Monday, November 12, 2018

KEVIN CAN F*** HIMSELF

This is clearly my favorite project currently in development – KEVIN CAN F*** HIMSELF. Created by Valerie Armstrong and executive produced by Rashida Jones, this is a half-hour comedy pilot for AMC.

With a healthy dollop of meta, this sitcom was obviously inspired by the recent CBS series, KEVIN CAN WAIT starring Kevin James.

Some background. KEVIN CAN WAIT premiered two years ago and was an instant hit. It was the most successful new comedy of the season. It received a full-season order for the second season months before season one was even over. And CBS initially so wanted Kevin James that they agreed to build a soundstage for him in Long Island so he could do the show practically from home. To say he was the 800 pound gorilla was an understatement. Of course, you build the guy a studio what do you expect when he flexes his creative muscles?

From day one James ran the show. The original creator/show runner quit halfway through season one. James was notorious for rewriting every script.

One of his problems was the chemistry between him and his TV wife, Erinn Hayes. Admittedly, Hayes is not a gifted comedienne. She’s more of a dramatic actress. Anyway, the decision was made to drop her at the end of season one and replace her with Leah Remini. Remini and James were together on KING OF QUEENS. And Remini is much more facile when it comes to comedy. So there definitely were reasons for making the switch. It was a decision approved by CBS and the studio producing the show. Casting changes are not uncommon. We were forced by CBS to let Kevin Kilner go from ALMOST PERFECT (a stupid decision that ultimately killed the show – thanks, CBS).

But in this case, the real problem was how KEVIN CAN WAIT handled it. They decided to kill off the character. That’s pretty severe. They couldn’t say she had to care for her sick mother in California and keep the door open for guest appearances to keep her in the series? Erinn Hayes had fans and the general consensus was that killing her off was excessive and needlessly hostile.

And then in season two her death was completely swept under the rug. There were a few mentions in passing (mostly as jokes).  So it was handled in a very callous manner.  I don’t have to tell you who made those creative decisions. James dug in his heels and guided the show in season two, deaf to any network, studio, or staff concerns. The result: the ratings went down and CBS cancelled the show after season two.

It takes some doing to go from most successful new comedy to cancellation in one year. (Although Roseanne managed the same feat in the length of time it took to write and post one tweet.)

If you watch a lot of network family sitcoms you’ll see a convention that always strains credibility. There’s always a schlub unattractive dim husband and a hot wife (usually younger) who in real life wouldn’t piss on these dolts if their hair was on fire. Jami Gertz & Mark Addy, Courtney Thorne-Smith & Jim Belushi, Nancy Travis & Tim Allen, and certainly Erinn Hayes & Kevin James (just to name a few).

Actresses will tell you it’s the most thankless role ever. You’re the wet blanket, rarely do you get great jokes, and you have to somehow try to sell that you’re in love with these obnoxious idiots.

So that’s what KEVIN CAN F*** HIMSELF is about. In their words it “explores the secret life of a woman we all grew up watching: the sitcom wife. A beauty paired with a less attractive, dismissive, caveman-like husband who gets to be a jerk because she’s a nag and he’s ‘funny.' What happens when this supporting character is presented as a real person? And what if that person is pissed?”

Should be fun. I know an actress and writing staff who might enjoy working on this show.

67 comments :

  1. Donald from Chicago11/12/2018 6:23 AM

    On a n unrelated topic, I just listened to your episode of Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast. It is one of year's best! "When am I supposed to fuck Rob" is the new phrase that pays!
    Hope you'll return for a sequel/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cartoons have the same pairs too.

    Homer and Marge. Peter and Lois. Fred and Wilma. All of them of course based on Ralph and Alice.

    ReplyDelete
  3. “There’s always a schlub unattractive dim husband and a hot wife (usually younger) who in real life wouldn’t piss on these dolts if their hair was on fire. “

    Yay!!!! Let’s list some more.
    Jayne Meadows (b.1922) Jackie Gleason (b.1916)
    Abby Dalton (1932) Joey Bishop (1918)
    Melody Patterson (age 16) Ken Berry (age 32)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unfortunately, there's at least one example in real life of a hot wife marrying a schlub guy.

      Mike O'Meara, decades ago, was one half of the syndicated radio show THE DON AND MIKE SHOW.

      Although Mike's no longer on terrestrial radio any more, he hosts a fairly popular daily podcast at mikeomearashow.com

      Mike is a schlub. (I think he would readily admit to that fact.)

