TV Bland

So Donald Faison is going to star with Kristin Johnson in a new sitcom coming to TV Land.

This is very sad to me.

Look, I don't want poor Faison to be sitting at home thinking about how much he hates Zach Braff for going off to be a movie star, but TV Land? Really?

This surge in "old fashioned" sitcoms airing on TV Land freaks me out. It worries me that lots of people are watching, and that awards shows are nominating the cast. Why? Well, let me be honest:

They are terrible.

I tried to watch Hot In Cleveland, I did. I like Jane Leeves, I like Wendy Malick, and Betty White is a funny old lady. (I have no feeling about Bertinelli. Literally, not a single feeling.) Plus, John Schneider was on the pilot, and I've thought he was hot ever since Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.

Suck it, Sully.

Unfortunately, the show is just one giant cliche. I can see the jokes coming a mile away, and even when they get there, at their absolute funniest they only warrant a mild chuckle. Retired at 35 is so bad it's too good for the dad from Just Shoot Me, forget the amazing Jessica Walters.

Vapid, inane, insipid. Thanks, 9th grade SAT prep!

The plethora of shows in development over at TV Land (including the new Fran Drescher project, because we all missed her so much) make me nervous because I think sitcoms have gotten progressively better over the last ten years, and I don't want to lower the bar. I don't want to go back to a TV landscape filled with comedy that appeals to the lowest common denominator.

Ok, fine, Two and a Half Men is on my TV, but those of us with intelligence still have plenty to choose from. What's amazing about sitcoms right now, like 30 Rock, Community, and How I Met Your Mother, is that the writers expect me to have a basic working knowledge of pop culture, current events, and even the show's past to get the jokes. Following in the gilded footsteps of groundbreakers like Will and Grace and Arrested Development, this intelligent humor creates a richer show as well as bigger laughs from me.

Reinventing the television landscape, one never-nude at a time.

Even a show like The Big Bang Theory, which seems formulaic on the surface (being a multi-camera show filmed in front of an audience) makes jokes about comic book characters, movies, politics, and physics. That's right, physics. Community's humor stems from not only the humorous lines the characters say, but from the referential staging, costuming, and lighting. We're all in on the huge joke, but the joke has layers.

Those layers are what has elevated humor in recent years. No longer is sitcom humor based purely on the stupidity of Tim Taylor or the catchphrases of the Olsen twins. With shows like The Office and Modern Family, yes, we laugh at the stupidity of Kevin or Phil, but we are laughing with Jim or Claire. I think it's part of the reason that sitcoms now are better able to give us heart without giving us schmaltz; characters aren't as black and white as they used to be and neither are the resoloutions. It's more like real life.

And I like that.

What, your life isn't like this?

None of this is to disparage great shows that really pushed boundaries in the past, like Golden Girls, All In the Family, or The Cosby Show, but this new stuff just feels different, doesn't it? Honestly, pop culture references are how I talk to my friends, and sometimes I wish there was a camera to make a face to when someone in my life has a Phil Dunfee moment. I want to laugh at characters and about them, and above all to feel like I know these people.

I do, really.

I'm just not saying who's who.