MickeySo Easy A Caveman Can Screw It Up...
There are those who consider fire to be a living, growing entity rather than merely a fascinating chemical reaction. I myself am starting to consider whether or not stupidity might actually be an entity, purposefully seeking out victims and devouring any coherent thoughts they might once have been capable of. Granted when keeping up on TV and Hollywood news the stupidity level is going to be somewhat higher than almost any other area save politics... but that's poor comfort when the bar has been raised yet again.
ABC is developing a sitcom pilot based on the "So simple a caveman can do it" series of insurance ads. Apparently they decided that a half-minute ad wasn't annoying enough; imagine a whole half our of it. I wonder if the extended commercial will be interrupted to show batches of 30-second sitcoms?
It's anancient old, worn-out sitcom cliche: Put someone in an unfamiliar situation and watch the wacky hijinks commence. Green Acres took a city socialite and married her to a farmer, I Dream of Jeannie gave a scientific and technology-oriented astronaut a magical girlfriend, The Beverly Hillbillies put accomplished character actor Buddy Ebsen into a cookie-cutter, brainless sitcom- the list goes on... and on... and on...
The fish-out-of-ideaswater concept has been played so often that the networks are left recycling old ideas. My Favorite Martian started the alien adapting to this strange planet Earth shtick long before Alf followed suit. Mork & Mindy was saved from being yet another pale copy by Robin Williams' gift for frenetic improv.
The same joke over and over can't sustain a show; the stranger-in-a-strange-land concept is often better used to add a bit of funny to a dramatic show. Some would mention Rob Morrow on Northern Exposure, except that every character on that show was way off the wall. An interesting reverse of the usual alien-stranded-on-Earth motif was Ben Browder's Crichton on Farscape, in which Browder played the one lonely human in another part of the galaxy. His constant pop-culture references helped keep him grounded while allowing for some small humorous bits as his varied shipmates interpreted them as best they could.
Done well, the odd-man-out character can be an interesting mirror for society. Too bad that thoughtful social commentary went right out of the sitcom writers' minds after M*A*S*H was cancelled.
ABC is developing a sitcom pilot based on the "So simple a caveman can do it" series of insurance ads. Apparently they decided that a half-minute ad wasn't annoying enough; imagine a whole half our of it. I wonder if the extended commercial will be interrupted to show batches of 30-second sitcoms?
It's an
The fish-out-of-
The same joke over and over can't sustain a show; the stranger-in-a-strange-land concept is often better used to add a bit of funny to a dramatic show. Some would mention Rob Morrow on Northern Exposure, except that every character on that show was way off the wall. An interesting reverse of the usual alien-stranded-on-Earth motif was Ben Browder's Crichton on Farscape, in which Browder played the one lonely human in another part of the galaxy. His constant pop-culture references helped keep him grounded while allowing for some small humorous bits as his varied shipmates interpreted them as best they could.
Done well, the odd-man-out character can be an interesting mirror for society. Too bad that thoughtful social commentary went right out of the sitcom writers' minds after M*A*S*H was cancelled.
