TWOP and ABC offered a preview of this online, and we watched it last night.
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We really liked it. I had been spoiled on so many of the jokes from the commercials, but I still laughed out loud many times. I think my favorite part was “Come on, Dad, Cameron isn’t that dramat-” cue Lion King baby presentation, complete with final musical flourish and baby spotlight.
All the kids seem to be really good, especially the kid who plays Manny. I loved his courage and poetic soul.
They did a good job of setting up some situation comedy, real relationships that have humor, and also silly one-second gags.
This is definitely going in the Tivo queue - I’ll probably watch it again tomorrow night (partially cuz it’s good, partially cuz ABC’s player sucks bigtime).
Watched the premiere last night, and I was underwhelmed. They didn’t use Ed O’Neill to his full potential, the dad of the teenagers (Phil) is just a Michael Scott clone, right down to the silly mannerisms and fake accent, and the gay couple could not possibly have been more stereotyped. I’d say lose the gays, put Phil in the background, and let it be MWC 20 years later.
Watched it and will probably watch a few more.
But I agree, the dark-haired dad (Phil?) was by far the weakest point. Whether or not I continue watching may well be dictated by how his character is played. If they make him a major role and do not tone him down, I will lose interest quickly. Of course, having said that, I think my favorite line was his, “Lily, won’t she have trouble saying that?”
The Lion King thing was hysterical.
Gotta appreciate the lack of laugh track.
It was weird - there were several things I really didn’t like - mostly Phil trying to be cool, and also his wife. But OTOH I had at least 5 laugh-out-loud moments, which is EXTREMELY unusual for me with new comedies.
I think pilots generally have the characters acting more outrageous to “establish” the character. Hopefully, since they’ve done that with Cool Dad, they can tone it down. Yes, he was way too extreme, but the show was fairly amusing. I’ll stick with it (thank the stars for DVR as it comes on opposite “Glee”) and see where it goes.
God I love Hulu, all these new shows are conveniently there for me.
Yes, this along with Community had very impressive pilots. When you consider Glee on top of it all, this is one of the best years for new shows that I can recall.
It was OK, but 80% of the jokes were spoiled by commercials I couldn’t avoid seeing.
They never explained why they have a camera following them around, ala Arrested Development. It’s imitation for the sake of imitation, which is usually a bad show smell.
The dark haired Corpse Father is doing a poor Michael Scott impression, and Julie Bowen tries too hard at comedy for it to actually be funny.
That doesn’t really bother me since they’re stereotyping everybody. Though I did think was a little strange when the redhead refered to his partner of 5 years with whom he just adopted a child with as his boyfriend. :dubious:
Thank you! He was the guy with the boat from the Dawn of the Dead remake.
I never saw the commercials, and only tuned in by accident. I loved it, especially the gay couple with the family gathering. My brother’s gay and my dad had similar discomfort about interrupting him (by phone). “It’s okay, Dad, we’re not doing anything gay.”
Well, we’ve watched it for three weeks now - I can’t believe how much we’re laughing at it. This is totally not our kind of show, and yet we are enjoying it a lot. The characters are all stereotypes and somehow manage to twist each one in a funny way. A grudging two thumbs up.
it is not just the stereotype characters, it is also the twist on stereotype relationships, last week especially. Claire and Manny having “coffee”… Step-Grandma Gloria and grand-daughter Alex goign out for lunch. This week watching Mitchel and his parents was great too (shout out to great Shelley Long work)
And the mom yelling at her son to put his pants back on - I don’t know why that should be so funny, but I just lost it. “Put 'em on! Yeah, put 'em back on!” I suspect they may have a brilliant cast going on here (I loved the red-headed gay guy when he was in “The Class”).
Since it looks like there isn’t enough interest for its own thread I’ll just pull up this old one.
Last night’s episode was really funny. So many great lines. And I’m starting to warm up to Phil. He’s still wacky, but his wackness is starting to come from a real place rather than the script as I thought through the first episodes.
The best line for me was the lack of a line:
Gloria: Should I give back these earings?
Claire&Phil: No
Gloria: This bracelet?
Claire&Phil: No
Gloria: This dress?
Claire: No
Phil’s face is terrific there when he realizes what he’s done.
Another fun episode last night–no major incidents or story developments, but cashing paydirt out of little behaviors. And the car pratfall was sheer genius.
“We locked the baby in the car, and people are looking on and judging us!”
Something I just realized, two weeks late - Ed O’Neill was originally cast as Sam Malone in “Cheers” - he was going to be a retired football player. So they stunt cast Shelley Long as his ex-wife.
