In reporting positive results for the company’s most recent fiscal quarter, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman made a point to identify various properties that had performed beyond expectations. One such property was TV Land’s newest scripted comedy starring Fran Drescher, Happily Divorced.
It was purely coincidence that I had chosen Happily Divorced for this week’s column, but I felt it somewhat fortuitous. Not because Dauman’s opinion would influence my experience, but it’s always interesting to evaluate something that’s been deemed a “success” by others. And it creates a deeper level, because if I don’t like it I always wonder what it is that other people are raving about.
Plus, TV Land is the perfect setting for the double-layered question due to another of its original programs, Hot in Cleveland. I’ve watched a bunch of episodes of the show, and despite an all star cast — and critical praise — man is it bad. But people love it.
Well, I don’t think Happily Divorced needs much more of a preamble, because man is it bad as well. Drescher stars as Fran (I’ve always wondered if actors who repeatedly share a name with their character have trouble learning to respond to a different name), a flower shop owner whose husband Peter (John Michael Higgins) wakes up one night to tell her that he’s gay. The couple continue to live together, but, you know, hijinxs ensue.
The cast is an interesting mix of comedy veterans. Drescher’s The Nanny was ready-made for daytime repeats, while Higgins did time on shows like Arrested Development and Kath & Kim, while rocking small movie roles like Willie the Elf in Fred Claus. And lest we forget best friend Judi (Tichina Arnold); Arnold was none other than Pam on Martin, and she also played Rochelle (the mom, right?) on Everybody Hates Chris. These people have done this before.
Not only that, but last week’s episode sported guest stars like Lou Diamond Phillips (Ritchie Valens!) and Renée Taylor, who played Drescher’s mother on The Nanny (they did a cute wink to their old show). How low could a crew like that go?
Not a good question to be asking on that set. Everyone was phoning it in, and there wasn’t a thing that wasn’t as stereotypical as it could possibly be. Not to mention recycled plot lines … the only new thing I experienced in the thirty minutes was learning that Tichina Arnold can sing well.
I’m not invested in Drescher’s career, but with some of her fellow nineties sitcom stars returning to the small screen this season her flop makes me wonder whether some stars might only have “made it” due to the perfect mix of actor and role.
I’m not suggesting that Kelsey Grammer (Boss) and Tim Allen (Last Man Standing) aren’t stars with long shadows that extend far beyond their old shows, but Grammer, for one, has never portrayed any TV character as successfully as he did Dr. Frasier Crane (for twenty years). All I’m saying is, make sure the role — and the show — is as good as the one you did previously before moving forward with production. The Nanny was no Frasier, but Drescher can do better than Happily Divorced.
As for the deeper question … I have no idea. Might an older audience find Nanny Fine a hoot?
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Aug 08, 2011 @ 14:15 EST5EDT
Disagree disagree disagree! Hot in Cleveland is hilarious and a throwback to those late 80s/early 90s sitcoms. You can’t deny the popularity of Betty White, and Wendi Malick is a comedy genius who should have been Emmy nominated this year as well. Happily Divorced started out shaky, true, but it’s finding its footing, and Fran Drescher is pretty beloved by those people who watched The Nanny, and continue to watch it on Nick at Nite. The shows fit perfectly into the TV Land schedule because of their old school, “shot before a live studio audience” style. Both shows just take me back to Saturday night on NBC when they ruled the comedy landscape. I just hope Happily Divorced continues to improve in the writing department in its second season. If you want to see a show that really wasn’t funny, have a gander at Retired at 35, another TV Land original. Not even the brilliant Jessica Walter could wring a laugh out of that writing (but maybe season 2 will be better).
P.S. Tichina Arnold has always been a singer. She’s one of the “Greek chorus” singers in the Little Shop of Horrors movie with her friend Tisha Campbell!
*POST AUTHOR*
You’ve actually stirred up memories of old NBC nuggets like Empty Nest, Phenom, and The Torkelsons, shows that, I believe, were in the mold of the old school of which you speak. And I do have appreciation for the stars of Hot in Cleveland – Valerie Bertinelli is brilliant, Jane Leeves is awesome, and I appreciate Betty White for her storied career, and not just for what the Johnny-come-lately gang has come to cheer her for in recent years. We’ll have to agree to disagree on Wendie Malick, though. She was good on Frasier, but I always found her the weakest link on Just Shoot Me!, and I found her more the latter on her new show.
