Ode to the Sitcom Pilot

I love sitcoms. They complete me. Seriously. I don’t have a boyfriend, so every night in bed, instead of cuddling or talking or having intercourse, I watch sitcoms. They keep me warm at night. They hold me close when I’m feeling sad. They hold my hair back when I’m sick. They make the world make sense.

As I’ve said before, I feel lost when TV season comes to an end each spring. I look forward to a summer of reality TV and the pressure to actually do something with my life other than lie on the couch or in my bed and watch TV. And that is a world I want nothing to do with. Lies. I’m pretty social. But when I have a night like last Wednesdsay, it makes me wonder why I ever leave my apartment.

ABC is coming at me hard this season. Comedy Wednesday is absolutely fucking genius. Four new sitcoms. Bing. Bang. Boom. NBC might have birthed the modern-day sitcom with classics such as Cheers, Seinfeld, Frasier and Will & Grace, but they have fallen behind. All I know is I saw a promo on NBC that went something like “America, you told us you wanted more comedy, so here’s Jay Leno at 10pm!”

Uh no, NBC. Get your head out of your ass. More Comedy does not mean shifting a show that’s existed for like 15+ years to and earlier time slot. That’s retarded. I have yet to watch the new Leno show, but I’ve heard it’s awful.

So last week I had to watch all four new ABC Comedy Wednesday shows. And the reviews are in: I would recommend 3 of the 4. Kelsey Grammer’s new show, Hank, was OK but not great. Ok, it was pretty bad. I am going to watch every episode but I don’t suggest you do the same unless you have a weird Kelsey Grammer fetish like I do. The show is about a rich family who loses everything and has to move back to their hometown from the big city. I think they go from Chicago to some small town. Something like that. It's like almost too topical to be funny.



Next, Patricia Heaton co-stars in The Middle with the janitor from Scrubs and it’s awesome. Seriously a great show that I think is PERFECT for families to watch together. It actually makes me wish I had a husband and kids just so that we could gather round and watch this show together. Ok, that feeling passed. Phew. It’s sort of like Malcolm in the Middle meets… something. I can’t figure out what, but I like it. It is great. Fun for the whole family.





Then Modern Family, which is absolutely hilarious. I can’t even say anything about it other than you should watch it and laugh out loud the whole time.



And lastly, Courtney Cox’s new show Cougar Town, which had a pretty horrendous pilot but really came at me strong last week. Thumbs up to Court and thumbs up to the producers for creating the funniest / most awesome photo montage every seen on TV in last week’s episode.



If you don't enjoy that, you hate life and you should die of gonorrhea and rot in hell. A. Courtney Cox looks amazing B. It makes me want to go out and have the funnest night everrrrrrr C. Single Ladies makes me happy in my heart.

But after those 4 shows, I wasn’t even close to done with sitcoms for the night. I still had The New Adventures of Old Christine AND Gary Unmarried, props to CBS for rocking both Wednesdays and Mondays with sitcoms. You might think I crazy. And maybe I am.... Crazy in love.

Sitcom pilots are so full of hope. Will you laugh with them? Will you laugh at them? Either way, it’s something fresh and new and exciting! It's like a first date but infinitely better. Well, unless it's your first date with me, in which case, there is nothing better. Will you watch any episodes after the pilot? In my world the answer to that is almost always yes. I like to root for the underdog, and when a show starts of with a shaky pilot I like to stick with it. I’m no quitter (when it comes to TV). I like to finish what I’ve started…

Is it because if they get their act together and become popular I can shrug all cool and be like “Yeah, no biggie, watched that shit since Episode 1”? Partially. But it's also because I support the creativity and work that goes into a pilot. And I also find it extremely interested to see which shows the general public ends up getting behind and which shows fail miserably and deciding for myself which of the failed shows should have failed and why and what they could have done differently.

God, I have so much more to say about sitcoms... I haven't even touched on CBS Comedy Mondays, but I’ll leave it at this for today. Don’t forget to watch The Office (Jim and Pam's wedding! Crying already), Park & Recreation and Community on NBC tonight. I talk a lot of shit about NBC but would actually kill a man to work there. And I will always and forever watch their Thursday night line-up. Respect.