| Wednesday, September 1, 2004 |
13:52 - Don't blink
|
(top)  |
I caught most of the premiere of Father of the Pride last night... and I regret to say that I predict it'll last no longer than Capitol Critters did. I give it six episodes.
It's a shame, too, because it's a gutsy concept. It must have looked great on the pitch boards. The gag writers had a lot of interesting stuff to work with. But, well... it's supposed to be a comedy, right? Unfortunately it just wasn't funny enough. There were way too few gags, and what ones there were were telegraphed, or we'd seen them already in the trailers. Or they all centered around the humor potential of interspecies sex, so self-consciously handled that they made me feel uncomfortable. I just can't see the broadcast-TV-watching prime-time Nielsen audience making time to sit down for this every week.
This reminds me of nothing so much as the frantic 1990 season of shows produced in the astonished wake of The Simpsons' unexpected success: Fish Police, Dinosaurs, Family Dog. Many of which were very well executed. They just all had concepts that were too wacky to work, too embarrassing for grown-ups to watch. Who was going to go in to work the following day and ask his co-workers at the water cooler what they thought of last night's episode of Fish Police?
Same thing's going to happen now. This show is an attempt to capitalize on the democratization of CG animation into the low-budget weekly production market, egged on (no doubt) by the existence of Tripping the Rift on the SciFi network. (The level of animation quality is about the same—which is to say, not very impressive.) It's got star power and the Shrek meme propping it up, but it's already been dealt a major blow by the real-life Roy unlikely ever to perform again. And really—who's going to be able to clear his throat and ask whether it's okay to switch the TV from WWE Raw to Father of the Pride? It just doesn't roll off the tongue with any testosterone. It's just too laden with cognitive dissonance, between cute-and-fluffy animals and anything-but-innocent adult humor, for people to be able to feel comfortable watching it. Anyone deciding to be a fan will have to do so furtively, in the basement with the old cast-off TV. And I'll be surprised if the show lasts a whole season.
Too bad. It was a valiant effort, but... too soon.
UPDATE: Paul Denton liked it, but in a lukewarm sort of way. You know, your pilot episode can't be lukewarm. It's supposed to be your top-drawer material. I think it's sunk.
|
|
Brian Tiemann