But with that, two thoughts come to mind. 1) I’ve caught episodes of shows like The Golden Girls and The Nanny recently enough, and neither was as cheesy, corny, or full of cheap laughs as I’ve experienced Hot in Cleveland and Happily Divorced to be. They may be attempts at recreating the shows of the era, but I didn’t feel like they do a particularly good job at capturing the magic. And, 2) while I have memories of 80s shows, I grew up watching shows of the nineties. To me, a sitcom is supposed to be ala Seinfeld, Friends, Frasier, and Everybody Loves Raymond in quality and laughs, and I don’t associate with anything else.
Am I attempting to compare different animals? Maybe. But to me a lot of those “classic” sitcoms weren’t very good. Cheers? Never saw what was funny in it. Even All in the Family went over my head. I’m not saying that in the annals of television history Friends will go down as a better sitcom, but each is for a different generation.
So if you’re telling me that the 80s sitcom generation goes for Hot in Cleveland and Happily Divorced, then you’ve answered the deeper question for me. But I don’t see it.
And thanks for the info on Tichina Arnold. I didn’t know! :)
I loved The Torkelsons! Comedy is subjective, so no one is going to agree on what’s funny. I grew up watching TV at the tail-end of the 60s when most sitcoms were shot like movies, and then moved into the “live studio audience” shows of the 70s, 80s and 90s. Does Hot in Cleveland compare to The Golden Girls in the writing department? Probably not, but I still find the show very funny because it brings back those memories. I’ve stuck with Happily Divorced because I like Fran, Tichina and John Michael. It’s struggled to really be funny, but I’ve seen some improvement, so I’m willing to give the show (and it’s stars) time to find their footing (and as much as I like Jessica Walter and George Segal, not even they could get me through a full season of Retired at 35). I certainly enjoy many of the modern sitcoms, but I can find a nostalgic place for these two “modern” sitcoms as well.
And we will have to agree to disagree on Wendi Malick. She was the main reason I watched Just Shoot Me.
I’m an older guy who managed to ever so slightly enjoy “Hot In Cleveland” last season, but just barely. My wife and I stuck with it because we loved all the people in it, but after about 4 episodes this season we decided to dump it. Even so, we were watching when the first episode of “Happily Divorced” aired.
Normally I’d give a show a good half-dozen episodes before ditching it, but even my wife, who will happily watch anything (we often say she’d enjoy “The History of Dung” if such a show existed), couldn’t bear to watch “Happily Divorced” past the first episode. To say the plots and jokes are recycled is putting it mildly. Some of the setups and situations were old when “The Dick Van Dyke Show” was still on the air and now they’re just embarrassingly bad.
I was a bit disappointed that “Hot In Cleveland” (aka, the new, less-capable “Golden Girls”) has gone downhill since it wasn’t exactly high on the slopes of entertainment to start with. I love every actor on that show, so it pains me to see it falter like this.
*POST AUTHOR*
I take solace in the fact that someone who generally has a taste for the “classic” agrees here. Seriously. :)
Like I said to Chuck, I think that, if these are meant to recreate an era’s style, they’ve failed to make more than a flat reproduction, more fax than hologram. I would have written Hot in Cleveland off as everyone trying to capitalize on Betty White at the same moment if not for the strong overall cast … that just makes it worse. And Happily Divorced is to Fran Drescher as The Starter Wife was to Debra Messing. I just hope they both have something better up their sleeves.
As is traditional, we’ll have to disagree about “Cheers” and “All In The Family” as those are two of my all-time favorite shows. Especially “Cheers” which still makes me laugh. I can just read lines of Norm Peterson come-backs and laugh until I cry.
Since it was her 100th birthday recently, how do you feel about Lucille Ball?
*POST AUTHOR*
Thanks for the reminder to read Chuck’s great post!
My father introduced us to Lucy (and also to Howdy Doody and Carol Burnett), and I’ve probably seen most, if not every episode of I Love Lucy, and even some of the later series that she tried her hand at. It’s not always my comedy, but Lucille Ball had the ability to transcend and create eternal moments: mirroring Harpo Marx, stomping grapes in a vat in Italy, stuffing chocolates down her shirt. That’s genius that she is almost alone in having possessed.
My father recently taught my three year-old son to say “Vitameatavegamin.” Now that’s leaving an eternal legacy.
Not that I need one, but here’s another reason to love Lucy. She was pivotal in getting “Star Trek” on the air.
https://trekmovie.com/2011/08/06/star-trek-loves-lucy/
*POST AUTHOR*
Yeah … that just makes me wonder why she’d do that to us. :)
I think I watched about two minutes of this show before giving up on it. The jokes just weren’t funny, and the premise is just bad. I’ve liked a lot of John Michael Higgins’ roles, so it’s disappointing to see him in stuff like this.