I missed it. Did anyone watch it?
DVR’d it last night because I had a friend over. IIRC it’s going to be on again through the week, so you might want to check TVLand’s schedule.
It was an OK pilot, not great, but the reviews I’ve read say the next episodes are quite funny. And my husband turned to me and said, "Was that
John Schneider?
and I answered, “I was just going to ask you!”
It wasn’t great. Cheap one liners, and it almost felt like they were pausing for the studio audience to laugh. Very clichéd. It had a 1970s sitcom feel to it.
It was a bit cheesy and sounded like it had a rather annoying laugh track. I’d probably enjoy it more with the sound off and just look at Valerie Bertinelli.
I didn’t love it or hate it, but I’ll watch a couple more episodes just to see what they do with Betty White.
Here’s the pilot in a nutshell.
Valerie Bertinelli is sweet and heartboken, trying to get over the breakup of her marriage. Best friend Wendie Maleck is past her prime and trying to hang on to a modicum of fame as a soap opera character. Best friend Jane Leeves is the bitter, tart-tounged eyebrow waxer to the stars, who discovers that Oprah has been using someone else. They end up in Cleveland and rent a house that comes complete with Betty White.
Bertinelli is perfectly in her zone. Jane Leeves isn’t. Wendie Maleck plays the same character she’s played in everything I can remember her in. I don’t even like Wendie Maleck, but I think she deserves better material. Betty White can make a corpse funny, which she has to do way too often with what they’ve given her.
Or, as my daughter put it, TVLand built an entire sitcom off the 30 Rock episode where Liz Lemon goes to Cleveland.
I loe Valerie Bertinelli and Jane Leeves. Don’t care too much for Wendie Maleck. I ended up turning it off when the plane landed in Cleaveland and all the women were like: Wow, men think we are hot…
Not bad for a pilot. I’ll Tivo it for a few, just to be sure…
Leeves: “We should kill him.”
Bertinelli: “That’s your solution to everything.”
Leeves: “Well, we could try it just once.”
I’ve heard the non-pilot episodes are better, so I’m willing to watch one more, but if the pilot proves to be typical, it’s not something I’d keep watching.
The only big surprise is that I could almost stand Wendy Maleck’s voice. Usually she sounds like she needs to expectorate a big ball of phlegm.
I didn’t see the show, but I saw Jane Leeves in an interview plugging it, and I have to say that she is still one of the most physically attractive women in all of show biz…
I watched it tonight off of the DVR. I’ll definitely watch at least 2-3 more episodes, but the first one wasn’t great. I’ve never liked a show’s pilot that I’ve grown to love - Arrested Development, 30 Rock, et al.
Betty White was fantastic - I didn’t really laugh till she came on screen. However I wasn’t a fan of the pot joke - only because she’s said before in multiple interviews - including on the Daily Show Tuesday night - that “drugs aren’t funny”. Oh well, chalk it up to an old lady forgetting.
I hope it involves more Betty White in the future, and that the others loosen up. How the hell they plan to make it a full show when they were only going to Paris for 2 weeks is beyond me.
Betty White is by far the best thing about it. Leeves and Bertinelli are okay, but I can’t stand Wendy Malick.
I think I’m over the old-fashioned laugh-track sitcom. It just seems so cheesy and outdated now.
“Wendie Malick”
You may continue.
Ah, no. The best thing about it is that Valerie Bertinelli is back on TV and looking wonderful. The Jenny Craig ads don’t count because she was always with Jason Alexander or Kirstie Alley, both of which are repulsive, thus canceling VB’s hotness.
I actually found Betty White’s timing to be really, really off. There was a weird beat before she delivered every one of her lines.
I agree. And, unfortunately, she was still the funniest thing on the show.
I’ve been a huge Betty White fan my whole life. While I’m glad to see her working again, between SNL and this show, watching her this year has been kinda like watching Steve Carlton pitch his last couple of seasons. Yeah, it’s great to see them, but I would really prefer to remember them at the top of their game.
As for the rest of the show, meh. Wendie Malick is playing the same vain, haughty character she always plays, I’ve never been fond of Jane Leeves, and Valerie Bertinelli tried her best to work with the material she had (which was crap.)\
I’ll give it another try, but I’m not holding out much hope that it’ll improve.
It was meh. The laugh track was extremely annoying and the humor just so-so. I’ll watch a couple more episodes and see if it improves because I really like Jane Leeves.
It was so-so, but like others have mentioned, supposedly the shows get better after the first. BTW, Betty White was supposedly only going to do the pilot episode, but stayed on to do the series.
Regarding the “laugh track” - I believe at the beginning they said it was “filmed before a live audience”, so while they might sweeten the laughs with some creative mixing of audio, it is not just canned laughter on tape. Doesn’t make it any less obnoxious, but still…that is a live audience laughing (after the free joints they pass out prior to the taping).
It seemed to be a weak reworking of the Golden Girls
You have Bertinelli owning (leasing) a home, much like Rue McClanahan who owned the house. Bertinelli is 50 and McClanahan was 51 when Golden Girls started
Then you have Betty White, as a near clone of Sophia.
Then you have Wendie Malick a washed up, sarcastic person, similar to Bea Arthur, (be was 3 years older than Malick when Golden Girls started)
So you have Leeves odd man out. Not a Rose type she’s infact one year younger than Valarie.
That said the casting is excellent and all of them put forth 100% effort.
It’s a shame the writing is like a first run syndication effort from the 80s. (Think the first run syndies like “Charles In Charge,” “The Munsters Today” and “It’s A Living” type writing)
If it had decent writers with this cast you would or should have a prime time hit on your hands.
Unfortunately they are making Bertinelli 40 years old. While Valarie looks excellent for 50, she is a very pretty FIFTY year old. She can’t pull off 40. Nor can Leeves pull off 40 which screws things up a lot.