Yesterday, FX announced it was going into business with ex–talk show host George Lopez on what's become known as a "10/90" deal. It's not a tax thing — though it does have serious financial implications for those involved. Rather, it's an industry term referring to the sitcom strategy popularized by Tyler Perry and TBS a few years back, in which a new show is given 10 trial episodes to find its sea legs and to hit certain ratings benchmarks. If all goes not-catastrophically, a subsequent order is given for 90 additional episodes. It worked for FX with Charlie Sheen's comeback vehicle Anger Management, and it'll likely work again with Saint George, in which Lopez is set to play a guy with a wacky family life who does stuff. This sounds flippant, but it's not meant to. 10/90 deals for creaky-premised sitcoms are ideal for networks in search of reliability, not excellence. Saint George, like Anger Management and Tyler Perry's House of Payne before it, will provide value not by breaking ground or cracking wise, but by being a known quantity. These are the shows that no one talks about but produce a uniform, dependable product. They're the humble bricks necessary to build a solid schedule and protect a network from the slings and arrows of outrageous ratings misfortune. Quality aside, these sitcoms are a throwback to the way television used to be before auteurs and recaps, back when "social media presence" were three words that played about as well together as Charlie Sheen, Les Moonves, and Chuck Lorre.
As valuable as it may still be for programmers, consistency doesn't get much play these days from those of us on this side of the screen. There are too many shows debuting, too many sharks being jumped, too many cliffs being hanged to take time to consider the series that don't need to stand out to deliver. It’s a conundrum faced by Parks and Recreation, now gliding effortlessly toward the conclusion of its fourth consecutive stellar season. (Its first season was a mere six episodes and is necessary only for completists.) No show on TV, comedy or drama, has been as steady or as wonderful as Parks these past few years. It's not as quick as Happy Endings nor as cute as New Girl. It's not as creative as early Community nor as cringey as late-period The Office. But Parks chugs ever onward, as smart, sweet, and silly as ever. It is, in the words of Chris Traeger, the tall drink of Vitaminwater played by Rob Lowe, "a locomotive of positivity that runs on team power."
Please stop what you are doing and watch, in slack-jawed amazement and delight, as Patton Oswalt filibusters a Pawnee City Council vote with his fevered ideas for Star Wars: Episode VII in this very extended outtake from tomorrow night's Parks and Recreation double bill. What follows is eight minutes of improvisational wizardry that ends only when Oswalt nearly dies of dry mouth, having heroically reached the extreme limits of nerd-endurance by liquefying the minds of Star Wars purists with the taboo-obliterating suggestion of a grand merger with the Marvel universe.
Something happened in the most recent episode of The Americans. Spoiler: Phillip wore a wig. Then something else happened. It was a shocking moment, one that not only signaled a raising of stakes in the series' story, but a raising of game by the creative forces behind it. In one scene, The Americans made the jump from being good to great. As we discussed on this week's Hollywood Prospectus podcast, this was an "Oh shit!" moment; it's when a show you're watching takes the leap — whether it's when a sitcom goes from being amusing to being must-see TV, or when a high school drama becomes a meditation on human frailty. These moments are really the reason we give shows a chance in the first place. They can happen in the pilot or in the third season, but when they happen, there is really nothing like it. So here are the Grantland staff's favorite "Oh shit!" scenes, from some of our favorite shows. —Chris Ryan
NOTE: THIS POST CONTAINS MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR SOME OF THE MOST BELOVED SHOWS ON TELEVISION. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Hey, remember that cop comedy Andy Samberg is doing? The one that's coming to us on Fox? From the mighty brains of Parks and Recreation’s executive producers Mike Schur and Dan Goor? Well, now it's also got Andre Braugher, who's the kind of guy you could wake up in the middle of the night, blindfold, drop in a burlap sack, drive to an abandoned field, make act alongside only animatronic Chuck E. Cheese creatures, and still get a pitch-perfect "tough cop oozing professionalism" performance out of. Which means all signs here point to "slay."
Every week in this space, Grantland’s Andy Greenwald will run down the happenings and mishappenings in NBC’s Thursday comedy night done mostly right. (Note: The order reflects newsworthiness, not quality. Although occasionally the two just might overlap.)
