On Sep 19, 2:53 pm, Les <Les.Bob.Terwilli...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> I woke up at 5 this morning and since then I have been thinking "Is it
> on yet?". I can't wait!
>
> Regards ... Les
>
> Can 'Back to You' save the sitcom?
> SHOW HAS HELP FROM TV VETERANS IN FRONT AND BEHIND CAMERAS
> By Charlie McCollum
> Mercury News
> San Jose Mercury News
> Article Launched:09/19/2007 01:33:13 AM PDT
>
> BEVERLY HILLS - Here's all you need to know about the current state of
> the American television comedy: There will be just 20 live-action
> sitcoms this coming season; five years ago, there were twice that
> number. CBS and NBC - once home to TV's top sitcoms - have just four
> each on their fall schedules.
>
> It's all a matter of dimini****ng returns.
>
> What half-hour comedies there are on the air aren't doing particularly
> well. No sitcom has ranked in the Top 10 of most-watched shows since
> "Everybody Loves Raymond" ended its run in the spring of 2005. Last
> season, just one - "Two and A Half Men" - regularly ranked in the Top
> 20.
>
> Still, there are comedy writers - good comedy writers - out there
> trying to find the one breakout hit that will revive the genre.
>
> "It's become cool to trash the sitcom," says Steve Levitan, who has
> worked on "Frasier" and "Just Shoot Me" among other shows. "I
> understand why, because I think there have been a lot of bad shows
> throughout the years; some of them done by me.
>
> "But I grew up watching 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' and 'All in the
> Family,' 'Mary Tyler Moore' and 'Cheers.' I know it's cool not to love
> (sitcoms), but I do love them."
>
> Levitan is executive producer and co-creator of this season's highest-
> profile attempt to revitalize the traditional sitcom: Fox's "Back to
> You," which debuts at 8 tonight (Chs. 2, 35).
>
> Back to basics
>
> It's about as old school as you can get, including being filmed with
> multiple cameras before a live audience in an era when single-camera
> comedies with no laugh track are the norm. But if any new comedy looks
> like a sure thing on paper, it's Levitan's show.
>
> His co-creator is Christopher Lloyd, one of the lead writers on
> "Frasier" during its heyday. Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton -
> returning to series TV for the first time since "Frasier" and
> "Raymond" - play a local news anchor team whose relation****p is more
> than a bit rocky. Fred Willard ("Best in Show") heads the sup****ting
> cast as a cluelessly un-PC s****ts anchor. James Burrows - whose career
> dates back to "Mary Tyler Moore" - not only directed the pilot but is
> sticking around as the show's lead director.
>
> It's a comedy all-star team and "it feels good to us," Lloyd says.
> "But there's such a low batting average in comedy that you have to go
> into the fight with all the weapons you can."
>
> Grammer feels confident as well and perfectly happy with the
> perception of "Back to You" as a traditional piece of comedy work. "If
> by traditional you mean funny, yes, it's very traditional," he says
> with a laugh.
>
> So far, "Back to You" has avoided one of the major problems afflicting
> TV comedy. Too often, network sitcoms are the product of group-think
> with network executives, studio bosses and researchers all weighing in
> on what the show ought to be. The result: a lack of singular comedic
> vision.
>
> Levitan and Lloyd created "Back to You" outside the system. Before
> they approached a network, they wrote the pilot script, signed up
> Grammer and Heaton and brought in Burrows.
>
> "We wanted to make the best show that we knew how to make," Lloyd
> says. "The way we went about it made that easier to do because we
> weren't beholden to any particular network.
>
> "There was no sort of meddling, because it was a finished product."
>
> Inspiration from TV news
>
> At least in tonight's opening episode, the result is a polished bit of
> work with a very viable premise. Anyone who watches a lot of local
> news knows how often silliness seeps into the newscasts, even in major
> television markets. ("Back to You" is set in Pittsburgh.)
>
> That's fertile ground for laughs, without straining credulity.
>
> Levitan, who started his career in local news, says, "This world, I
> always thought, was extremely ripe for a comedy. What's so funny, to
> me, about local news is there's this great narcissism pretending to be
> altruism. It's just a wonderful place for a larger-than-life character
> to be a big fish in a small pond."
>
> The inspiration for Grammer's character was an anchor Levitan worked
> with in Madison, Wis. The night John Lennon was murdered, the anchor
> came on the air to lead the station's coverage - only to have things
> go very wrong when he somberly announced that "Lennon is survived by
> his wife, Topo Gigio."
>
> Topo Gigio, unfortunately, was the name of a puppet that often
> appeared on the "Ed Sullivan Show." Lennon was married to Yoko Ono.
>
> Still, Levitan adds, the writers are working hard to make sure the
> show "is very accurate about the way that local news is done" -
> although Lloyd admits that "it wouldn't be too funny if they were
> totally brilliant at their jobs."
>
> Good chemistry
>
> What really makes the opening episode work, though, is the chemistry
> between Grammer - as Chuck Darling, an egotistical newsman who has
> returned to Pittsburgh after his career stalled - and Heaton as his
> uptight longtime co-anchor, Kelly Carr, who isn't thrilled by his
> return.
>
> "It just seemed right. I thought, 'Oh, God, me and Kelsey together
> would be a lot of fun,' " says Heaton about why she decided to return
> to weekly television.
>
> And their characters are different enough that Grammer and Heaton
> don't feel like they're reprising Frasier Crane and Debra Barone.
>
> "Although Frasier was self-obsessed, he was trying to do the world
> some good," Grammer says. Chuck Darling "is trying to do himself some
> good. I think what makes him funny is that he has a kind of arrogance
> and a comfort in his own ego."
>
> Now that they have built it, though, the question is: Will they, the
> viewers, come?
>
> Fox, which won a bidding war for the show, certainly thinks so. The
> creators and cast of "Back to You" think so. And fans of the sitcom -
> both inside and outside the TV business - are hoping so.
>
> Back to You
>
> *** (first episode only)
>
> Airing: 8 tonight, Chs. 2, 35
Ottawa Citizen verdict...........:
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/arts/story.html?id=d5690014-b06d-4a8e-a0b1-a98f0544c17a
CPJ
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