christopher B.
Duncan. The other actors are mainly bit players, while Foxx
takes up most of the show's time. Although the only member
of the cast who really stands out is Foxx, and much of the
writing centers around his character, the rest of the cast is
quite capable of sitting back and letting Foxx do his thing,
which is, most of the time, random and ad-libbed physical
comedy mixed with dead-on impressions of everyone from
Mike Tyson to Boyz II Men.
All in all, it wasn't the greatest show I have ever seen, but
is, by far, the best show I have seen on WB. Foxx is fresh and
funny, and the writing for the show is better than average.
The good thing about an actor like Foxx is that he can make
mediocre scripts seem good by simply taking the reins, and
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Wednesday, October 2,1996
mic reflet
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letting his brand of comedy carry the show.
B Brooke Shields has
never had her own
television show,
and it is painfully
obvious in the first
few minutes of the pilot episode.
The pilot was re-shot by NBC
^ 9 because, in the words of
? network officials, It just wasn't
I U JN J& funny enough."
IN The writing on the
show is better than average,
Suddenly Susan but the real savior of the pilot
Thursday, 9:30 p.m. episode was Judd Nelson, who
NBC was surprisingly good in his
(out of four) debut as a television regular.
Jack Richmond (Nelson) is the
editor of a magazine that Susan (Shields) quits working for.
Susan is getting married to Jack's brother, Kip, who is
wealthy, and feels she doesn't need her job at the magazine
anymore.
Susan "suddenly" realizes that she is getting married and
is still clueless as to who she is. She feels she has never really
had independence, and has never had time to discover herself.
So, she runs out of the wedding just as she is supposed to say
"I do."
Jack agrees to let her start working again at the magazine
with a promotion and a new column titled "Suddenly Susan,"
in which she is supposed to discover herself.
Most of the humor was forced, but the story was enough
to keep the viewer engaged. The characters were also welldefined
and show potential for offering the viewer fresh story
ideas.
The few funny moments that did occur, and may hold
promise for a running joke, were to poke fun at Susan for her
height, which towers over most of the other cast members.
The show needs work, and Shields needs to work on her
spontaneity, but this show could be a hit in the near future.
It definitely has the to-die-for spot between "Seinfeld" and
"ER". This show could sail over its competition with lesser
time slots and find a steady home in the top ten.
- story by Mark Piras, staff writeV
i. com./96prime. html
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