You Know What's Funny, According to ABC? Laid-Off Dads …
Posted on 16. Mar, 2009 by Brian Reid in General
I have spent a lot of time over the past few years gleefully pointing out that there is very little humor to be squeezed out of at-home fatherhood. The “Mr. Mom” no longer works; most Americans simply do not find dads that can’t change a diaper or talk about tough issues with their kids to be all that plausible.
So I don’t think I’m going out on a limb predicting that the as-yet-unnamed Kelsey Grammer vehicle, in which he plays a Wall Street type suddenly forced into the at-home role, will crash and burn. Which is not to say they won’t have a couple of good episodes (a workaholic’s reintegration into the home has potential) but ongoing idiocy is not funny.
evan
16. Mar, 2009
Agreed, I rarely find perpetual idiocy amusing,* but still, the sitcom landscape has always been littered with successful, long running shows centered around socially/emotionally incompetent Dopey-Dads.
Just a few Ive been inadvertently exposed to (and one or two guilty pleasures):
King Of Queens
Everybody Loves Raymond
Married With Children (double blech)
The Simpsons (and the far inferior clone Family Guy)
Home Improvement
The Munsters?
And there must be countless others, so Id argue that Grammers show may well crash, but it would only be because of inferior writing, not necessarily because hes going to play yet another doofus-dad.
*Insert your own Bush joke here.
Rebel Dad
17. Mar, 2009
You forgot “According to Jim,” which is the most puzzling “success” in the genre.
A couple of the others seem to focus on the stupid-husband trope (KoQ, ELR) rather than the useless-parent angle, with the kids being secondary.
The Simpsons is interesting, from a historical point of view. At the beginning, Homer was more violent/angry and less doofus-y, he seems to have gotten dumber as the series has gone on. But he is a doofus across the board, which is different (in my book) from the fundamental “Mr. Mom” storyline of smart-guy/executive/worker/whatever-turns-into-a-moron-when-faced-with-a-diaper.