Sit Down, Shut Up

Sit Down Shut Up had a rocky first couple of episodes but heck if they haven't hit their stride. Fortunately, my DVR is smart enough to record the show even though FOX moved its time slot without notice. Seriously, what's FOX's problem with good shows? They did the same thing with Futurama and look how that turned out - canceled because of low ratings...maybe because no one knew when to find it! It most certainly wasn't a quality issue because they won several awards and have a huge following.

So here we go again...FOX is going to let another great show die because they only know how to promote their damn reality shows. That and anything with Seth MacFarlane's name on it - no offense to Seth especially since he's a friggin' genius. The point is that Sit Down Shut Up is cleverly written and the voice talent is top notch but it's on the verge of being canceled because its own network doesn't support it.

What's it like to be under appreciated by FOX? Ask the people from Futurama. C'mon FOX...wake up!

An animated comedy about incompetent teachers at a flailing school that really has very little to do about teaching at all. It's made by the Arrested Development guy and stars such big names as Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Kristen Chenowith, Keenan Thompson, Will Forte, Cheri Oteri, Henry Winkler and Nick Kroll. The expectations were high to live up to and that brought a lot of disappointment and I can see both sides of it. The show got a little bit too meta too early in its run. In the 4th episode and last before leaving the remaining 9 episodes of the season (and most likely the series) in limbo, there were no less than three or four self-referential gags going on: characters kept trying to consciously match themselves to 80's archetypes, characters alluded to how they had few adventures before episode one, and Miracle was self-conscious about being nothing more than a plot device fueling the rivalry between Ennis and Larry.

On the other hand, I really like most of the characters (the sexually confused Andrew is definitely an exception) and there is a sense that the writing is witty and sharp and will be even better once a coherent tone is found. Most of the running gags the show has works: I think there is a good amount of running gags they have: The assistant principal is really really incompetent and was a prison clown before he was a principal, Happy's ethnic mumblings superimposed with proper-soundng British, Willard always having a different way to get to school, the fact that no one cares the least bit about actually teaching and we know very little of the students, etc..

First of all the title is just great, it feels like that is the way it is in school for real. It's a good concept, since there aren't very many shows about the teachers at school. I found this show to be pretty good, well at least the first episode was good. The jokes were funny and the storyline worked. I enjoyed watching and surprisingly the animation was rather good, which is hard to find good animation lately. It was a little weird that pretty much the whole Saturday Night Live cast is starring, but they play their parts well.I hope that this series lasts more than a few episodes and doesn't just go downhill like King of the Hill did after a while.

Oddly enough, the animation reminds me of the old "Critic" carton with Jon Lovitz...

but whereas the Critic was funny, this is just horrible...

It seems the use of still photos for backdrops shows a shortcutting approach to the animation process, and the use of trite stereotypes and clichés shows a shortcutting approach to the writing...

Does the TV-14 rating mean that this is only liable to funny to those 14 and under..? A waste of good vocal talent...

With the current trend in television, I guess this will run for 4 or 5 seasons... While good shows will continue to whither and die within 2.

After hearing about this new TV sitcom cartoon, I was having high hopes that it would be the most unique one to air on Fox. The series takes place in Florida with the main characters being staff members of a least convenient high school to attend. Each of the teachers, including the acting principal and custodian all have a personality of their own. During each episode they try to make their school as highly recognizable as a first rate school. However there's always something or someone messing up that goal towards the end.

Even though it only had four episodes air on TV. I think the idea for it was unique. It wasn't trying to become another knock off of the Simpsons or Family Guy. Cause it would be boring for their to be another family sitcom on TV when there's already so many of them. Despite it being different from those shows, I think the writers were trying their best to make this cartoon as non-Simpsons as possible. Without a theme song and large usage of live action backgrounds, that's one of the fewest elements that made this cartoon stand out more.

I was surprised that it became a failure so fast. After reading so many negative reviews from various viewers who say that it wasn't that funny.

I think the reason why not many people expect this to be a great comedy is probably because the writers didn't work out most of the jokes presented in the show. I admit that there were moments where a joke could been more funny than it was presented. Also a couple of the characters could need some working on too. Cause if you want a cartoon to be successful you need appealing characters.

Could this show have been a bigger success, I think so. Part of the problem with it is the writers failed to come up with something that would appeal to all viewers. If the writers took the time to gather surveys on what people want to see in this cartoon then it would of lasted for at least 2-3 seasons the most.