11/30/04

According to Jim, ABC
Rodney, ABC


According to Jim, ABC

The fat, overbearing dad with hot wife sitcom will never die, no matter how bad it smells. Essential to this genre are the cute kids who do little more than stand around, and relatives who basically live at the house. If relatives aren’t available, the next-door neighbor will suffice.

Every network has to have one of these vehicles, if not two. Hard to say if each network’s entertainment honcho decrees that his prime-time lineup must have a predictable family sitcom or not, but it seems to be the case. It’s hard to believe that each thinks they can do the genre better than the other, but maybe it’s about having a complete lineup that panders to every demographic.

In this case, the dad is Jim Belushi, being Jim Belushi, which is to say the persona of a not quite funny not quite mock serious blowhard. The hot wife is Courtney Thorne-Smith, who married him to get out of Melrose Place and move to the Chicago suburbs. Her single sister and single brother spend every spare moment at the house giving Jim plenty of opportunities to be not really funny so they can have a not quite snappy retort. A twist on the genre is that the overweight, single-for-too-long brother works with Jim; they’re architects. (odd to realize we haven’t seen an architect drama on network TV yet; architects have been a prized male profession in the movies for some time. My foray into this genre might be called Plan). The sister, naturally, is single, too. Oh the possibilities!

The single, painfully obvious plotline must always revolve around overweight dad getting mock-understated over-the-top mad about something and how things swirl around him to not quite teach him a lesson and impart values.

The guy to stir the mix on this episode was Tom Arnold doing a riff on his somewhat-dicky persona. Don’t know if this is an act or all he’s capable of, but he somehow brings more to his roles than the people he’s usually supporting.


Rodney

I didn’t know who Rodney was when I started watching, but typically, he’s a stand-up comedian and the series is based on his humor. No idea what his act is like, and as much as I want to blame somebody in control for pointless television, it’s hard to be down on moderately successful stand-up comics who take this route. Stand up is a rough way to make a living, so I have a hard time seeing anyone turning down the offer to have a sitcom based around her work, even if the result is pretty bad.

I don’t know why Rodney is on after Jim. Too many similarities. He’s not as overweight, but still kind of thick. His wife is blonde, though not as hot. The sister-in-law is more desperately single than the sister-in-law on Jim. The kids are equally props.

But I’m sure fans would point out the differences. Rodney’s family is lower down the socio-economic food chain, as witnessed by the job Rodney hates, how their house is smaller and more cluttered, and how they talk about money. Rodney is good natured and a schemer. His wife isn’t as hot, though the sister-in-law might be played by the same actress.

Still the jokes can be predicted well before they take place, the humor is very gentle, though Rodney does get in a good quip now and again. “You’re a binge worshiper,” Rodney told his wife before they made their annual trip to church Christmas eve. But beyond that, there seems to be a heavy reliance on “man” issues. Guys don’t wear this or that, they’re easily enticed by flirty saleswomen, they want to make all the financial decisions in a household.

Maybe Homer Simpson was right when he said, “It’s funny because it’s true.” But I’m not laughing. I’d like to believe that we’re told these jokes are funny, and if we hear them often enough they become and remain funny, even though their “truth” is that we’ve agreed to the delusion since television has been around.