      Anyway, along the way, for his third wife, he married a woman named Carla who is much younger and more attractive than Mike.

      He's been known to discuss Carla and his marriage on his show.

      So it's not entirely a Hollywood construct.

      Delete
  4. Don't care much for the title, but the concept is wonderful.

    And to be fair, on "Last Man Standing" (both the ABC and Fox versions), the Nancy Travis character Vanessa is shown as a bright, caring woman (she's a geologist with a Ph.D., albeit apparently non-Ivy) who's given plenty of texture in her interaction with husband Mike and their daughters. And while Nancy is attractive, talented and likable, I don't believe it sexist to say that at this point in her career, she really doesn't fit the stereotype of "hot."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It would be nice to see her actually do this job. Part of the template for the aforementioned shows is the wife's job is never or rarely shown it's only discussed. We rarely seem them out of the house and with an actual life of their own. They are props for the husband even when they are smart props. They actually are usually smarter than the husband and more educated.

      Delete
  5. Ken, 1) thanks for answering my FQ last Friday. Rewriting is difficult for hoarders like myself who hate throwing things out.
    2) Hope the situation with the Fires have improved and everyone's homes are better today than yesterday.
    3) The problems with the Kevin show was with the Kevin character. He was SO unlikeable. Not just a doofus but a jerk. Then there was a problem with the secondary characters of his daughter and son-in-law. Not funny.
    Surprised you forgot to include Ray Romano and Pattie Heaton in guys who would never get their hot sitcom wives.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think it's because Heaton and Romano are evenly matched, at least to me in real life.

      --Orleanas

      Delete
  6. Any further thoughts to share on the cancellation of Almost Perfect after the downfall of Les Moonves? I've read a couple of women saying how they felt that any programme with an interesting woman lead didn't stand much chance under his reign.

    ReplyDelete
  7. "Admittedly, Hayes is not a gifted comedienne. She’s more of a dramatic actress." Sadly, I fear some of your readers will not be familiar enough with Hayes's résumé to see through this. If ever there was a need for a sarcasm font ....

    ReplyDelete
  8. I've never liked Kevin James in anything I've dared to watch him in. I saw one episode of "Kevin Can Wait" (season 1), and it only confirmed my opinion. Why a network would let him be in charge of anything (even his own hit show) is beyond me. Your account just re-affirms that there are some stars who generously share the laughs with their supporting cast (Mary Tyler Moore, Jerry Seinfeld, et al), and then there are the Kevin Jameses of the world.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Ken, didn't your daughter and son-in-law write for Kevin Can Wait's second season and had to move clear across the country to do so? If so, I can understand the personal, "Papa Bear" annoyance you may have regarding Kevin James and the whole project!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I have never seen so many "Producer, "Executive Producer," "Associate Producer" & "Consulting Producer" as were attached to the "Kevin Can Wait" credits.

    Why do I have a feeling our host knows who did the actual show-running work...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Janet Ybarra11/12/2018 3:13 PM

      It sounds as though the efforts of the Levine Family in this regard were summarily ignored.

      Delete
  11. What's with actors and actresses executive producing everything now?

    ReplyDelete
  12. I read the whole post and I am still not sure if this is really a new show or a joke. But I can tell you I have not or would I ever watch anything Kevin James is in. I believe he is know for Paul Blart: Mall Cop. This is a movie that when seeing the trailer we ask who the fuck would watch that piece of shit? The premise seems like a SNL skit reject.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Prayers for all of you in Southern California as I know that if you not in the trajectory of the fire, you know someone who is.

    ReplyDelete
  14. VP81955, whether or not it's sexist to say Nancy Travis isn't hot, it does indicate you need a new prescription for your eyeglasses.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think Nancy's attractive, but I'm 63. Not certain guys half my age and below are turned on by her.

      Delete
  15. That was always one thing I loved about BOY MEETS WORLD. Cory and Topanga were both total weirdos in their own way, and as often as not neither of them could be the voice of reason. It made for a more believable relationship, it made for a more interestingly written woman, and it made for an all-around better show and better romance than what's seen in the majority of family sitcoms.

