Welcome to a new Wildcard Wednesday! Two months ago, I looked at the CBS Monday flop Worst Week (2008-2009), which was adapted from a BBC series with a similar premise. This week, I’m spotlighting an earlier variation on that same idea — another flop I briefly mentioned called Big Day (2006-2007, ABC), which strikes me as especially relevant to our recent discussion of How I Met Your Mother‘s final season. So, enjoy this deserved potpourri pop-out!
BIG DAY (November 2006 – January 2007, ABC)
Premise: Chaos ensues for a young couple on their wedding day.
Cast: Marla Sokoloff, Josh Cooke, Wendie Malick, Kurt Fuller, Miriam Shor, Stephen Rannazzisi, Stephnie Weir, Leslie Odom Jr., Terry Chen
Writers: Josh Goldsmith & Cathy Yuspa, Justin Adler, Dan Kopelman, Matthew Carlson, Maggie Bandur, Bill Daly, Chrissy Pietrosh & Jessica Goldstein, Bob Nickman
Thoughts: Big Day is a conceptually gaudy single-cam that sets its entire first (and only) season on the day of its lead characters’ wedding, making the series’ situation literally the prelude to this one singular event. As with the final season of How I Met Your Mother, which also sets itself in the immediate lead up to a wedding, this is an exciting narrative hook that provides focus and either teases situation-satisfaction, or in this case, is situation-satisfaction (because it is the situation). But it’s tough to maintain a year’s worth of comedic and dramatic tension around one single big event, especially because the required pacing, though harried, makes everything feel stretched and contrived, promising plot progression as a matter of premise but slow-walking it deliberately as a matter of self-sustainment. Big Day suffers from the same speed and creative issues that Mother’s final year does, but there are some key differences. For one, Big Day lacks Mother’s overarching unreliable narrator hook, and so it instead unfolds chronologically, with time stamps providing mile markers (à la FOX’s 24.) This means the show has less freedom with its stories and storytelling, but it also feels like it’s faster, for it’s at least moving. And unlike Mother, there’s nothing sentimental or self-important about the big event informing the situation, so the show is more exclusively comedic and thus more interested in stuffing its 13-episode season full of amusing conflicts (with varying levels of absurdity), providing a sort of screwball sensibility. I like this – and the show is blessed with a strong cast who make it buoyant, especially Wendie Malick and Kurt Fuller as the bride’s parents, and Stephnie Weir as the frazzled wedding planner. Accordingly, while I think the situation itself is one big idea-driven gimmick that comes with its own inherent shortcomings – centering story in a way that crowds out character and doesn’t guarantee long-term success – the quality of the comedic notions, and the support from the personified tangibles within the cast, render this a pretty decent 13-episode curio, particularly on a “binge” where the pacing concerns are less evident. It’s not the kind of sitcom that can enjoy a long, classic run, but as an example of the mid-2000s turning to high-concept tricks to enliven more simple sitcom setups, Big Day is a fine ambassador of this trend, and particularly worth noting here alongside How I Met Your Mother.
Oh, and compared to a show I mentioned a few weeks ago, 2008’s Worst Week, which was the official American adaptation of a BBC sitcom with a similar premise that Big Day half-cribbed (a lead-up to a wedding told in a time-focused format), this show is a lot funnier because of its riskier, bolder ideas and its audacious choice to fill up a single day instead of dedicating each entry to a single day of the week. Big Day’s format, though harder, reinforces the situation at all times and keeps the comic tension higher. (And, frankly, I think it’s just better written.)
Episode Count: 13 episodes produced, 12 of which were broadcast (the unbroadcast entry, #13, has aired in other countries and been released online, where it’s slotted in as the sophomore showing, per the narrative chronology).
Episodes Seen: All 13.
Key Episodes: #3: “Skobo And Alice Hooked Up” (12/12/06)
#5: “Stolen Vows” (12/19/06)
#11: “Magic Hour” (01/09/07)
Why: #3 explores some of the characters and their relationships while ratcheting up the frenzy of wedding prep via a surprise rainstorm, #5 is benefited by the guest work of Stephen Tobolowsky and Marian Seldes as difficult family members, and #11 (intended to be the season’s penultimate) is a fast-paced and fun entry where chaos mounts as the wedding looms, and the great Wendie Malick, in particular, gets to act stoned.
Come back next week for a new Wildcard and some more Sitcom Tuesday fun!