Growing Up Fisher

The age gap between Elfman and Simmons spoiled the show for me. He looked more like the grandfather than the father/husband. She looked like she might have been the second or third wife but then they would have had younger children, if any. Elfman's character acts as childish or more childish than the children. I can look past the unbelievable abilities of the blind husband but the family just doesn't ring true as one that would have been established in the first place. Jason Bateman would have been better as the husband with Simmons as the narrator. Perhaps ensuing episodes will improve but usually the pilot is supposed to be better in order to get accepted.

We were pleased to see that NBC has tried a couple of new family centered series of which this is one and the other being About A Boy.

We think the star in this series will turn out to be young Henry (Eli Baker). He is a fresh young talent and we think he has great potential.

J.K. Simmons as Mel Fisher the Dad is an enjoyable character. It was especially nice to see how Henry listens to everything Dad says and there are many large underlying "teachable moments" in this first episode. Mel is a good Dad.

Jenna Elfman is someone we enjoy seeing anytime, and here in her role as Joyce she was true to type.

We enjoyed this episode and will tune in again next week.

Growing Up Fisher and About A Boy are a welcome relief from watching NCIS Los Angeles on that other network. That means it fills a time slot where the market is hungry for something new and in this case NBC did it.

Keep up the good work and we may tune in to NBC for more than Grimm.

Mel Fisher (J.K. Simmons) is a blind lawyer who often tries to pass. He is divorcing his wife Joyce (Jenna Elfman). Their kids Henry (Eli Baker) and Katie (Ava Deluca-Verley) have to deal with the divorce and their unique family. The show also gets into Henry's best friend Runyen (Lance Lim).

This show started awkwardly with blind Mel passing for seeing. It's filled with stories from writer's life with his blind dad. Even though it may be real, it just sounds fake without being funny. Then there is Jenna Elfman. I don't want to be mean but she's too young and hot for Simmons. I love the guy but Jenna looks 30s even although she's in her 40s. Also the divorce is possibly the nicest one around. It feels like a lot of rough edges got rounded out. The kids are fine and the best character has to be the best friend Runyen. He's the funniest one in the whole cast. This is a functional network TV family sitcom. It's a mid season replacement show that got canceled after its half season run.

It is not often that NBC has a good show to play, but this is the best show they have had in a long time. It is funny, witty, and just an overall good show.

It is a show that has caught my attention week after week, this is not an easy task (I have the attention span of a gnat) to grasp my attention.

The only other show I had seen J.K Simmons in was The Closer, it is nice to see him trying to branch out and try new things, he makes a great comic for a comedy. His voice and dialect is just witty.

It is amazing that producers are getting new talent, i.e. Henry and Runyen, to play in these types of shows; instead of using people who have been in many of shows. Props to these producers for giving new actors a chance in their shows.

One of the best things I can think of about this show is the opening, with the song "Tell the World" by Eric Hutchinson, it is a great song to go along with this opening.

If it were up to me, I would renew this show in a heartbeat. Too bad it is in the hands of the critics.

I have said it before and I stand by it, this is the best show that NBC has had in a long time, there are only two shows I watch on this network: Parenthood and Growing Up Fisher. NBC has a winner with this show, could be around for a long time if they can stay out of the teeth of the critics.

"Are you sure you should be driving?" NBC is currently trying a couple of new family centered series of which this is one and the other being About A Boy. Unfortunately, the premise is relatively thin and the show quickly abuses the abilities of the protagonist, Mel Fisher. The premise revolves around Mel Fisher, a blind lawyer, who goes about his life fooling everyone into believing he can see. The protagonist can apparently chop down trees with a chainsaw, teach his daughter to parallel park, leap over other lawyers with a simple bound. The comedy would need to be irreverent and edu for this to have the slightest shot at success. 'instead, it goes for a sappy, feel-good vibe with a voice-over by Jason Bateman. Despite it being based on the creator's actual childhood, the element of truth doesn't make it any less absurd or any more worthy of being a TV show. Just as it's hard to keep up with how many failed sitcoms there have been during mid-seasons, I'm losing track of how many mawkish, barely funny sitcoms these days are drawn from the writer's own family experience and upbringing. Creatively, the story of Me is an awfully stifling place to start. Memoir has its place beyond the page, but sitcoms are usually not it - for the same reasons that family stories you think are so table-poundingly hilarious are difficult to convey to any audience larger than a dinner party. Network execs need to stop indulging this strange habit and ask writers and producers to look for pilot pitches someplace other than their home movies and photo albums: it just isn't funny. For these reasons Growing Up Fisher gets a 2/10.