Quality of show (on a scale of 10): 5
   Goodman and Hines are likable and loose as the lead voices. The pilot features two terrific comedic actors, Lisa Kudrow and Andy Richter, as pandas looking for love in all the wrong places (quite literally, when Richter’s Nelson falls for Hines’ Kate). 
  When Kudrow’s Foo-Lin laments that she will never find a man, Larry mutters the affirmative, “There’s only six pandas left in the entire world.” He later threatens to Kate that if the depressed Foo-Lin doesn’t stop sleeping on their couch, “I’m going to buy a gun on the internet and hire someone with fingers to shoot it.”
   Certainly not the level of wit found in “Shrek,” the best-known project from “Father” creator Jeffrey Katzenberg, but it elicits a laugh. Siegfried and Roy’s antics, on the other hand, elicit only groans.
   In the second episode there is a subplot about their dislike of “Today” host Matt Lauer that plays out for way too long. Wouldn’t it have been less obvious for “Today” to simply buy commercial time rather than having Siegfried (or is it Roy – the two are indistinguishable) remind us that “Today” is “No. 1 in all the demos?”

Positioning (on a scale of 10): 4
   NBC showed a lot of faith in this new show by giving it the lead 9 p.m. slot. It should get a decent start, since the network promoted it throughout the highly rated 17 days of Olympics and is re-airing it Thursday at 9:30.
   But once the other networks begin their schedules, “Father” could be fried. Lead-out “Scrubs” doesn’t have enough of a following to boost its lead-in. 
   Come January, Fox will have “American Idol” at 8 p.m., guaranteeing that even an hour of static as a lead-out at 9 p.m. will win its time slot among 18-49s. ABC’s “According to Jim” consistently beat former NBC time slot occupant “Frasier” last season.
   And even UPN’s getting good buzz for its 9 p.m. offering, “Veronica Mars.” 
   Considering all this, NBC might have done better to schedule “Pride” at 8:30 p.m. on Thursdays, bumping the more reliable “Will & Grace” to Tuesdays at 9. Later in the season NBC may consider that, since it has only four sitcom slots on the current schedule.

Cache, or the “Arrested Development” factor (on a scale of 10): 5
   The prestige factor of Katzenberg (and the ability to trumpet over every commercial “From the makers of ‘Shrek’ and ‘Shrek 2’”) is canceled out by universally bad reviews.
   High production costs (reportedly some $1 million per episode) ensure that NBC will do all it can to build an audience – for the episodes it already has in the can. At this high a cost, the network won’t order any more unless it shows real promise.

Overall (on a scale of 30): 14.
   Expect strong ratings the first week, when nothing else new is on. The real test will come after that, when audiences have decided for themselves if the cute furry characters are worth enduring the grating human ones.

Read past fall show reviews:

WB's "Blue Collar TV"