Good Morning, Miami

"Friends" is like a great aging football dynasty. It had its glory, but now its getting old and predictable. Good Morning Miami is one of the many attempts for NBC to capture the glory of making good sitcoms. The show started out terrible and could have easily been a 3 episode wonder, but NBC came into the huddle and saved the day.

Constance Zimmer is one of the best characters I've seen on sitcoms. Although she's a bit lazy and smart alecky, she can definitely put anybody in his place. She is definitely more complicated and more human than some of these other assisants portrayed on other shows. She's funny, cute, smart, and knows more than you expect. She's the type of women that many men like. I just can't believe she's going with Gavin on the show. I wished that she dated Jake for more than one episode. I think they would have been and interesting couple. Jake really needs a challenge like her.

I like the additon of Tiffany Theissen and Jillian Barberie (she's everywhere like Kelly Ripa). I can almost bet Kelly Ripa will appear on one of the episodes.

This sitcom has alot of potential. As long has NBC pumps good ideas in the show, I think it will be successful.

NBC has done it again. While they frequently create fantastic, likeable, original shows like "Ed", "Law and Order" and "Friends", they also create generic, dull flops like this show, which rely on jokes and situations that have been beaten to death and beyond in previous sitcoms. I hope they end it and end it soon.

The opening episode of this sitcom shows promise: the setting is interesting (if a bit overused lately--see "Life With Bonnie") and the characters seem appropriately "zany" for a successful ensemble show. I like the team of Kohan and Mutchnick who also brought us "Will and Grace" and the underrated "Boston Common." The cast is also good, even if Suzanne Pleshette seems unlikely as Feuerstein's *grandmother.* The laugh quotient wasn't as high as one would like, but the romantic chemistry is fine--which brings me to the first structural problem the show has. It's been packaged and promoted as a romantic comedy. If they intend to keep the focus on this one romantic pairing (Jake and Dylan), they're doomed to failure. Shows centered primarily around the development of one romance ALWAYS fail; once the characters are in a stable relationship the show is dead, yet if you keep them apart too long, the show is likewise dead. The romance must coexist with other appealing elements and compelling characters.

"Good Morning Miami" doesn't look promising on either front. Jake himself is a nice enough fellow, intelligent and attractive, but perhaps a bit dull. This has been a problem with Feuerstein's previous series. I don't know if he has the charisma to be the lead, though he's been fine as a supporting player.

The other characters and the milieu of an ineptly produced morning television show reveals another problem. What is funny about it is also why it can't sustain a long-running sitcom. If Jake does his job well, he will either fire the other characters or eliminate the quirks that make them funny characters. If he fails at his job, he will be fired. Either way, "Good Morning Miami" is on borrowed time.

When I first saw the promos for this show over the summer of '02, this show looked like it was going to be a great sitcom. Unfortunately, that's not the case. By the same token, GMM is funny most of the time.

Most of the characters in my opinion needed more development. Almost all of them are likable, but if they developed them a little more, they would've been good. Here's my thoughts on some of them.

Jake Silver: He's likable, has that little boy charm, but he doesn't leave an impression.

Clare Arnold: She was good on this show, but then again I've always liked Suzanne Pleshette back when she was on The Bob Newhart Show, when she played Bob's wife Emily. Clare, is just as abrasive and funny as Emily Hartley (picture an older Emily Hartley with a gambling problem) It's a shame she's not on for season 2.

Dylan Messinger: Very likable. Her character seems to be just right; Develop her a little more and I think she would lose her charm and would be too much.

Frank Alfano: A neurotic "yes man", who tries to do anything to please Jake or whoever he has to deal with. He's almost like what people call the Chicago Cubs; "The Lovable Losers". Keep in mind, I said, almost; Frank isn't that lovable; Just like most of cast, he's likable, but can be a little too much.

Lucia Rojas-Klein: Lousy character. The writers made her too over the top, and when she spoke, her accent, was almost stereotypical and very annoying. The one thing I noticed was the chemistry between her and Frank was excellent. Maybe if they had her and Frank together in scenes more (not necessarily in a romantic way), her character would've been better and Frank's would've been enhanced.

Gavin Stone: A wise-cracking, obnoxious jerk. He could make you mad, but you can't hate him; He too has likable qualities.

Penny: Very similar to Gavin, but reminds me more of Clare. Sometimes I wondered if Jake and Penny were switched at birth, or Clare had a daughter and didn't tell Jake he has a step-sister?

Sister Brenda Trogman: Very disappointing. I thought she had the potential of being hilarious, but the writers gave her lousy lines to recite; Most were either tired cliches' or punchlines to Nun jokes I heard when I was 13. I think Brooke Dillman tried to make the most of what she was given; It just wasn't a whole lot.

Jillian Barberie: Very annoying. We lost Clare for her?? I know she's there for "eye candy", which is appealing to look at, until she opens her mouth. BRING BACK CLARE!!!!!

Victoria Hill: I like Tiffany-Amber Thiessen, but I don't like her character. She doesn't add anything to the show; Hopefully, she'll be dropped from the show soon.

Overall, the show is somewhat entertaining; Just enough if I have the tv on, I'll watch it and enjoy it, but if something better is on, I'll move on.

Sitcoms need a workable, believable premise. Ensembles need characters with some depth to play against the premise and each other. The combination of elements leads to comedic combustibility. Well structured, well thought out sitcoms are like fireworks. They have a limited life, but as they explode, they reveal layers of light, color and magic.

"Good Morning, Miami" is a firecracker. Pop, it's gone. In the first episode, a new producer arrives at a failing TV morning show as a candidate to turn it around. (Actually, he just wanted the free ride to Miami to visit his grandmother. He's taking another job.) He meets the show's hairdresser and falls in love. She doesn't know. She's with the male anchor, a recovered substance abuser who credits their relationship with turning around his life.

Okay, a good setup. A great comedic triangle. Except: there's no chemistry between the producer and the hairdresser. At all. His attempts to get her attention generate sympathy for the anchor, who is drawn as the villain vis-a-vis his dismissive attitude toward the producer. Sadly, there's not much more chemistry between the hairdresser and the anchor. (There is unexplored chemistry between the producer and the anchor, but that would be another show.)

The weakest link in the triangle is the hairdresser. There is no character there. She's nice. She's pretty. She's...? Now weeks into the series, we still know nothing substantive about her.

Other characters are broad caricatures of religious people (the weather nun), and Hispanic women (the female anchor). There are also two workers whose functions on the show-within-the-show are as unclear as their functions on the show proper.

The grandmother works, but then, she's been road tested. She's an aged version of Karen Walker from "Will & Grace". We don't see much of her except in some repartee with the grandson-producer. She's like a Greek chorus, commenting on the action but removed from it. Too bad.

Sometimes a show can turn around a few episodes past the pilot. This one has not. It has no idea what it wants to be past getting the designated romantic leads together (which is what every episode is about). It's a lesson that should have been learned from the one-note sitcom "Cursed", or the child who asks at the end of a fairy tale, "and then what happens."