THE TV COLUMN

NBC’s Growing Up Fisher needs work to stay

NBC’s new sitcom, Growing Up Fisher, stars J.K. Simmons as Mel and Eli Baker as his son, Henry.
NBC’s new sitcom, Growing Up Fisher, stars J.K. Simmons as Mel and Eli Baker as his son, Henry.

NBC is going for a sort of family comedy hour on Tuesdays. It’s a gamble.

Saturday post-Olympics brought us a sneak peek at the new sitcom About a Boy, and tonight after the Olympics closing ceremony, we’ll get a look at the second new comedy.

Growing Up Fisher debuts from 9:38 to 10 p.m. The network hopes millions upon millions of lethargic viewers, exhausted from 17 days of Olympics coverage, will simply remain transfixed on the couch and let Fisher roll over them.

The comedy’s regular time will be 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays, following About a Boy.

Of the two, About a Boy has the better chance of success, but Fisher will have its fans given the veteran actors involved.

The series tells the tale of the Fisher family - dad Mel (J.K. Simmons, The Closer); mom Joyce (Jenna Elfman, Dharma & Greg); teenage daughter, Katie (Ava Deluca-Verley, Southland); and 11-year-old Henry (newcomer Eli Baker).

Lance Lim plays Henry’s best bud, Runyen, and Peyton the dog is typecast as Mel’s guide dog, Elvis.

Jason Bateman (Arrested Development) narrates the series as the voice of the adult Henry and serves as executive producer.

This is a sitcom with a gimmick. I wonder how long they can milk it for comedic effect.

The gimmick is not that the family seems to have come closer after the parents divorced. The gimmick is that Mel, a lawyer, has been blind since he was 12. With the help of his law partner brother, Mel has been pretending to be sighted since law school.

He’s very good at it. We see scenes of Mel chopping down trees, showing his daughter how to drive, and playing football with his son.

But now it’s time to come clean. Wanting to set an honest example for Henry, Mel decides to quit pretending to be sighted.

Hilarity ensues. Sometimes.

Joyce may be in her early 40s, but now that she’s divorced, she tries desperately to be her daughter’s best friend. That never works out well since her primary job is to be the mom.

At the center of all this chaos is Henry. Having always been his dad’s eyes and wingman, Henry is less than thrilled when his job is outsourced to Elvis.

The series was created by DJ Nash (who writes and serves as executive producer) and is based partly on his life. The poignant lesson Nash relates is that upon reflection, his parents’ split finally allowed the Fishers to become one happy - if divorced - family.

I’ve only seen two episodes and they seemed still rough to me. Maybe it was because Elfman replaced Parker Posey in July after the initial pilot was shot. Maybe the cast hasn’t had time to gel. Maybe Baker is too saccharin in the role of Henry.

At any rate, on Tuesday nights NBC will need folks to come for The Voice and stay for About a Boy and Growing Up Fisher. The challenge is that the competition is well-established. The hugely popular NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles are airing on CBS, The Bachelor is on ABC; and Glee, New Girl and Brooklyn Nine Nine are on Fox.

The Voice. Season 6 kicks off with the first part of the blind auditions from 7 to 9p.m. Monday. Part 2 of the premiere follows from 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday. Usher and Shakira return as judges this season, joining Adam Levine and Blake Shelton.

Heads up. FX has a new half-hour comedy created by and starring George Lopez. Saint George premieres at 8 p.m. March 6. Lopez will play a recently divorced working-class Mexican-American (named George Lopez) turned successful and wealthy entrepreneur. He finds himself caught between two cultures.

FX tells us, “He struggles to balance the parenting demands of his all-American Anglo ex-wife, Mackenzie (Jenn Lyon), and the cultural expectations of his overbearing mother, Alma (Olga Merediz).

“Ultimately, Saint George is a celebration of a multi-generational family that humorously wrestles with cultural differences.”

Bonus: The iconic Danny Trejo plays “fun-loving” Uncle Tio.

Late night aging. With the Olympics ending today (7:30-9:38 p.m.), Jimmy Fallon will settle into the regular Tonight Show slot of 10:35 p.m. on Monday. NBC is hoping the younger Fallon (39) will attract a younger, advertiser-friendly audience.

Advertisers covet the 18 to 49 demographic. Older than that and you’re pretty much ignored.

The overall late-night audience, however, is steadily aging. The median viewer age for The Tonight Show With Jay Leno was 57.8 years. ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! is 54.2, and the median age for David Letterman’s CBS audience is 58.

Where are the kids? They’re catching Fallon’s best comedy segments on YouTube.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email: mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Style, Pages 48 on 02/23/2014

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