A Minute with Stan Hooper

I just watched the first episode of the new Norm MacDonald comedy, "A Minute With Stan Hooper," and I thought it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen on TV! Maybe it's just me, but this is "Newhart" with a Norm MacDonald twist. A good cast too -- veteran comics.

There were a lot of surprises -- not just the standard stale jokes that most sitcoms use. Norm MacDonald, as usual, deadpans his way to laughter. Definitely worth watching!

This could be a very good comedy. It's funny, it's as familiar as small-town america could possibly be and Norm McDonald is, no doubt a pleasure. However, I think Norm McDonald playing an upstanding citizen with a loving wife and a desire to do good, is not our favorite Norm McDonald, Norm's deadpan delivery works better when he's a character without any lofty ideals but who's head is filled with things like horniness, revenge, and slacking on the job. The Norm we saw in "Dirty Work" and "Norm" would never run for mayor. Don't get me wrong, I still like the show and it makes me laugh, but for some odd reason Norm seems like the straight man here and the rest of the characters in this cooky town are the jokes. Hopefully, we'll see Norm get a little zanier too as time goes on, who knows. Either way, i'm willing to stay tuned to find out.

i have watched both episodes and it does bear a strange resemblance to "Newhart". A sane married couple from NY moving to a small town with eccentric people. Hopefully they could develop it long enough to make it lasting. Norm Macdonald is a great talent and I'd love to see him have a remembered show.

Stan Hooper (Norm MacDonald) does a minute of TV every week which is one of the most popular minute around. He is the everyman filming it out of a Manhattan studio. He decides to move to Waterford Falls, Wisconsin with his wife Molly (Penelope Ann Miller) to be with the real Americans. There are the Petersons who run the local diner whom he initially assumed to be brothers. Ryan Hawkins is eager to be his cameraman. Chelsea is his girlfriend. Fred Hawkins (Fred Willard) is unhappy that his son Ryan is leaving the family's local cheese conglomerate. Stan rents a home cheap and finds it comes with Gary Jamison as its butler.

This has some funny quirky bits and characters but it also suffers from some awkward stuff. The butler is a ridiculous idea. He would have worked better as a handyman. Also how could he move across the country without a home to go to? The Peterson reveal in the pilot worked to some extend but it would have worked infinitely better if the town is set up as a Norman Rockwell construct. It's fine to play with that construct but there is something awkward about what this show is trying to do. It's too silly in a way that is laughing at the town. The laughs should be directed at Norm who doesn't understand the genius of their small town ways. Norm is not necessarily an everyman type. There is plenty of comedic firepower but the laughs are complicated.

Network: Fox; Genre: Sitcom; Content Rating: TV-PG; Perspective: Contemporary (star range 1-4); Available: HDNet;

Seasons Reviewed: Series (1 season)

Second acts. Sometimes we beg for them, sometimes the first act was so satisfying we don't need them. Norm MacDonald struck something close to sitcom gold with his ABC cult classic "The Norm Show". That simple, but fitfully funny series perfectly translated MacDonald's dry, raunchy voice to TV for 3 creatively successful years. When it ended, all be it pre-syndication eligible, I had my satisfying fill of a Norm MacDonald sitcom. "Norm Show" was all him and any other attempt would feel false. Some comedians realize when they have conquered a particular genre or medium with a success and move to take on something new. Then there are some who just can't stay out of the spotlight. In "A Minute with Stan Hooper" Norm MacDonald makes an unceremonious and uninvited return to the sitcom.

Remember, MacDonald plays the exact same character (no "pretty much" about it) in anything he does - if he's not simply playing himself. And you know what? That act almost never fails to make me laugh. But that's when Norm is being Norm. MacDonald makes a head-slapping fatal decision with "Minute" casting himself as the straight man and giving everyone else the one-liners and eccentricities. Everything feels backwards here and numerous muted jokes that come from the muffled Norm keep "Minute" from ever hitting "escape velocity".

MacDonald plays Stan Hooper, who does something of an Andy Rooney commentary for a national news show. The "Minute", within the show, must pay well and be pretty damn important because that is all he appears to do. He has recently moved to a small Wisconsin town and he and his wife (Penelope Ann Miller, barely registering) must adjust to the town's strange customs and backward characters. There is a strong "Newheart" vibe to it all.

This is one of those middle-American towns that only exist in Hollywood. Where they have a Running of the Sheep and have no clue that a Running of the Bulls exists. Where they leave their doors unlocked and believe in ghosts and can speak wolf. Where the penalty for a crime is to be hung in a net in the middle of a local diner. We can make up whatever we want about life between New York and LA. It isn't like anyone actually lives in these places. And like in all of these shows, it gets by because the townspeople are just so gosh-darn likable. The city boy is the cynic and the butler is a good, hard-working guy. The show has covered all of its bases.

With Norm sidelining himself the show has pretty much given up… wait a minute, there's Fred Willard! Speaking of guys who always play the same character and that character never failing to make me laugh. Willard strolls in, utters a paragraph of nonsensical dialog that sounds perfectly normal coming out of his mouth and threatens to single-handedly save the show. So the edge-less "Minute" is an odd choice for Norm MacDonald and the show feels horribly trite and dated but, yeah, there are some laughs here.

* * / 4