'Sons of Tucson,'
flat jokes flying at you
This 60s-style Fox sitcom blends farce and satire
By Tom Conroy
Mar 11, 2010
The ’60s meet the ’00s — and don’t get along that well — in Fox’s new sitcom “Sons of Tucson.”
The show’s premise recalls those old situation-heavy situation comedies like “Bewitched” in which one family member had to hide his or her true identity in order to keep the household intact, while the edgy writing and the single-camera filming recall newer shows like “Malcolm in the Middle.”
Mixing farce and satire, “Sons of Tucson” doesn’t quite succeed as either one. But the rapid-fire jokes and skilled cast should keep viewers smiling, if not actually laughing.
In the show, the three Gunderson boys, Brandon (Matthew Levy), Gary (Frank Dolce) and Robby (Benjamin Stockham), whose mother left the family years ago and whose father is in prison for stock fraud, hire a slacker sports store clerk named Ron Snuffkin (Tyler Labine) to pose as their father so that they can stay out of foster care.
Most of the action in the two episodes Fox made available for review is very old-school sitcom. In the premiere, after helping the kids deceive their school principal, Ron enlists them in getting a valuable set of toy soldiers out of the hands of his foul-mouthed grandmother (Angela Paton).
In the second episode, the grandma and a potential love interest who was introduced in the premiere are nowhere to be seen, but we meet the series’ probable Mrs. Kravitz (i.e., the nosy spoilsport who threatens to ruin everything), Angela (Sarayu Rao), the wife of Glenn (Joe Lo Truglio), who was Ron’s best friend until Angela got her claws into him.
Showing how things have come full circle from the ’60s, it’s now OK again to portray wives as nagging harpies.
Whether the writers can wring jokes out of his setup for more than a few episodes is hard to predict, especially given the existence of two different sets of supporting characters in the first two episodes. The castaways on “Gilligan’s Island” nearly got rescued almost every week for three seasons, but they had the advantage of a laugh track.
Like most single-camera sitcoms, “Sons of Tucson” keeps the jokes coming fast. Sometimes so many punch lines fall nearly flat in such a rapid succession that it’s like watching a row of dominoes: The cumulative effect is sort of diverting.
Since the writers know that the audience doesn’t really have time to react, they sneak in lines that are both out of character and not really jokes at all.
When the boys are interviewing Ron for the job, the oldest, Brandon, asks him, “If you could have dinner with any person in history, what would you eat?”
“Not sure,” Ron replies quickly, “but it would be wrapped in bacon.”
“He’s good,” Brandon tells the others.
Since many of the scenes featuring Brandon revolve around the possibility that he’s gay, it’s unclear why he (or anyone else, really) would be impressed by this response.
Sometimes the edgier material is funny. In the principal’s office, Ron is nervous about how he looks in his borrowed clothes. “Don’t worry about the suit,” Brandon says. “It’s all about the walk. A good model can sell a garbage bag.”
Much of the humor is broad farce, complete with pratfalls and blows to the head. The second episode, however, is relatively sophisticated in the way it sets up the plot.
The show is basically a vehicle for Labine, who makes his character seem self-centered but basically good-hearted. Though the actor is very likable, both his looks and his line readings call to mind the more charismatic Jack Black.
Except for shaving his beard, there’s not much Labine can do about that. Pointing it out almost makes us feel like Mrs. Kravitz.
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