The previews of Whoopi Goldberg’s new show make it look like it may be one of the worst TV “comedy” shows to air in recent memory.
<sarcasm>
Oooh, Arab stereotypes! I’ve never heard those jokes before, I’m sure that material will be fresh, witty and original!
A white girl using urban street slang, eh? Edgy! I’m sure that will lay the groundwork for even more fresh and original racial jokes, oh yeah!
And Whoopi herself, what a gal. If you made a list of the top films of the 1990’s, who wouldn’t include such screen gems as The Associate and Eddie? And let’s not forget the cinematic classic Made in America (and boy, that Ted Danson is really something special in Becker, truly a shining example of scripted comedic excellence on that station known for it’s young, hip audience, CBS.)
</sarcasm>
Are we pretty much agreed about the merits of this show? If somebody breaks down and watches this tomorrow, please let us know if it was as bad as the promos make it look.
Honestly, when you look at the scripted comedies that make it past the pilot stage, it’s no wonder the networks roll out these reality shows. They’re cheap, and they’re bound to do better in the ratings then another cookie-cutter sitcom filled with stale punchlines. At least they’re not combining them (i.e. reality show about a smart, single woman working at a magazine with a cast of wacky ethnically-diverse supporting characters.)
I agree, the ads alone for this are cringe-worthy. I hope someone takes the bullet for us and watches it, I can’t believe it could possibly be as bad as it looks.
I thought people might take to Whoopi in a sitcom since her movie career has fizzled so badly, but this looks retched. So Arab stereotypes are OK if the show stars Whoopi? Even “Boondocks” dropped its white girl speaking hip-hop slang.
I doubt this would have ever gotten on air if Whoopi weren’t part of it. American sitcoms set in hotels have such a great track record.
About the only thing that looks as bad is that new ABC sitcom It’s All Relative starring Lenny Clarke. Oh look, tired " working class Irish Catholic" stereotypes, played out “flaming gay” stereotypes, and unoriginal “dopey straight white guy” stereotypes all in one show. Guess they couldn’t find room for the wacky neighbor or the minority co-worker? Wonder if they’ll add a slutty best friend of the female lead?
I agree with the Whoopi show. It’s a shame because Goldberg can be hilarious if given the right writers or just by herself. I thought she was good in Ghost. I have no idea how anybody connected with this show could think it was funny.
My new comedy viewing is being held out for the premiere of the new Jason Bateman (yes, that one) show Arrested Development which premieres on Fox in November. It got the “Best New Comedy” pick from Entertainment Weekly, which was enough for me to give it a chance.
Ah, I was waiting for a thread to start on this one.
A show where everyone is a stereotype and all the jokes are about the stereotypes. Who approved this??? Who does Whoppi sleep with for these deals, and better yet, who would want to sleep with Whoppi?
I say it’s canceled inside of a month.
Does it feature a hot woman with a fat husband who is inconsiderate, not successful financially, and not socially skilled?
Cause if not, count me out; that’s the key formula to a successful sitcom if ya ask me.
I dunno, I’ll give the whoopi show a chance just to see if they make good fun of each other or stupid contrived fun of each other.
I may even go so far as to watch a whole episode if the first half isn’t too stupid.
It seems like this is a trend in TV lately, with “tough crowd” and the other show Colin Quinn had a while back. Also that “we hate the gay people” bird cage ripoff. And there’s one other along the same lines IIRC, the main theme being “we hate each other because we’re different and hilarity ensues”
I blame the new conservatism in our political climate.
I don’t know the name twickster just the voice. As they run the clips from the Whoopi show the commenter comes on and says the schpeel about being the best fall line up comedy.
The same commenter makes statements about the critics when flashing the show “Coupling” which also looks like it sucks.
Looking at the comments here, totally everything on the new lineup looks terrible, though maybe one or two will surprise us. Whoopi drew my ire, but the rest don’t look much better. (To be fair to Whoopi, she can be funny, and in a very laidback atmosphere she can come off as really likeable in a Billy Crystal or Micheal Keaton sort of way, but she’s terrible in “wacky” highstrung situations.)
Which all makes me wonder why they don’t just stick it out with some longer-running shows. At least the longer-running shows have some fan base, and if the writing picks up they might spread word of mouth for the show. No matter how bad Drew Carey did the last couple seasons (which was not all his fault, ABC has no draw for viewers between Tuesday and Friday), if it picked up a little people would jump right back on because they’re familiar with the show. But some new show, with no name recognition or viewer familiarity, will tank after the first crummy week. At least longer running shows will be able to survive some down times and grab the viewers back.
But of course, longer running shows have more expensive talent then some generic 20-somethings sitcom like Coupling, so perhaps there’s the factor. I wonder how ad revenues compare to the actor’s salaries.
