Growing Up Fisher

We were pleased to see that NBC has tried a couple of new family centered series of which this is one and the other being About A Boy.

We think the star in this series will turn out to be young Henry (Eli Baker). He is a fresh young talent and we think he has great potential.

J.K. Simmons as Mel Fisher the Dad is an enjoyable character. It was especially nice to see how Henry listens to everything Dad says and there are many large underlying "teachable moments" in this first episode. Mel is a good Dad.

Jenna Elfman is someone we enjoy seeing anytime, and here in her role as Joyce she was true to type.

We enjoyed this episode and will tune in again next week.

Growing Up Fisher and About A Boy are a welcome relief from watching NCIS Los Angeles on that other network. That means it fills a time slot where the market is hungry for something new and in this case NBC did it.

Keep up the good work and we may tune in to NBC for more than Grimm.

The age gap between Elfman and Simmons spoiled the show for me. He looked more like the grandfather than the father/husband. She looked like she might have been the second or third wife but then they would have had younger children, if any. Elfman's character acts as childish or more childish than the children. I can look past the unbelievable abilities of the blind husband but the family just doesn't ring true as one that would have been established in the first place. Jason Bateman would have been better as the husband with Simmons as the narrator. Perhaps ensuing episodes will improve but usually the pilot is supposed to be better in order to get accepted.

"Are you sure you should be driving?" NBC is currently trying a couple of new family centered series of which this is one and the other being About A Boy. Unfortunately, the premise is relatively thin and the show quickly abuses the abilities of the protagonist, Mel Fisher. The premise revolves around Mel Fisher, a blind lawyer, who goes about his life fooling everyone into believing he can see. The protagonist can apparently chop down trees with a chainsaw, teach his daughter to parallel park, leap over other lawyers with a simple bound. The comedy would need to be irreverent and edu for this to have the slightest shot at success. 'instead, it goes for a sappy, feel-good vibe with a voice-over by Jason Bateman. Despite it being based on the creator's actual childhood, the element of truth doesn't make it any less absurd or any more worthy of being a TV show. Just as it's hard to keep up with how many failed sitcoms there have been during mid-seasons, I'm losing track of how many mawkish, barely funny sitcoms these days are drawn from the writer's own family experience and upbringing. Creatively, the story of Me is an awfully stifling place to start. Memoir has its place beyond the page, but sitcoms are usually not it - for the same reasons that family stories you think are so table-poundingly hilarious are difficult to convey to any audience larger than a dinner party. Network execs need to stop indulging this strange habit and ask writers and producers to look for pilot pitches someplace other than their home movies and photo albums: it just isn't funny. For these reasons Growing Up Fisher gets a 2/10.

I absolutely love this show!I think it is very funny, interesting, engaging, and realistically family appropriate! I watched the whole season in 2 days. I am extremely disappointed that NBC cancelled it - that makes no sense. The critics seriously shouldn't have been that hard on this show - I think it is worth every penny and every effort NBC put into it. In fact, it was realistically the only thing I watched on NBC, so I guess with the discontinuation of this show, I won't be watching NBC anymore. I do think they should seriously consider bringing it back. GREAT SHOW! If you are looking for a new family show ( that might last you a week at max) or are just searching for new shows to watch, I highly, highly encourage you to look into this show. There may only be one season, but it will be well worth every minute you spend watching it.

Horrible. This is the Golden Age of television (in Cable), but the networks are blind and atrociously obtuse to the opportunities that are given to them every day and which they consistently reject for bland shows that don't take any risks and, because of this, are doomed for cancellation. As more people turn to cable and experience (finally) great television, the networks' shows (especially the comedies) will suffer. "Growing Up Fisher" is a perfect example. The idea of the show is great, but the execution is deeply disappointing. Everything is dumbed down, the jokes feel forced, the narration is ridiculous! If this is really about the creator's childhood, he did an excellent job to skirt any pain, for pain in comedy is always what works best. I love television and hope lackluster shows like these disappear to make room for better creators and writers, and also complicated characters that let actors really act.