snap shot
Man With a Plan When, where: Premieres Thursday at 7.30pm on Prime Grade: C
What it’s about: Pittsburgh contractor Adam Burns (Matt LeBlanc) decides to spend more time at home with the three kids so wife Andi (Liza Snyder) can go back to work after 13 years as a stayathome mum. The stayathome dad immediately has second thoughts because the kids — Kate (Grace Kaufman), Teddy (Matthew McCann) and Emme (Hala Finley) — are more work than he bargained for. (Veteran TV actress Diana Maria Riva stars as bossy kindergarten teacher Mrs Rodriguez, and Kevin Nealon is Adam’s brother, Don.)
My say: Joey, Joey, Joey.
Matt, Matt, Matt.
You’re killing me. You’re killing us. Both of you.
First there was Joey Tribbiani, the almost willfully witless wonder boy of Friends and one of the most popular characters in TV history. Then there was Matt LeBlanc, of
Episodes, who flipped the Joey facade to reveal a callow and mordantly funny reprobate — who may or may not have been a distant reflection of the real Matt LeBlanc, but at least was a more interesting version, and a Golden Globewinning one, too.
Now, Adam Burns. Enough said about him.
Back to square one for Matt, or whatever comes before ‘‘square one’’.
Man With a Plan is hardly a reversal for the family sitcom — a genre marvellously engineered to withstand reversals no matter how base the hackwork or flavourless the ‘‘com’’ — but it sure feels like a reversal for LeBlanc. In fact, Man
With a Plan is such a generic family sitcom that it’s impossible to determine if there was an original inspiration for this or just a simple calculus.
Most networks have pretty much abandoned traditional family sitcoms — or at least their most prehistoric elements — because they’re not particularly appealing to young viewers who watch stuff on the internet days or even weeks later. But CBS’ audience (average age 59) still tends to watch the oldfashioned way, or when a show actually airs. Moreover, Man will follow — or in networkspeak ‘‘flow out of’’ — hit
Kevin Can Wait. The transition will be so seamless that viewers may not even be able to tell they’re watching a different show. That’s part of the calculus, too.
So don’t be surprised if this isn’t a modest hit and don’t fight the urge to fondly recall the LeBlanc glory days while watching (if you do, even after this warning). He’s still got the old charm — just not much of a showcase for it.
Bottom line: A wan, weary networksitcombycommittee — oh, and Matt LeBlanc, too. — TCA
Man with a Plan premieres on Thursday at 7.30pm, on Prime.