DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
 
 
 
'Happily Divorced': TV Land Stuck in Clunky Retro Gear
June 16, 2011  | By Ed Bark
 
happily-divorced-tv-land.jpg

Fran Drescher of The Nanny fame still talks as though she's just gargled with glass shards.

Which might be an overall healthier choice for you than watching her new comedy series, Happily Divorced. It's TV Land's latest effort to mix and match familiar stars of bygone TV hits. And perhaps it's time to stop for a while after striking gold with Hot In Cleveland before sinking to Retired at 35 and now this. That sprightly old-time sitcom-y feeling has quickly lost its retro-bounce. What's old isn't new again. It's just pretty dreadful.

Happily Divorced, premiering Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. ET after a new episode of Hot In Cleveland, is Drescher's first weekly series since the now defunct WB network's short-lived Living With Fran, which was axed in 2006. She's Fran again this time out in a comedy ripped from the headlines of her real-life discovery that husband Peter Marc Jacobson was gay.

Fran-Drescher-Peter-Marc-Jacobson.jpg

They split up in 1999 after 21 years of marriage, but remain friends and collaborators on Happily Divorced, which co-stars John Michael Higgins (Kath & Kim) as Peter.

"What's the mattuh, Petuh?" Fran asks for openers after he can't seem to sleep.

"It's just that I think I'm gay," he says.

"What?"

"I'm gay."

"What? . . . But we just had sex after Leno. How gay can ya be?"

That's never quite explained during these very labored early minutes. But it turns out that Fran's parents, Dori and Glenn (Robert "Lou Grant" Walden, Rita "West Side Story" Moreno), knew all along that Peter preferred the company of men. So Dori counsels, "Sweetheart, don't throw away a good marriage over nothing."

Peter, a realtor, can't afford to move out just yet. "You're gay! Go to the YMCA!" Fran protests as the laugh track goes into hyper-howl. Six months later, they're divorced but still living together while Fran laments to her best pal, Judi (Tichina Arnold), "I haven't had sex since Peter dropped the bomb."

Just about everything drops like a rock in this bomb, with the gay jokes and stereotypes piling up in tandem with Fran cooing over a lug named Elliott (D.W. Moffett, segueing from his ruthless quarterback's-dad role in Friday Night Lights). Alas, he's destined to have a severe allergic reaction on a dinner date to a truffle that Fran thought was a black olive. Wah, wah, wah. You can't make this stuff up. But unfortunately they have.

One line is possibly grin-inducing. "I love her voice," a recovered Elliott tells Peter.

happily-divorced-fran-drescher.jpg

"Give it time," he rejoins, again to the complete merriment of a laugh track that otherwise badly needs a long vacation in Cancun.

It's hard to imagine the "give it time" line applying to Happily Divorced, which is more ham-handed than an Erick Dampier jump shot. Drescher still looks good a dozen years removed from the last season of The Nanny. But the lines coming from her mouth are too obvious for words.

TV Land might want to brainstorm its way into the 21st century at some point rather than reverting to recycled stars wedded to tired old formulas. It was kind of cute for a short while. Now it's time to grow up.

GRADE: D

Read more Ed Bark at unclebarky.com

2 Comments

Mac said:

Pitiful, and, not unlike many a modern movie, you've seen it all with the trailer (and need to flip by it when it comes around next time). And played for laughs, too, which is just as crappy as a Lifetime Movie. Without revealing too much, this situation exists in my extended family and it's actually an organic experience worth exploring, but not for cheap shots or pity, the only two sides TV seems to handle. Kids involved, too, who are all grown up and very well adjusted in the world partially because ALL of the people involved love them. Doing the story right, say, as a subplot in a decent series could work, but TV in 2011 will never do it.

Comment posted on June 17, 2011 8:49 PM

I think TVLand has become the DH (Designated Hitter) of the television world allowing aging home run sluggers to extend their career in their more mediocre years.

Comment posted on June 18, 2011 1:16 PM
 
 
 
 
 
Leave a Comment: (No HTML, 1000 chars max)
 
 Name (required)
 
 Email (required) (will not be published)
 
MFFNQ
Type in the verification word shown on the image.