Andrea Martin of ‘Great News’ makes an embarrassing, loveable sitcom mom
ON THE eve of Mother’s Day, the gods of television have blessed us with a wacky, weird and wonderful TV mother.
She’s Carol Wendelson of NBC’s “Great News” ( 9p.m. ET Tuesdays). Her only child, Katie ( Briga Heelan), is a producer for a cable news show. Inspired to follow her own long- deferred dream of working in television, Carol lands an internship with her daughter’s show.
Yes, improbable. But it makes for a great premise in this Tina Fey-produced sitcom.
Carol is not an ideal mom. She masterfully dispenses guilt, telling her daughter, “I quit my job to raise you. You’re all I have in the world - well, except for your father, but he’s boring.” Whatever pops into her mind comes out of her mouth. Meeting her daughter’s diminutive boss, she observes, “He’s not that tiny.” Then to her daughter: “I love this man; you should date him.”
Yet Katie does not hate her mom. In fact, Katie likes her. They chat every day with genuine affection. Maybe that’s because like every good mother, Carol believes in her child. Sure, she meddles, like the time she strong- armed a high school coach into putting Katie on the track team. But it was Katie’s speed that won the trophies still on display in a home shrine.
Still, no one wants their mother in their workplace. So Katie unsuccessfully tries to get her mom fired. But there are no hard feelings. Carol forgives her, and the internship (and motherdaughter friendship) continues. Besides, Carol does have useful job skills. Like any experienced mother, she knows how to make a crabby brat — the show’s diva anchor, played by John Michael Higgins — get with the programme.
Andrea Martin, the pint- sized dervish who whirled into TV history back in 1976 as leopardprint-wearing vulgarian Edith Prickley on “SCTV”, makes an amazing mother. Though she is “an old”, as people of a certain age are labelled on the show, she is ageless in her energy, with a slightly unhinged look in her mischievous dark eyes. And while the show is a little uneven — sometimes hilarious, sometimes contrived — Carol Wendelson will undoubt ed ly make it live up to its potential.