The Winner

Network: Fox; Genre: Sitcom; Content Rating: TV-14 (adult content, language); Perspective: contemporary (star range: 1 – 4);

Seasons Reviewed: Series (1 season)

Without the on-screen appearance of creator/writer Seth MacFarlane during promos for the pilot episode of "The Winner", the show might have gone unseen and unheard in a forest of obnoxious laugh-track riddled Fox sitcoms. MacFarlane has become a minor celebrity as the creator of the increasingly undeserving, under-performing neoclassic "Family Guy" as well as "American Dad". "Winner" is MacFarlane venturing out of his animated comfort zone, arrogantly thinking his involvement with such a trite sitcom is going to make it worth watching. Instead of parodying those obnoxious 80s/90s sitcoms or homaging them through an absurd cartoon lens, "Winner" is an unpleasant reminder of those days of childish leading men, cheesy sitcom sets and over-caffeinated studio audiences.

It's hard to even describe the half-baked plot of "The Winner". There appears to be no rhyme or reason for why anything is the way it is. We start with a still photo of a mansion and our hero, Glen (Rob Corddry) narrates from the present day as if we need an assurance that he won't always be a loser, then sends us back to the early 90s – the pilot takes place during the O.J. Simpson white bronco freeway chase – to show him as a sheltered, naïve man-child living with his parents (Lenny Clarke, get back to "Rescue Me", and Irene Hart) smothering him. One day Glen meets the impossibly beautiful Erinn Hayes as a neighbor and single mom, his childish ways finds him bonding with her child and into her life.

Simply nothing about the show works. The arrested development, mismatched unrequited love story has been done to death. The parents, the love interest, the friends – all cliché archetypes of sitcoms past. There's a bizarre, creepy element to the relationship between Corddry and the neighbor's son which MacFarlane plays up for cheap laughs. There is no reason for the show to be a 90s "period piece" given how many contemporary anachronisms rear their heads in the middle of the action (check out the movies of the future in the video store where Glen works). Jokes are retread from better shows that referenced those events back when they happened. Think "Seinfeld's" numerous takes on the OJ trial. Usually the sidekick and not the star, Corrdry takes center stage here, where his painfully unfunny act can no longer be ignored and it is evident that whoever told the guy he was funny in the first place deserves a long bout in solitary to think about what they've done. Corrdry does a lot of smiling and mugging for the camera here while the "audience" wildly overreacts to everything on screen as if in on a joke that we aren't or properly lubricated by a warm-up act working miracles.

On the back of "Family Guy's" post-resurrection creative slump, "The Winner" is not what MacFarlane needs. It's a lazy work from a guy once touted as the hip, young blood needed to jump-start the Fox network. "Winner" is proof that MacFarlane is a guy who needs to be told "no" by a network that shouldn't have let this unbearably embarrassing Frankenstein's monster of a creation see the light of day.

*/ 4

Personally, I think this show has some true potential - its main characters are a 32-year-old balding man and a 14-year-old boy that are so much alike that they practically finish each other's sentences. The concept of having not only Glenn (Rob Corddry's character) helping the kid (Josh) meet girls with what they both think are the best pick-up lines in the world, but then they turn around and have the kid helping Glenn date his own mom!! The fact that Josh feels comforted by the idea of his new friend getting with his mother makes the show worth watching.

For those of you who are not familiar with Corddry's work on the Daily Show, a lot of his quirks and nuances make the character and the comedy work - he really does make you think he has the mind of a young teenager (that has problems with talking to girls).

A blossoming young boy of thirty-two (>'.')>

Geez it's not the Next Great Sitcom(tm) or anything, but it's not even close to "1 star". That's just silly. It's better than half of the sitcoms currently on TV, but only barely, so I think a "6" is better warranted. There's some real chemistry with the cast, and I actually laughed out loud a couple times, so I'm giving it a shot next week, too. The last line of the second episode tonight ("This isn't us...") was very genuine and clever, and if the show can find THAT tone more often, it'll last the year.

One other thing: I was a huge, huge Arrested Development fan. But surely even the most ardent AD fan will acknowledge the quality went down season by season. That's the problem when you start so brilliantly. At least this show has room to improve. ;)

OK this show is abysmal, but I actually enjoyed watching it because it sucked so much. Just the laugh track is an instant classic. And the plot: "It is a comedy about a successful man named Glen Abbott (played by Rob Corddry) looking back to the time when he was in his thirties and living with his parents." On the episode, "Hot For The Teacher", they showed the outside of the video store and all on the windows had posters of new movies. Like Cars, Clerks 2, Little Man, John Tucker Must Die. I think they could've done better by doing something to hide them so it actually makes it look like it is supposed to be in 1994. In another episode a Nintento Gamecube was visible.Brilliant, love it! I hope it gets a 2nd season, just to see if they can mess it up even more. Really bad TV can be a lot more fun than just mediocre stuff...

The Winner FTW!

This show was promoted as "From the creators of Family Guy." If only this show was as funny as Family Guy.. Actually, eating lead paint chips is funnier than having to sit through this garbage.

I wonder how many laugh boxes they burned through on this first episode because they use laugh tracks every 2-3 seconds. I wish I were joking, they lay the laugh tracks on thick. Maybe they're REALLY hoping you're fooled into thinking this show is funny.

Oh and btw, all this show is is a VERY poor ripoff of "Get A Life" from 1990, a show that starred Chris Elliot... The difference is that show was actually funny! I doubt this show will make it past a few episodes, it's THAT bad.