    Phil: It's interesting you'd bring up Homer and Marge, because THE SIMPSONS seems to be intimately aware of this trope, and I always got the impression the show was mocking it. Marge is not merely a wet blanket, but deliberately and aggressively boring in-universe, which itself can be quite funny to the viewer. I'll never tire of hearing her talk about how neat potatoes are. Particularly given the context of FOX's '80s line-up, I think having a couple lean into this cliche ad absurdum was a good counterpart to MARRIED... WITH CHILDREN, which did just the opposite and subverted it instead, with Al acting as the closest that show had t a voice of reason.

    ReplyDelete
  16. The next question is (especially with new programmers running CBS) whether Kevin James, after one hit and one series he turned into a flop, gets another sitcom offer from the Eye?

    ReplyDelete
  17. This new show worries me; I had always assumed that if when I reach 45 I have become overweight and stupid then at least I could become a sitcom dad as my fallback career. If that absurdly sexist trope is finally ejected, I guess it'll have to be politics.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Janet Ybarra11/12/2018 9:53 AM

    What about a series with the inverse? An average to schlub woman with a hot guy/husband.

    Never watched KEVIN CAN WAIT, the same as I didn't watch the Matt LeBLanc vehicle on CBS either.

    Neither one looked remotely funny in the promos, so to me, that just seems like the kiss of death.

    Both looked like overworn stars trying to hit the rodeo one too many times.

    Don't feel too bad for Kevin James, though. He's got his voice gig in the HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA flicks to fall back on.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The inverse is an idea whose time has come.

      The movie "Hobson's Choice" sort of does it, but more on a class level: The plain but intelligent daughter of a shoemaker up and marries the skilled nonentity laboring in the basement -- almost against his will. By the end she's made him prosperous, proud, and a thoroughly devoted husband. A.A. Milne's slightly similar play "What Every Woman Knows" has a wealthy family backing a promising young politician if he marries their wallflower daughter. He rises, is tempted by a beautiful noblewoman, but realizes his wife is his political muse as well as his true love.

      What would be fun if the woman were, as you say, and she's pursued by a handsome overachiever -- he doesn't have any motive or benefit beyond being attracted to her, and everybody keeps trying to "explain" the relationship. Or you can have them as an established couple, and you explicitly reject the implied backstory that she used to be hot (just as Al Bundy was a high school hero when he married Meg).

      Delete
  19. I am surprised CBS gave Kevin James that much power. Even though "King Of Queens" lasted 9 seasons, it was only ranked in the 30s and 40s most seasons, so wasn't like it was a huge hit. His movie career wasn't exactly thriving either.

    ReplyDelete
  20. @Jon88 - why don't you create a sarcasm font ? You can even call it the Jon88 font. I would most definitely use it.I am not being sarcastic.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Alice Kramden was originally portrayed by Pert Kelton (born in 1907!). The story goes that after Kelton was dropped (due to blacklisting) Gleason was reluctant to hire Meadows because he thought she was too glamorous to play Alice, and that Audrey had to have some "unglamour shots" done in order to convince Jackie she could play the part.

    The show that I found a little unreal was "Hazel" with Don Defore supposedly married to Whitney Blake. Of course his character was a successful lawyer. But I always got the impression there was a first "Mrs. B." somewhere collecting alimony checks.

    I have to be careful because my parents are 8 years apart in age. But Dad was definitely NOT an unattractive dim schlub. And he was a great dancer.

    ReplyDelete
  22. To Anonymous:
    Yeah but compare that to shows like "Leave it to Beaver" or "Patty Duke" where the husband wasn't as attractive as the wife but wasn't hopelessly out of her league either. Plus, he had a very well paying job and legitimately liked his wife's company. At least give the wife some reason for choosing this guy.

    ReplyDelete
  23. "What's with actors and actresses executive producing everything now?" Ken may have already addresed this, but my understanding is that "producer" is one of the few credits that *doesn't* have a union defining exactly what it means. Thus, it's a great way to give people profit/ownership points without requiring any actual work from them to justify it.

    ReplyDelete
  24. I remember years ago, both Tim Allen and Roseanne Barr complained about how the network were super excited about their ideas, wanted them to do a shows. Once they agreed, mapped everything out, the networks took over, and just left them out of control. Rosanne of course always complained about it, while Tim Allen just shrugged and took the checks.
    Neither were allowed to control "their" shows.
    So I am guessing Kevin James was able to get control, just not use it properly. I saw one episode, was too much like King of Queens, no need to watch fat guy jokes again.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Just heard the sad news that Stan Lee has died. He was 95, so he lived a long life but his final couple of years were marred by reports of elder abuse by leeches who wanted his money. You have to wonder if the stress of all that hastened his death.

