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déjà vu all over again
A decade to remember, a sitcom easy to forget
By Ethan Alter
When "That '70s Show" debuted on Fox in 1998, few might have guessed that it would last past the first episode, let alone long enough to spawn a spin-off.
The show, based on a dumb, smutty and deathly boring pilot, seemed destined for the trash bin.
Then over the course of its first season, something extraordinary happened: It got better. The writing became snappier, the actors more appealing, notably lead Topher Grace, and the characters acquired some emotional depth.
Now in its fourth year, "That '70s Show" remains a mildly entertaining half-hour comedy when nothing better is on.
Knowing the sitcom's history makes one want to give its new sister program, "That '80s Show," which debuted Wednesday night, a chance before writing it off completely.
That will be tough.
Certainly there are some positive elements in the first episode, chief among them actors Tinsley Grimes and Eddie Shin.
As Katie, the bubbly sister of lead character Corey (Glenn Howerton), Grimes is a delight to watch as she bounces around the set.
Shin has a harder time proving his comic mettle, trapped as he is in the stifling "horny best friend" role, sadly a prerequisite for all Fox sitcoms. Yet his spot-on delivery and wacky facial expressions lend some much-needed oomph to his lame punch lines.
If Shin and Grimes are the show's yin, Geoff Pierson (Corey's father) and Margaret Smith (Corey's boss) are its yang.
Bad yang at that.
Pierson previously stank up the airwaves in the WB's "Unhappily Ever After," and his sleazy dad routine hasn't improved any since that best-forgotten "Married With Children" clone.
Smith delivers all her lines in a dry monotone that's supposed to be funny but comes across as lazy. It doesn't help that her character, a record store manager with attitude to burn, bears far too close a resemblance to the disgruntled music clerk from "High Fidelity."
Against Pierson and Smith, the remaining cast members are comic geniuses. They include, besides Howerton, Brittany Daniel and Chyler Leigh.
Howerton makes a perfectly acceptable leading man. He's no Topher Grace, but he exudes a steady, reliable presence that properly anchors the show. His performance particularly comes to life whenever he spars with Leigh, who plays Corey's punkified co-worker/tentative love-interest, Tuesday by name.
Too bad he and Daniel (playing Corey's ex) don't strike similar sparks. But then Daniel doesn't really hit it off with any of the cast, a fault due less to her so-so performance than to her underwritten character.
The majority of viewers who tuned into the pilot probably could care less about things like character and story. They're nostalgia tourists out to revisit (and, more importantly, to laugh at) the era. It's this element that virtually guarantees a sizable audience for the show, at least for the first few weeks.
Beyond that it's anybody's guess.
Fox obviously has some measure of confidence in the program as they've allowed it to anchor its own night, rather than pairing it with "That '70s Show" or another more established lead-in.
But then again, Wednesday at 8 is not an especially tough time slot; the only formidable challengers are NBC's "Ed" and UPN's "Enterprise," which are aimed at different demographics anyway.
The real test of the sitcom's longevity will be its ability to transcend the built-in '80s humor and make its characters funny and compelling in their own right.
Its predecessor went through similar growing pains before finding its rhythm.
January 24, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
-Ethan Alter is a New York writer and a contributor to Media Life.
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