LITTLE ROCK — Judging by last week’s cable-heavy Emmy nominations, the best TV continues to ease inexorably over to cable from the broadcast networks.
What, then, can we expect from a new sitcom from TBS? Cutting-edge humor? Ground breaking subject matter? Brilliant banter and wit?
Nope. Sullivan & Son debuted last week, with the second episode airing at 9 p.m. today. If you missed the pilot, it was merely OK.
OK is not bad. Neither is it particularly good. OK is passable. Undistinguished.
I would have expected better, considering the talented and prolific team behind the series.
Sullivan & Son is executive produced by Vince Vaughn, someone who’s had his share of hilarious performances; Peter Billingsley, who played Ralphie in A Christmas Story and produced Iron Man; and Rob Long, who is also the program’s show runner and co-creator along with Steve Byrne. Long executive-produced Cheers back in the day.
You’d expect the water to be deeper with a talent poollike that.
Instead, we have a sort of Cheers wannabe about a blue-collar neighborhood bar in Pittsburgh full of colorful characters who seem to be phoning in their lines and filling assigned cast stereotypes.
Maybe the cast members were victims of the woes that commonly afflict many pilot episodes. In an attempt to get all the characters established and exposition posted - especially with a large ensemble - many pilots stumble and the series don’t get up to speed for three or four episodes.
Sullivan & Son stars 37-year-old stand-up comedian Byrne, who is an Irish/Asian-American from Pittsburgh.
Byrne plays Steve Sullivan, a successful (but unfulfilled) New York corporate attorney who drags his high maintenance New York girlfriend along for a visit home to see his Irish-American father, Jack (Dan Lauria), and Korean mother, Ok Cha (Jodi Long).
As Steve arrives, his folks are preparing to sell the bar and retire.
Hanging around are Steve’s best friend, Owen (Owen Benjamin), and Steve’s longsuffering younger sister, Susan (Vivian Bang).
At the bar is politically incorrect (OK, he’s a racist) barfly Hank (Brian Doyle Murray), and usually sloshed cougar Carol (Christine Ebersole).
There is even a bit of the romantic spark left with Steve’s former sweetie, Melanie (Valerie Azlynn).
Steve quickly realizes that what he really wants is to dump his posh Manhattanlifestyle and hot girlfriend and return to the old neighborhood and run the family pub.
Hilarity ensues. Hopefully. Eventually.
If it is to succeed, Sullivan & Son needs to find a way to reinvent the magic Norman Lear used to make Archie Bunker such a lovable bigot. I also see no Norm Petersons or Cliff Clavins in this crew, but they could emerge.
I’ll give Sullivan & Son a couple of episodes to find its footing. If not, Thursday is already full of alternatives.
How it works.
All of the above is, of course, my opinion. I might add it’s my studied opinion or my educated opinion or my opinion based on watching TV since 1953 and getting paid to write about it for the past 18 years.
It’s still just my opinion and it’s your prerogative to disagree.
I would have thought that readers realized that it’s the function of a TV critic to watch TV and write about it, but I received an e-mail that made me realize that there must be readers who are ignorant of that.
The e-mail refers to my generally negative review ofUSA’s Political Animals in the July 15 TV Week. Here’s the message in its entirety.
“I was incredibly offended by the piece you wrote in the TV Week about Political Animals. It was so unfair of you to put that story in the guide before the show even came out and the public has a chance to judge for themselves.
“How would you like it if someone criticized you for something you hadn’t even done yet?
“Furthermore, my husband and I watched the show - I watched it twice - and found it to be very informational, educational, and yes, a bit racy. But the contents of this episode remind me of the award-winning series, The West Wing. I hope you will print my letter or at least apologize for writing something about a show no one had been able to see yet.”
I’ll cheerfully debate the merits of the decidedly inferior Political Animals with the brilliant West Wing, but I can’t apologize for doing my job. Sorry.
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Weekend, Pages 32 on 07/26/2012