    His contribution to pop culture and entertainment is incalculable. I loved his most recent cameo in Venom and it's sad to think that future Marvel movies won't have the Stan Lee cameo that we've got used to seeing for more than a decade.

    I don't know if you ever met him, Ken, but would love to know your opinion on him and his legacy if you're considering doing a post about him tomorrow.

    Rest in Peace, Stan. Excelsior!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Most of what I wanted to say has already been covered by other people, so pardon the redundancy.

    Not a fan of Kevin James.
    KEVIN CAN WAIT just WASN'T FUNNY! (No offence to your daughter)

    I'm available. As you know, I'm an overweight a-hole who can't even score with borderline women. I'd be perfect for the part. Although, I would have to start paying SAG/AFTRA dues again.

    I agree with Janet Ybarra. With the rise of the "plus size" super model, maybe the country is ready for a sitcom staring a smokin' hot guy with a plump wife. Too bad Sara Rue has gotten so thin. She would have been perfect.

    I'm also available to write. I'm losing my hair and I sometimes drink too much. So, I would fit in with most writers rooms. Although, I'm not in my 20's. Maybe some Minoxidil and Botox would help.

    If it was a real show, and on broadcast T.V. I'd watch it. ...At least for a season-and-a- half.
    M.B.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This already exists as "American Housewife" which sold as "The Second Fattest Housewife in Westport."

      Delete
  27. just a geeky aside from a marketer... whomever is doing your blog web pages is doing a GREAT job, your blog post came up sixth in a Google search for "Kevin Can F*** Himself"

    ReplyDelete
  28. Oh c'mon. Look around you. Most women are "hot" and their husbands are "not," depending on what your standard for "hot" is. Men aren't required to be as beautiful as women; we like you guys craggy! Your big noses and all! -Kate, only half-kidding

    ReplyDelete
  29. >>What about a series with the inverse? An average to schlub woman with a hot guy/husband.

    Wasn't that the format of "I Love Lucy?"

    ReplyDelete
  30. Real-life trolls don't marry beautiful women -- unless they're powerful and/or rich. Aristotle Onassis and Henry Kissinger come to mind.

    I used to watch THE KING OF QUEENS for Jerry Stiller as the bonkers father-in-law who lived in the basement. I guess there was no room for him and James's expanding ego on the new show.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. B.Sky, you could also include famous. Did anyone notice how beautiful Harvey Weinstein's (ex?) wife is? Speaking of Jerry Stiller, I always thought that his real life wife Anne Meara was way out of his league. Maybe she was one of the extremely rare women that actually wanted a guy that "could make her laugh."
      M.B.

      Delete
  31. I know he may not be part of your milieu, but Stan Lee has passed away.

    Kind of like Aretha Franklin, Stan Lee is another one who I thought would be around forever.

    I loved his cameos in the Marvel movies.

    ReplyDelete
  32. @iain: I finally got around to watching Season 2 of The Man in the High Castle this weekend, and was amused to see that they literally lengthened the show open just so they could squeeze in more Executive Producer credits. They take up 60-70% of the intro's length.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Title needs work. Seems meanspirited.


    Sean

    ReplyDelete
  34. I should be in this show!. I can do it all badly.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Excellent post. Kevin James is a poor man's Jackie Gleason, and by poor I mean Grapes of Wrath served with government cheese. The type of people who think the "Get Er Done" guy is one tooth away from being Oscar Wilde. I'm not sure about this whole schlep with a hot wife thing being restricted to sitcom life, it does happen in the real world. Who? Try Shirley Jones and, glup, Marty Ingels. What? Yea that's right, hot Shirley Partridge married a guy Ernest Borgnine thought was ugly. And what about Prince Philip, a stud in his 20's to 40's, this guy was the most handsome Royal of them all forced to walk 5 paces behind a dowdy, frumpy, dull, unattractive Queen who made Nancy Kulp look like Marilyn Monroe with Jane Mansfield's tits. And who would be the first one here to admit that he married "up", that's right, our own Kenneth Sampson Levine. Case closed.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Dixon Steele11/12/2018 3:24 PM

    I was wondering why the show shot in Bethpage, in a "studio" in walking distance to N. Massapequa, where I grew up.

