For all that ABC has done for television the past couple of years, it sure hasn’t done anything to help resurrect the half-hour sitcom.
On Tuesday, the network introduces “Big Day,” which follows the minute-by-minute developments of a backyard wedding, in the style of “24,” in tidy 30-minute increments.
The entire season will track all the wacky hilarity that ensues. And if you still think ABC can’t do sitcoms after watching “Big Day,” well, then, you’re a pretty good judge.
It’s not that the script isn’t funny or the acting and comedic timing aren’t adequate, it’s just that we’ve seen it all before. And, given the choice, I’ll take “Big Day” over “According to Jim.”
“Big Day” is not offensively bad; it’s just harmless and mundane enough to have absolutely no relevance in the TV landscape, and it does nothing to inspire confidence in ABC’s sitcom sensibilities.
Just pull together every wedding-centric TV show or movie cliche you can recall, and it’s probably in “Big Day.” You’ve got your disapproving father of the bride, your jealous older sister and bridesmaid who sleeps with the best man, your gay groomsman who has a secret crush on the groom, your bride-to-be’s ex-boyfriend who’s awkwardly inserted into the wedding party – and that’s in the first 10 minutes.
Other difficulties include the groom’s desire to play the “What’s Happening?” theme song as the couple walk down the aisle, the best man’s loss of his contact lenses, which renders him virtually blind, and a mom-and-daughter debate over what kind of salad will be served.
The worst news of all is that the cast is one you want to root for. Marla Sokoloff of “The Practice” plays the bride, Alice, and Wendie Malick of “Just Shoot Me” and “Jake in Progress” plays the mom, Jane. They are the cornerstones of a cast that deserves better, but does the best it can with the material at hand.
The aforementioned salad debate is actually one of the highlights of the season premiere.
“It is not just the Caesar salad, Mom!” Alice shouts. “It’s everything the Caesar salad stands for!”
“OK, you want to know what Caesar salad stands for?” Jane retorts. “Ridiculousness. It is a ridiculous salad!”
The passion with which the actors give these lines toes the border of ridiculousness and lands just this side of absurd because we know it’s all done with a deserved wink.
This is all well and good until you realize they’re trying to stretch this out for a 22-episode season. Kurt Fuller, who plays the dad on the show, provided some perspective last summer at the TV Critics Association press tour in Los Angeles. After some talk about the salad controversy, executive producer Cathy Yuspa was asked, “How thoroughly do you have this planned out?”
“It’s pretty well planned out,” she said, prompting Fuller to utter, “There’s a lot of side dishes, too.”
Enough said.
But if the wedding is the first season of “Big Day,” what’s next?
“We have a lot of seasons in mind,” Yuspa said. “Each year the series can move to a new location. … We’d love to see the show go – it could be the parents’ 30th anniversary and the whole family’s on a cruise ship for a whole season, or the first child is born and the whole season is in a hospital.”
A word of caution to ABC: Don’t go building that cruise ship set just yet.
For more TV scoops, check out Victor’s blog at heraldnet.com/blogpopculture.
Victor Balta’s column runs Mondays and Thursdays on the A&E page. Reach him at 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.
On TV
“Big Day,” 9 p.m. Tuesday, KOMO-TV, Channel 4.
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