Writing in The Wall Street Journal Online, Dorothy Rabinowitz delivers a withering analysis of “Back to You,” the new Kelsey Grammer sitcom: “We can begin with irritating, a word that doesn't quite do justice to the aura of grimness in the atmosphere every time the show's male star, Kelsey Grammer -- surely one of the subtlest and most gifted of comic actors -- begins bellowing the unsalvageably witless lines the show's writers have produced, in episode after episode.”
What I liked about her review is her recognition of what makes a good sitcom work: “In its negative way the series is a reminder of the qualities that make for sitcom success, particularly the kind of comedy set in the workplace -- whose society and mores everyone knows. That society and its foibles, its rules and characters, were well known to the people behind "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," which is what enabled the show's writers to deliver subtlety even to a character who was also a caricature, as they did so superbly in the persona of anchorman Ted Baxter (Ted Knight) -- that pompous, vain, self-seeking professional cutthroat, but a figure still credibly human, all in all.”
I had the pleasure of working on The Ted Knight Show, where he basically continued playing the same character. Anyway, Ms. Rabinowitz goes on:
“That kind of knowledge is precisely what ensured success, decades later, for the writers of "The Office," that merciless British series about the Werner Hogg paper company, focused on the massively deluded middle-manager David Brent, portrayed by the show's creator, Ricky Gervais… He's a wholly devastating creation -- a caricature, yes, but also the embodiment of a personality who feels altogether too real.”
Maybe one of the reasons sitcoms are in decline is that they strain so hard for the jokes that they forget the characters.
