SERIES PREMIERE: The high-concept idea behind This Is Us, looking at the same extended family through different generations, was last season’s biggest success for broadcast TV. It makes copycat sense, then, for similar ideas to find their ways onto the network schedules this season – and this new sitcom presents an unusual look at the same character, at very different points in his life, each played by a different actor. Jack Dylan Grazer plays the character of Alex Riley at age 14. Bobby Moynihan from Saturday Night Live plays Alex at age 40. And veteran sitcom star John Larroquette plays Alex at age 65. The Moynihan story line is set in the present, which means the “child” Alex sequences take place in 1990 – and Larroquette’s sequences take place in the future, in 2042. High concept? Absolutely. Likely to succeed? Not necessarily. Not at all. For a full review, see Ed Bark's Uncle Barky's Bytes.

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