Trio of sitcom veterans star in new ABC series.
If you want an exercise in frustration, try creating a successful sitcom on TV. Emphasis on successful.
First of all, the odds are daunting for getting a network just to listen to your sales pitch, let alone greenlight a pilot, then pick up the pilot, then actually put it on the air.
Then you hope the show finds enough of an audience to get renewed before the plug is pulled. The odds for a second season for any show are only about 20 percent.
Still, the networks keep cranking out the hopefuls and every now and then one finds favor and becomes a hit such as The Big Bang Theory or Modern Family.
On Wednesday, ABC is throwing its latest sitcom hopeful up against the wall to see if it sticks.
How to Live With Your Parents (for the Rest of Your Life) is the too-long, gimmicky title of the comedy premiering at 8:30 p.m. for your consideration. How to Live doesn’t reinvent the comedy wheel, but it does star actors you’ve enjoyed before.
The series, created by Claudia Lonow, follows the manic single-mother adventures of the recently divorced Polly, played by comedy veteran Sarah Chalke.
After she dumps her goofy slacker husband Julian (Jon Dore), the economic downturn forces Polly and her young daughter Natalie (Rachel Eggleston) to move back in with her mom Elaine (Elizabeth Perkins) and step-dad Max (Brad Garrett).
Let’s call Max and Elaine eccentric. That’s a safe label. Their unfettered lifestyle is a bit unnerving for a single mom trying to get her life back together.
Julian is still hanging around. He means well and loves his daughter. He’s having trouble letting Polly go.
And, of course, we need the obligatory wacky best friend for Polly. That would be co-worker Jenn, played by Stephanie Hunt. She has piercings, dates a lot and views Polly as a cautionary tale.
Lonow played Diana Fairgate on Knots Landing back in the day, and has since written and produced for a string of shows that had minor success. ABC’s Less Than Perfect was the longest lasting.
Long title? ABC is known for them. Examples: 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter and Don’t Trust the B—— in Apartment 23.
When asked about her mouthful of a title at last summer’s TV critics press tour, Lonow said How to Live is the story of her own life and the title just sort of sums it all up. She’s 50 and still lives with her parents.
But is there fresh comedy in Polly’s life with her attempt to get back in the dating scene? Isn’t that the same exact theme as the recently canceled Ben and Kate and countless others? Why should we give this one a shot? The cast alone warrants a look.
We all loved Chalke as Becky on Roseanne and Elliot on Scrubs. She has been on our TV sets for 20 years — since she was 16. We loved Garrett on Everybody Loves Raymond and (some of us) on ’Til Death. And the multitalented Perkins was memorable opposite Tom Hanks in Big, and brilliant on Weeds.
Will How to Live be the perfect combination of wit and casting to make an impression on an increasingly fickle viewing audience? I was prepared not to like it, but found it more amusing than I had hoped.
Still, I’ll watch a couple of more episodes before I decide to add it to my DVR list.
I get e-mail. Hardly a day passes when I don’t get an e-mail or two that asks when a series is coming back. Here’s today’s example.
“Is Major Crimes ever going to come back? And what about that series with the guy who played Will on Will & Grace where he is a schizophrenic college professor who solves crimes? I like both of those.”
The answer to both is June. Note the problem. Cable series (these are both on TNT) have fewer episodes and the break between seasons is long enough that fans of the shows even forget the titles.
For the record, the second series is Perception and it stars Will & Grace’s Eric McCormack.
Mark your calendar. Another show set to return June 19 featuring people we love is TV Land’s Hot in Cleveland starring Valerie Bertinelli ( One Day at a Time), Jane Leeves ( Frasier), Wendie Malick ( Just Shoot Me!) and the incomparable Betty White ( The Golden Girls). The new season will feature a very, very special episode (date to be announced) that reunites the ladies of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Along with White, the episode will feature Moore, Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman and Georgia Engel. It will be the first time in 30 years the five have been together on one sitcom stage.
Harper has recently announced she has terminal brain cancer, so it will be a bittersweet affair.