Nobody's Watching

A pilot from the creator of Scrubs and a couple of Family Guy writers promises something hilarious, but instead, Nobody's Watching is a watchable parody of reality shows most notable for Paul Adelstein's soulless executive.

The basic idea is that a couple of schlubs are tasked with creating a sitcom while living in a sitcom studio in front of a live studio audience, while aforementioned executive tries to pit the duo against each other for drama and ratings.

This is a perfectly fine idea for a show, if only it were funnier. But while it is amusing, it never reaches the heights of Scrubs or Family Guy. Just as well that it wasn't picked up, IMO.

I don't know what to make of all these ecstatic reviews! Friends of the producers?

I'm a big fan of Scrubs. I find its brand of surreal humour mixed with real heart is, in my opinion, one of the better, more original things on modern TV, so when I heard about 'Nobody's Watching' I ran off to see it. Basically in April of 2005 Bill Lawrence, creator type fella of Scrubs, teamed up with two writers from family guy and created this here pilot. The pilot was rejected by the WB ,however in June of 2006 the pilot was leaked onto youtube, and on the basis of the positive reaction NBC has commissioned it as a series.

First the basic concept. Nobody's Watching follows two fellas who have been best friends since they were six, uptight Derrick and free-wheeling fatherless Will. They send in a video to network execs the country over bemoaning the lack of quality of recent sitcoms. As such they are invited by two WB execs slick-as-an-oil-spill Jeff and quiet Roy to create a sitcom of their own, with a catch. They are being filmed while they create it. They are part of a (fake) reality TV show. This is taken to the point of having them live on a sitcom set, with a bedroom set, an office set, a lounge set, and most jarringly, a live studio audience. They quickly hire an assistant, motivated and pushy Jill, and after a short while hire clichéd blonde bombshell with a heart, Mandy. Of course there's a catch. Wily Jeff is up to no good to boost the ratings of the reality show.

The first show this reminded me of was Scrubs. This is perhaps hardly surprising considering the main brain behind both is Bill Lawrence. Firstly Roy is played by Scrub's semi-recurring character Dr. Zeltzer, and Roy is obviously designed exactly for the same actor, Roy is practically a clone of Zeltzer. Not that is a bad thing, Zeltzer (and Roy) are both very amusing, especially when paired off, as in this case, with an arrogant moral vacuum. The relationship between Will and Derrick also reminded me of Scrubs, two best friends who are that close is something Bill Lawrence has wrote and handled very well in Scrubs, especially when one is far more ready to express his emotions than the other.

The second show this reminded me of was the Office, with Nobody's Watching filmed in a same mockumentary style with characters who acknowledge, speak to, and look at the camera based on the premise of a reality show, but Nobody's Watching is somewhat out of the box even in these relatively new realms. It is day one and the show is already self-referential and postmodern with characters who actually acknowledge their own studio audience. The show pulls in a slew of sitcom references, and a spat of cameos (I count four in the pilot) adding in the pop culture references so beloved by Scrubs and Family Guy alike. At the same time the show manages to be both a tribute and a mockery of the traditional sitcom format, in the same way that Futurama both praises and mocks Science-Fiction.

All in all I liked Nobody's Watching, with a couple of caveats. Firstly the studio audience seemed to encroach on the show somewhat at some points. In the same way as early Scrubs was originally chock a block of cartoonish sound effects I hope that they will be dialled down a bit too, on repeated viewings I noticed them less and less. Secondly I found that the characters were perhaps not quirky enough, in that while Scrubs characters each come with a slew of running gags these characters only have wisecracks. That said these things take time to develop and the Scrubs characters were pretty bland at first as well. They need to be allowed to develop.

I've just watched the pilot for this show and i must say it is hilarious!!!! It kind of pokes fun at itself, it's the story of 2 guys who love sitcoms but are annoyed that there are no good ones on the TV anymore so they send a tape to a load of producers and get a call from the WB network saying that they are going to let them make a sitcom for them. So as the audience we are watching a sitcom about a sitcom being made. It's very clever and with scenes like the guys going to the set of FRIENDS and being awe struck, to the first time they have an audience watching them all the comedy is done with excellent timing and style. not having a lot of info on this programme i'm unsure of who the lead males are but they are both very funny. The programme has a scrubs feel to it. I loved the pilot of this show and hope that more people get to see it. When it starts i'll be its biggest fan!!!

I found the pilot of this show and I definitely see promise. I have no idea if this got picked up, or even what network it was being pitched to, but I'd watch it if it is on this fall.

The plot summary seems to be that two longtime friends send in a tape they filmed of them bashing today's sitcoms. A WB (aren't they changing to UW or something like that?) executive challenges them to make a good sitcom. The thing is that this is really a ploy to create a reality TV show about the making of a sitcom. The two friends have to live on the sets in front of a live studio audience. There is also something about a bathroom in there too. You'll figure it out if you get a chance to see the episode.

The "President of Television" has a meeting with his board members about what to do next. Someone, very enthusiastically, suggests "A TV show about a single and attractive woman coming to New York to get her magazine running!" Someone interrupts him. "No, no, no, we need to try something different! Something fresh!" The President of TV walks up to this guy and bats him down with a clipboard.

Now, to my knowledge, this show got canceled. Instead, they went for "Twins", because why be daring and funny when you can be unoriginal and successful? I watched the pilot (its on YouTube, go check it out) and compared to the other crap sitcoms give us nowadays (Scrubs aside), this is a masterpiece. Sure the acting isn't rock solid, but its not like any other sitcom (Scrubs, again, aside) offers us that.

So yeah. Once more failure for the American TV Producers. But hey, its not like they needed success. I mean, its not like there's a writer's block or something...