Welcome to a new Wildcard Wednesday, on a Tuesday! We’re officially returning to the 2000s after celebrating the release of my first book (buy it here), and coverage of 30 Rock will commence tomorrow. In the meantime, I’m easing us back into the 21st century with another Sitcom Potpourri, featuring brief commentary on a few short-lived series and picks for the episodes that I think best represent them. For this post, I’m looking at three flops NBC scheduled during its Must See TV Thursday lineup during the early-to-mid 2000s.
LEAP OF FAITH (February 2002 – April 2002, NBC)
Premise: A New York City woman breaks off her engagement and takes a leap of faith back into the dating scene.
Cast: Sarah Paulson, Ken Marino, Lisa Edelstein, Regina King, Brad Rowe, Tim Meadows, Jill Clayburgh
Writers: Jenny Bicks, Andrea Savage, Chris Parnell, Robb Cullen, Bob Fisher
Thoughts: Leap Of Faith is a network-approved Sex And The City – it’s a single-cam similarly centered on a single gal in NYC whose romantic pursuits are the primary focus, shared with her three best friends. The main distinctions are that one pal is a guy, she’s a former monogamist coming off a serious relationship à la Mary Richards, and everything, overall, is less explicitly sexual. Those are all changes that sound like they come directly from NBC, necessitated by the difference between a mainstream broadcast platform and the rebellious HBO. Nevertheless, it’s still comparable — another “singles in the city” show that were all the rage in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, and I’m afraid no new ground is covered here, especially because in contrast to the other related shows — namely Sex And The City, which also evokes the sophistication of single-cam contrarianism that would become the dominant aesthetic trend for NBC Thursdays starting in the middle of the 2000s, thanks to My Name Is Earl and The Office – there’s not a lot here that’s truly special, particularly by way of the characters. The cast is affable – Paulson is an Everywoman, while Lisa Edelstein and Regina King have strong comic energies – but it’s just meh, ultimately. The devil is in the details, and this show never gets around to ’em.
Episode Count: Six episodes produced and broadcast. | Episodes Seen: All six.
Key Episode: #1: “Detours” (02/28/02)
Why: The pilot script by Sex And The City’s Jenny Bicks is the funniest and most polished of this short run.
COUPLING (September 2003 – October 2003, NBC)
Premise: Six thirty-something Chicagoans with intertwining relationships pursue sex and romance.
Cast: Colin Ferguson, Jay Harrington, Christopher Moynihan, Lindsay Price, Rena Sofer, Sonya Walger
Writers: Steven Moffat, Danny Zuker, Paul Corrigan & Brad Walsh, Phoef Sutton, Liz Astrof, J.J. Philbin
Thoughts: This American take on a British original was brought to NBC’s Thursday night lineup in 2003 with the hopes that it would be an obvious replacement for the soon-to-depart Friends, with which it shared a similar design as another multi-cam about six urban singles and their interrelated romantic histories. I have not seen much of the British series myself, but many U.S. critics did – and they found this show lacking in comparison, savaging it with bad reviews that would feel familiar a year and a half later to The Office, which also got judged harshly at first as a pale imitation of its inspiration. But Coupling is no Office, for it doesn’t have strong bones. Specifically, it’s interested in a messy ensemble dynamic with characters who have complicated relationships – exes, hookups, etc. – but none of them are actually well-defined as individuals with clear personalities and specifics about them that can be used in story beyond these rom-com shenanigans. And the oversexed, somewhat titillating subject matter – which inevitably got toned down when jumping from the U.K. to a mainstream broadcast network in the U.S. but still is prevalent enough to posit the show as something of a cross between Friends and Sex And The City – is not enough of a selling point in the absence of elements that can actually support them in upholding plot… especially in the American tradition, which demands more help because longer seasons and longer runs require more stories. Accordingly, I think Coupling is a show that maybe got adapted too faithfully from its predecessor – censorship aside – and more than just seeming too derivative of a show like Friends (which was already producing so many generic clones), it didn’t offer much of its own about which to get excited.
Episode Count: 10 produced, four of which were broadcast. | Episodes Seen: All 10.
Key Episode: #1: “The Right One” (a.k.a. “Flushed”) (09/25/03)
Why: The pilot sets up the intertwining relationship dynamics and the hypersexual tone – the show’s two main attractions and the most important elements of its situation.
ANDY BARKER, P.I. (March 2007 – April 2007, NBC)
Premise: A public accountant becomes a private eye after he takes over a former P.I.’s office.
Cast: Andy Richter, Clea Lewis, Harve Presnell, Tony Hale, Marshall Manesh, Nicole Randall Johnson
Writers: Conan O’Brien & Jonathan Groff, Chuck Tatham, Gail Lerner, Jane Espenson & Alex Herschlag, Jon Ross, Josh Bycel, Gregg Mettler, Jon Pollack, Daniel Hsia
Thoughts: With an outstandingly fun cast and amiable scripts penned by funny writers, Andy Barker P.I. is a jolly show to watch. But it’s just not poised to be excellent sitcommery – it’s inherently a story-driven procedural with a case-of-the-week format. This demands a type of storytelling that tends to crowd out the main characters and other established elements of a “situation” beyond the basic high-concept premise itself. And while it doesn’t exactly become a full-on genre parody like other single-cams in this vein have done, it’s nevertheless forced to indulge narrative beats and stylistic tropes more reminiscent of shows that aren’t sitcoms. So, this simply wouldn’t ever be something that I’d personally love or sincerely compare favorably to the textbook examples of worthwhile situation comedy elsewhere in the 2006-2007 season.
Episode Count: Six episodes produced and broadcast. | Episodes Seen: All six.
Key Episode: #1: “Pilot” (03/15/07)
Why: I hate to be simplistic and redundant in picking the premiere again, but once you see the funny premise pilot, you get the gist of the entire series.
Ultimately, I say forget Leap Of Faith and Coupling, but try to enjoy Andy Barker, P.I. for what it is. And if you want more of my thoughts on short-lived forgotten sitcoms, pick up my new book — Great American Sitcoms of the 1950s, available now wherever books are sold!
Come back next week for another Wildcard! And stay tuned tomorrow for the start of 30 Rock!