The Michael Richards Show

The premise revolves around private detective Vic Nardozza. Every week he gets a case assigned and he tries his best to solve them, always with wacky consequences. We also get to see the personal lives of his boss and co-workers.

This show really takes its sweet time to find its footing. The first couple episodes are hard to watch in every single way. The writing and humor feels awkward, the characters don't gel together and Michael Richards, as talented as he is, can still barely squeeze a laugh out of me. He gets a few nice slapstick moments, but that's it. The theme song is nice at least.

The cases are also dealt with in a very labored way, as if the writer can't think of how to make them interesting.

About halfway through, it starts to get a little better. Some of the jokes are actually legitimately funny, the characters start to click more and even the acting in some areas improves.

I inititally found Tim Meadows the most annoying part of the cast, but he gets to prove his worth after a while. William Devane gets the bad luck of portraying one of the most boring characters, but in the final episode he finally has a chance to prove he has comedic chops.

It's fun to see guest stars like Gregory Itzin, Ed Begley Jr. and Jeff Garlin(!) make appearances as well.

There are even some successful attempts at satire, which was definitely unexpected.

However, even when the series gets better there are still parts where I just feel bored, and due to ending so quickly it never reaches its full potential. Who knows, maybe in season 2 this could have been one of the better post-Seinfeld projects Richards acted in.

But because it got cancelled after only 8 episodes this simply remains a curiosity at best.

A titan of physical comedy and nonsense syllables, Richards does provide what one expects from a comedy: laughs. I was tickled at least a few times (yes, laugh-out-loud funny, not just a smile).

He manages to distance himself almost completely from Kramer which is no mean trick considering he's meant to deliver a similar level of yucks. So, I laughed.

But I also cried. Much of the show just sits there. William Devane enters and, despite his charm, seems like he's accidentally stumbled onto the wrong stage and then just tries to fit in. The Tim Meadows character is even more displaced. Bill Cobbs and Amy Farrington have potential. Mind, this isn't because two actors can act and two can't. They all CAN, but only the last two are remotely integral characters to the show (at least as the premier was written). I'll certainly give it another chance and hope Devane and Meadow's get better lines and plotting.

I watched the show when it was out and was disappointed. I think Michael Richards has a talent for physical comedy and as a fan of Seinfeld, figured I would give it a try. I don't really remember specifically why I did not like it.

I do remember one funny episode where they had a racist dog that kept trying to get away from Tim Meadows and kept getting injured in the process.

Though given the current revelations about Michael Richard's racist outburst this episode is probably a lot less funny now.

That's really all I can think of to say. I think brevity should be valued. How about a five line minimum to just weed out the "it sucked" comments?

Michael Richards is a hugely talented comic actor, who stole almost every scene as Cosmo Kramer on "Seinfeld." He is one of the best physical comics out there, and one day I hope he will hit it big in either TV or the movies (hopefully he'll make more comedies like "UHF" and "Unstrung Heroes" and not ones like the hugely disappointing "Trial and Error"). But this show is as lame as can be! And I guess the creators thought it would add flair to assemble one of the biggest ensemble casts in sitcom history. That way Tim Meadows, William Devane and Bill Cobbs can have equal time at wasting their talents. As Robert DeNiro said in "A Bronx Tale," "There's nothing worse than wasted talent." "The Michael Richards Show" is a prime example.

My score: 2 (out of 10)

It was okay. It had lots of potential. I think they should have called it something other than "The Michael Richards Show" and maybe didn't have one main charactar, like Friends (which doesn't have any one main charactar, but focuses on all the cast) It would have been done quite successfully. Because it really was funny, but had too many flaws. Oh well :(