Whoopi Family

The 2003-2004 TV season is officially underway, with NBC featuring debut episodes of two new sitcoms: "Whoopi" and "Happy Family". I find most sitcoms unwatchable, but I decided to give these two a look, based mostly on the stars (Whoopi Goldberg and John Larroquette, respectively). They're both simple-minded enough that they might find a large enough audience to last the season, but they're done with enough skill and a hint of intelligence to actually be worth watching if your Tuesday evening is free.

my rating:

"Whoopi" is a riff on the Workplace Sitcom, with an attention-commanding star running a business (in this case a small New York City hotel), surrounded by "colorful" staff. Part of the hook for the show is that the staff actually is somewhat colorful, with an Iranian handyman, Whoopi's white-acting brother, and his black-acting white girlfriend. (Ironically, this approach - but with a stronger depth of characterisation - was the general framework of Larroquette's series of several years ago.) In a TV landscape where most sitcoms are either mostly white (and aimed at a corresponding audience) or mostly black (and very clearly tailored for a black audience), a multi-ethnic cast aimed at a racially-broad demographic gets some attention.

It's certain to gain additional attention (deliberately so) for some of its "topical" ethnic humor. In particular, the handyman is sure to raise eyebrows, dropping references to seemingly terrorist connections on one hand, and taking offence at being mistaken for an Arab (native Iranians are Persian) on the other. Also, Whoopi ridicules President W's pronounciation of "nucular"... the sort of political irreverence that was commonplace on TV back when, say, Jimmy Carter routinely made the same elocutory error, but which today raises accusations of "disloyalty". Cheers to Whoopi for reminding us that it's OK to make fun of the president. (Especially when he's an idiot.)

So far all of the characters are 1.5-dimensional, except for Whoopi's character (a former one-hit wonder on the pop charts) which is 2-dimensional. Future episodes will determine whether they continue to retell the same middle-eastern/terrorist and black/white jokes over and over or keep it fresh.

my rating:

Meanwhile, John Larroquette has left his urban bus station for the sitcom cliché setting of the suburban family living room, complete with a couch at center stage. With co-star Christine Baranski as his wife, the gimmick in "Happy Family" is that the late-middle-aged couple is on the cusp of the empty-nest stage of their life together when it becomes clear that none of their three children is really ready for adulthood and true independence of the help and guidance of Mom and Dad. (I bet my parents can relate.) The youngest son has just flunked junior college and moves in with their divorced next-door-neighbor, the middle daughter is chronically dateless, and even the successful eldest son the dentist has both a fiancé and a girlfriend.

What saves this from being painful to watch are the performances, especially of the two stars. Rather than chewing the scenery like dorks and relying on the laugh track to get people to smile on cue, they keep the acting fairly low-key, and demonstrate just enough depth to let you care about them as characters. So far the three children are 1-dimensional, which is going to have to change to keep me interested, but it's off to a fair enough start that I'll let the TiVo record upcoming episodes.

Plus the youngest son appears twice in his briefs. {grin}

There may be a gem or maybe two yet to come in the latest round of disposable new sitcoms coming this Fall. But I doubt it. This could very well be the cream of the crop.