    It's really in the middle of suburban Nowhere.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Re Hazel: I've seen a picture of one of Whitney Blake's real-life husbands and Don Defore is much better-looking.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Norm MacDonald's A Minute With Stan Hooper was going to have his wife killed at the end of the first season, and break from the standard sitcom formula as a surprise. Looking at the episodes they did air, you can see they were doing some weird things gradually.

    ReplyDelete
  39. What's also baffling is that in the last season of King of Queens in 2007 Kevin James was reportedly being paid $400,000 per episode.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Sixty-one years before Kevin James killed off his TV wife, Danny Thomas did the same thing to Jean Hagen on "Make Room for Daddy" (though Hagen's death came after she opted against signing a new three-year contract). You'd think in the mid-1950s TV audiences would react even more negatively to the wife just being killed off on the show, but Thomas may have actually lucked out by breaking his leg playing a pick-up basketball game during the show's hiatus between the third and fourth seasons.

    As a result, the first four episodes of "Make Room for Daddy" in the fall of 1956 opened up with Danny in a wheelchair -- the show made a point of saying in the debut episode it was now a year after Margaret Williams had died, never said how she died, but did mention the broken leg was a more recent incident. But the visual cues it gave the audience of Danny Williams not simply being a widower, but being disabled at least temporarily, likely gave his character more sympathy with the viewers at home, who make have made the connection themselves between the broken leg and Margaret's death. That gave the show time to add Marjorie Lord to the cast at the end of the season and then get CBS and General Foods to decide to move the show there from ABC for Season 5, and it ran for another seven years.

    The failure to get the audience to empathize with the remaining lead character is where Kevin James messed up here. "Kevin Can Wait" pretty much did the same time-gap thing that Thomas' show at done six years earlier, but they failed to do anything with the plot to somehow make James a more sympathetic figure when Season 2 began, and the audience as a result fled (obviously it would have been more manipulative here than with what happened six decades earlier, because Thomas really did break his leg. But the injury gave Danny Williams four weeks of some on-screen suffering, something James didn't have here -- he pretty much just popped Remi in for Hayes and expected audiences to just go with the flow. The audience thought differently).

    ReplyDelete
  41. The "hot wife with a funny schlub husband" trope is one of my wife's pet peeves. But whenever she brings up how unrealistic it is, I point that she married me.

    I wanted to mention that I don't think Tim Allen belongs in this category. On "Home Improvement" and "Last Man Standing," he plays a somewhat crude male stereotype, and he's no Cary Grant handsomeness-wise. But he isn't a bad-looking man, he keeps himself in shape, and his characters in both shows are well-paid professionals with some wit and jobs in the public eye. A guy like that could easily have an attractive wife. And both Nancy Travis and Patricia Richardson are attractive ladies without being Sofia Vergara-like bombshells. Now, whoever thought of pairing Sofia Vergara with Al Bundy, that's someone who believes in pushing the envelope.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually, I like Ed O'Neill's character on MODERN FAMILY... particularly that he is a totally fleshed out and likeable character and not just more Al Bundy.

      Delete
    2. I agree with you on Allen. As for Ed O'Neill's wife on MODERN FAMILY and his wife, I think of it in the sense of a mail order bride: beggars can't be choosers.

      Delete
  42. Janet Ybarra-I used to love listening to Don and MIke when i lived in the DC area! I was away from the show for a while and when I came back and heard about Don's wife being killed, I cried like I knew her.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Janet Ybarra11/12/2018 7:41 PM

      That was certainly a tragedy. Mike had a morning show on a DC classic rock station after that, until that station flipped format to conservative talk.

      Have you checked out his podcast?

      Delete
  43. @Pat Reeder: On Modern Family, Ed O'Neill's character is supposed to be a wealthy entrepreneur. Not just "doing pretty well for himself," but flat-out rich. An early storyline was that Jay's daughter considered her a gold digger. While the show has tried to show that Gloria genuinely cares for Jay, they also have not glossed over the fact that her lifestyle improved dramatically after their marriage.

    ReplyDelete
  44. I never thought he was all that funny, but now I have a second reason not to watch him.

    ReplyDelete
  45. If you want a less-than-lovely woman paired with an average man, check out Everybody Loves Raymond. Ray's brother Robert married a woman I find difficult on the eyes. I think the was the producer's real life wife, or something like that.

    ReplyDelete
  46. On the other hand, Jay's daughter's taste in romantic partners is horrible, given that she's apparently competent and a bit above average in intelligence but married someone who appears at least one standard deviation below average intelligence. And in the episodes I watched, there wasn't any compensatory features to possibly make up for that.

