A Minute with Stan Hooper

I just watched the first episode of the new Norm MacDonald comedy, "A Minute With Stan Hooper," and I thought it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen on TV! Maybe it's just me, but this is "Newhart" with a Norm MacDonald twist. A good cast too -- veteran comics.

There were a lot of surprises -- not just the standard stale jokes that most sitcoms use. Norm MacDonald, as usual, deadpans his way to laughter. Definitely worth watching!

Stan Hooper (Norm MacDonald) does a minute of TV every week which is one of the most popular minute around. He is the everyman filming it out of a Manhattan studio. He decides to move to Waterford Falls, Wisconsin with his wife Molly (Penelope Ann Miller) to be with the real Americans. There are the Petersons who run the local diner whom he initially assumed to be brothers. Ryan Hawkins is eager to be his cameraman. Chelsea is his girlfriend. Fred Hawkins (Fred Willard) is unhappy that his son Ryan is leaving the family's local cheese conglomerate. Stan rents a home cheap and finds it comes with Gary Jamison as its butler.

This has some funny quirky bits and characters but it also suffers from some awkward stuff. The butler is a ridiculous idea. He would have worked better as a handyman. Also how could he move across the country without a home to go to? The Peterson reveal in the pilot worked to some extend but it would have worked infinitely better if the town is set up as a Norman Rockwell construct. It's fine to play with that construct but there is something awkward about what this show is trying to do. It's too silly in a way that is laughing at the town. The laughs should be directed at Norm who doesn't understand the genius of their small town ways. Norm is not necessarily an everyman type. There is plenty of comedic firepower but the laughs are complicated.

This could be a very good comedy. It's funny, it's as familiar as small-town america could possibly be and Norm McDonald is, no doubt a pleasure. However, I think Norm McDonald playing an upstanding citizen with a loving wife and a desire to do good, is not our favorite Norm McDonald, Norm's deadpan delivery works better when he's a character without any lofty ideals but who's head is filled with things like horniness, revenge, and slacking on the job. The Norm we saw in "Dirty Work" and "Norm" would never run for mayor. Don't get me wrong, I still like the show and it makes me laugh, but for some odd reason Norm seems like the straight man here and the rest of the characters in this cooky town are the jokes. Hopefully, we'll see Norm get a little zanier too as time goes on, who knows. Either way, i'm willing to stay tuned to find out.

this was not what i was expecting, i (and many like me) was hoping for more wise cracking, revenge plotting, evil scheming, nuisance making shenanigans. i was waiting for norm to be... well, norm. it never happened.

for those of you not familiar with "the norm show" i can see this having some appealing quality's, the quaint little family comedy almost, though maybe don't watch it with your 8 yr old.

but for those of us who have known and loved him at his best it simply seems too flat. Too many morals and too many "good" things, make this the opposite of what has made norm a living legend

I thought this show lacked in any comedy. The laugh track was unbearable, and I find Norm MacDonald boring, and a bad actor. Though I'd have to admit, he had an excellent run on SNL. The show is basically a man and his wife getting back to the good ole times in Middle America. I'd have to say the only time I really laughed was the end, I won't say why though