Surviving Suburbia

A real family sitcom in the midst of so much reality trash that you can actually watch with your kids. Bob Saget reprises his familiar role as a father "lost in the shuffle" of family life and Cynthia Stevenson plays his wife and the mother of a teenage son and young daughter.

The real star of this family-friendly show is the spunky and precocious G Hannelius, who can be seen on the Disney promo shorts "Leo Little's Big Show". Her natural energy and personality shine in what may be the early glimpses of a future superstar.

Given the current TV viewer's apparent appetite for adults behaving badly, just hope a family-oriented sitcom about normal child-raising issues can survive in a network prime-time spot. It's safe to let the kids stay up till 9:30 again.

I watch a lot of television, but haven't seen a good family comedy in years. I like Cynthia Stevenson, so I was hopeful. When I saw my newspaper describe this show as a "hopelessly generic family sitcom", I admit I had to watch because I was thinking it can't be THAT bad. After all, ABC had positioned it right after "Dancing with the Stars". They must have seen something really good in it. Sad to say, my newspaper was right. No, it wasn't right. It's not a generic sitcom. It's a TERRIBLE sitcom, with lots of generic characters -- the annoying neighbor (Jere Burns - I think he's supposed to be a doctor!), the fat female neighbor (wasn't she the actress who played the ton-of-a-bitch boss in the movie "Wanted?), and the precocious and mostly obnoxious children.

Why anybody ever thought Bob Saget could head up a new comedy is beyond me. I know he was a hit on "Full House", but that was an awfully long time ago (emphasis on "awful"). The Olsen twins were still babies then! Did he bankroll this new show? He's just not a good actor.

I was among the unfortunate few who went to see "The Drowsy Chaperone" on Broadway, only to discover that the Tony nominated actor who had been playing the lead when I bought the tickets had left the show, and Bob Saget had taken over the part! He was just about as uninteresting in that show as he is in this new sitcom. (It probably was largely due to him that "The Drowsy Chaperone" closed a couple months after he joined the cast.)

ABC is out of their collective mind if they're thinking the audiences will continue to watch this show. I like old-fashioned sitcoms. Ah, remember "Roseanne" and "Home Improvement". Those were the good old ABC days. This "Surviving Suburbia" is just a bad sitcom. Its chances of surviving are slim. Its chances of being as memorable as those other hit ABC shows is zero. I can't wait to forget about it.

Though I love Cynthia Stevenson, I must throw aside my loyalties to her to say that given a choice of watching "Surviving Suburbia" or Steve Wozniak on "Dancing with the Stars" I would have to opt for "The Woz." Bob Saget delivers his one note befuddled and bemused Daddy routine in his usual fashion, heavy on the dry staccato, light on the bumbling. Throw in a couple of precocious kids, an annoying best friend, some sexual innuendo and a heavyweight, hormonal neighbor and you have every other TV show Bob Saget has "starred" in. Given all of that, if you are able to live through the canned laughter, the predictable shtick and the less than funny scripting, then you truly did "Survive Suburbia!"

I believe sitcoms are still worth the effort regardless of the cost. Let's face it, sitcoms are preferable in syndication than any crime dramas. In this sitcom, veteran comic Bob Saget plays a suburban dad and husband and Cynthia Stevenson plays his wife in unmentioned suburb somewhere. In the pilot episode, we meet them and get the basic humor of all about their neighbors and friends like Jere Burns who plays Dr. Jim. The pilot was weak and poorly written but the cast does pull it off and I'm hoping and praying that they get a better time slot as well as some improvement in their scripts. They placed this show right after the dancing with the stars show because it worked for Samantha Who? I am glad that they have a studio audience because comedies don't work well without one in reality and it's an immediate effect. Sadly in today's world, sitcoms are far and few in between and I pray that there will be more to come.

Admittedly, the first episode was awful. The second, however, was much much better. Bob Saget did not seem so awkward, the wife was not so bad, and the kids were actually fairly good. The best friend could be better, but all in all, the show is improving.

I think they would do a lot better if they lost the laugh track. It makes the show very choppy and ruins any comedic flow that could happen. I also think they would do better if they told Saget to stand up, but that is another matter altogether.

Some times it takes a show a couple of episodes to get its act together, and then it really improves, aka Kings. I will give it a few more shows to see what happens.