Monday night is CBS with How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men. Tuesday night is Fox with Hell’s Kitchen (although the season has just ended and I have a void to fill). Thursday night is obviously NBC - always has been and, quite possibly, always will be. Even Sunday night is claimed by the premium channels - Showtime for Dexter and HBO for Curb Your Enthusiasm.
I don’t know if ABC has ever claimed a night of TV watching in my life since TGIF. However, based on a deep appreciation for the great joy Disneyland brought me last spring (6 visits), I’d love to offer ABC my support. Finally, thanks to its Wednesday night comedy lineup, I’m able to do that.
It’s not 2 hours of non-stop perfection like you’ll find with Community, Parks & Recreation, and The Office on NBC, but it’s good enough for you to give it a chance. It starts with Hank at 8 starring Kelsey Grammer. I’m not going to lie: the show isn’t great. In fact, I lost interest after about 10 minutes the first time I watched it. However, it’s undeniable that Grammer’s booming and articulate voice offers unique comedic delivery. If you’re a fan, you might be willing to deal with his character for a measly half hour.
It gets better at 8:30 with The Middle. It stars Patricia Heaton, and although I was stubbornly against Everybody Loves Raymond (if I wanted to watch a family fight all the time, I could have just left my bedroom), her character in this show is different. Funny, if you will. The show focuses on a Midwestern middle class family struggling during the economic crisis. (But don’t worry, it doesn’t get too serious about it.) The show should be able to grab a large audience since so many people can relate to the situation. It also won’t hurt that Neil Flynn (you may know him as the Janitor/Dr. Jan Itor in Scrubs) plays the dad. He’ll cause you to laugh most. I promise.
At 9 is the show that got me watching on Wednesday night in the first place: Modern Family.
Perhaps you’ve heard of it since it’s the one show from this lineup getting any bit of buzz. The promotions grabbed my attention, and when I finally had the chance to watch, the show delivered. It focuses on a large and uniquely constructed family and their three different households. First is Ed Oneill as Jay, the patriarch of the Pritchett family, and his house with his smoking hot (and much younger) Latina trophy wife and her oddball, square son Manny. Oneill’s relationship with Manny is hilarious; imagine a relentless nerdy little kid that constantly gets under Al Bundy’s skin. Jay’s daughter, son-in-law, and 3 kids make up the next household with the Dunphy family. It’s your standard nuclear family that might seem flat and trite in any other circumstance, but in this show and surrounded by the other families, it doesn’t disappoint. Also, Ty Burrell as the dad Phil Dunphy is absolutely perfect. The last family that makes up this modern family is my personal favorite. In fact, part of me is hoping for a spinoff so it will have 30 minutes to itself. Jay’s gay son Mitchell and his partner Cameron make up the third house along with their newly adopted Asian daughter Lilly. (“You gave the baby a name that her birth parents wouldn’t even be able to say?”) Eric Stonestreet as the chubby and flamboyant Cameron is the best part of this show. In the second episode, watching him try to “tone down the gay” as he and Mitchell brought Lilly to her first family daycare session was the funniest thing I’ve seen from any comedy this season. Period.
The lineup ends at 9:30 with Cougartown. I don’t know who will like this show. I guess cougars, but are they a large enough demographic at this point? (Based on the cougar hunting I’ve done in hotel bars and my scarce findings, I’d say no.) You should give it a chance to see if Courtney Cox still tickles your fancy from her Friends days. You have nothing to lose watching the first few minutes with Modern Family leading in, which you should be watching anyway.
All in all, the lineup starts and ends weak, but The Middle and Modern Family are, if nothing else, DVR-worthy so you can watch them on a rainy day to evaluate for yourself. I hope you like what you see.