    Another real life bit, with not as much power as Onassis or Kissinger, would be former Representative Dennis Kucinich. His third wife was 30 years younger and generally considered very physically attractive. They also appeared to be very in sync politically, based on her own activist history prior to meeting him. So it was nowhere near a "what the hell does she see in him" situation.

    ReplyDelete
  47. @Robb: I believe Ken's daughter and son-in-law were writers and co-producers on Kevin Can Wait. Not long before they were officially hired, Ken wrote a post in which he was rather dismissive of Erinn Hayes's comedic and/or acting skills. I can't seem to find that post, so I can't quote him. But I don't think she had been fired yet, so the timing of his comments seems odd in retrospect.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Jim: I know people say that about Les Moonves, but his regime (granted, *late* in his regime) did also give us MOM, THE GOOD WIFE, and, although I can't stand it personally, MADAM SECRETARY.

    wg

    ReplyDelete
  49. tim allen and nancy travis work quite well together and are quite a believable pairing.

    ReplyDelete
  50. I'm afraid that I must complain about the language used in the title of this blog entry: Kevin can fuck himself. The title should be an imperative, as in Kevin can go fuck himself. Kevin can fuck himself is merely a statement, possibly of surprise & admiration, or an interrogative, as in Kevin can fuck himself?!?

    ReplyDelete
  51. I loved this post for several reasons.

    It's informative - I had no idea Kevin James had taken over the show so completely.

    I happen to agree with every point you made, including how tired out the hot wife/schlubby husband trope has become, and how thankless a job the 'wife' role really is. (Though I imagine Erinn Hayes thought it better than being fired).

    I also agree that firing Kevin Kilner and changing the whole point of the show pretty much killed "Almost Perfect," which I loved throughout the first season. I can't hear "Up Where We Belong" without thinking of the first season finale.

    I didn't watch "Kevin Can Wait", but when they announced that Hayes was being dropped from the show, and some of the reasons came out, I knew I'd never watch it.

    I would, however, watch "Kevin Can F*%* Himself."

    ReplyDelete
  52. Beg to differ about Erinn Hayes.
    Her work on "Childrens Hospital" proves she has some great comedy chops --
    especially as a comically coked out attorney in Season 4 Episode 12, "Childrens Lawspital".

    ReplyDelete
  53. I'm not a fan of KJ anyway. I did like the old series with Remini, but I think that was because hers was a strong character and that made a good foil for his idiot. I did try the new show out of curiosity, but never made it past an episode or two because, frankly, his character was completely unlikeable. It was, as you said, the schlubby husband thing, but worse because he was such a self centered lazy moron. When I heard they had killed the wife off, I decided that the secret back story was that the wife had actually dumped him to run off with someone who had a work ethic and more than two functioning brain cells. He's probably funnier, too.

    In other news, I do think Murphy Brown is finding its stride. We do need to remember that the series was on for a number of years before the whole Dan Quayle thing, and it was basically a workplace comedy. I personally don't think it was as topical as everyone claims up to that point, although issues of the day were addressed. The reboot did take a while to find its rhythm, and I think it has. Now they need to do something with Murphy's wardrobe, because she might be older but she's still not a woman who would wear a melon-colored polyester pantsuit.

    ReplyDelete
  54. A similar situation happened in 1971 when CBS was so anxious to lure Dick Van Dyke back to TV that they agreed to build a studio in Arizona where Van Dyke was living.

    The show reunited Van Dyke and Carl Reiner, but I wonder how Reiner felt about having to commute back and forth to LA for his pampered star.

    The ratings were never great, and the show moved back to LA after the third season.

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066689/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv

    ReplyDelete
  55. .

    I've read A LOT of negative comments about the kind of guy Kevin James can (supposedly) be when at times when interacting with fans.

    Because it's the internet I was getting this information from, and have always liked the guy, I've found myself hoping it wasn't true, and was just a bunch of crap written by angry, unhappy people about a celebrity they didn't like, and probably had never even met.

    But reading this, from someone in a position to know, makes me think that a lot of those comments MIGHT have been right on the money.

    (Though, truth be told, I'm still hoping that most/none of it is true....

    .

    ReplyDelete

NOTE: Even though leaving a comment anonymously is an option here, we really discourage that. Please use a name using the Name/URL option. Invent one if you must. Be creative. Anonymous comments are subject to deletion. Thanks.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.