1. Parks and Recreation
The normal metric for holiday behavior is, as Jim Halpert correctly argued last night, naughty or nice. But in terms of sitcoms, Dwight's Teutonic table might work even better: Do we prefer our comedies to be impish or admirable? Particularly at this time of year, when the tendency to sweeten the eggnog — or at least avoid the fat-free kind — can be overwhelming. For Parks and Rec, this balance isn't limited to December: The only time this most likable of shows stumbles is when its characters end up liking each other so much it muffles the conflict in a miasma of nondenominational good cheer. So it was particularly rewarding to discover that the excellent "Ron and Diane," as written by Aisha Muharrar and Megan Amram, celebrated Krampus far more than jolly old St. Nick.
After seven years, several serious-ish boyfriends, and countless offscreen episodes of TGS, Liz Lemon is a married woman. Last week's 30 Rock saw Liz making it legal with handsome slacker boyfriend Criss Chros (James Marsden). Liz eschewed her original plan to elope in sweats at City Hall in favor of a more formal event, replete with Tony Bennett and a Princess Leia bridal gown. You'll have to forgive me for replicating the famous Lemon eye-roll when I learned that Liz had secret white-wedding fantasies concealed under all her anti-romance bluster. It was somewhat trying to watch Liz realize that her tireless hatred of the culturally enforced marriage-industrial complex was a defensive reaction to her true heart's deepest wish, which just happened to be a ceremony like the ones on Bravo's Wedding Bitches. I found myself rooting for witness Dennis Duffy (Dean Winters) to pound on some glass and break up the wedding, The Graduate–style.
Every week in this space, Grantland’s Andy Greenwald will run down the happenings and mishappenings in NBC’s Thursday comedy night done mostly right. (Note: The order reflects newsworthiness, not quality. Although occasionally the two just might overlap.)
1. 30 Rock
In the end, it seems, Liz Lemon really could have it all. The respectful relationship, the professional success, the wind-battered face of a New England cod fisherman. Proving herself, society, and Anne-Marie Slaughter wrong, last night Liz married Criss Chros, her marzipan candy man. The ceremony, held at midday in City Hall, was a typically Liz affair: Dennis Duffy brown-bagging (and black-sonning) it in the corner, a tuxedoed Jack Donaghy reading Ayn Rand, Tony Bennett. It was the lovely capper to a remarkably warm and generous episode of 30 Rock, a sitcom that usually follows its cartoony muse down some prickly rabbit holes, but last night showed real heart. (The only echo of that Seinfeldian fealty to the joke above all else was with poor Shanice: Not only would Criss not sit on her hand, she'll spend the rest of her life unmarried, working in the chapel.) "Mazel Tov, Dummies," written by Tracey Wigfield, but with Tina Fey's Pringles-stained fingerprints all over it, was a celebration of idiosyncrasy all around. From Tracy's embrace of recklessness to Jack and Jenna's grappling with their true value, the episode suggested that happiness is always possible. It just depends on whose rules you're playing by.
Every week in this space, Grantland’s Andy Greenwald will run down the happenings and mishappenings in NBC’s Thursday comedy night done mostly right. (Note: The order reflects newsworthiness, not quality. Although occasionally the two just might overlap.)
1. The Office
Something strange and unexpected happened last night: The Office made me laugh. More than once actually. At first it was a guilty snicker that slipped out when Phyllis accused Dwight of mispronouncing a female client's name in the most OMG/GYN way possible and Nellie muttered "Ugh, that's not good." Confused and a little concerned, I looked around the room. Had anyone heard me? (No. I was alone.) Was I getting soft? (Inevitably, but maybe not all the way just yet.) Then a gloriously porn-stached Toby leaned into the face of a passing female pedestrian and brayed "Smile if you love men's prostates!" and I lost it again. No shame this time. This was really happening. "The Whale" was a legitimately funny episode of The Office. Like a less-addled Ahab, it seemed my years of searching had finally come to an end.
Every week in this space, Grantland’s Andy Greenwald will run down the happenings and mishappenings in NBC’s Thursday comedy night done mostly right. (Note: The order reflects newsworthiness, not quality. Although occasionally the two just might overlap.)
1. Parks and Recreation
Watching NBC on Thursday nights in the fall of 2012 can be a dispiriting, depressing experience. The lights are flickering and there’s a chill in the air. From week to week, you never know who’s going to show up, old friends or those annoying neighbors from down the block. Once the crown jewel of a proud network, Thursdays have fallen into deep disrepair. Worse than disrepair, actually: disregard. If it were physically and morally possible to broadcast nothing but the The Voice five nights a week, interspersed only with union-mandated feeding breaks for the talent (Christina Aguilera prefers the mango-flavored peacock gruel) and action shots of Matthew Perry firing crossbows with the cast of Revolution, network president Bob Greenblatt would do it in a heartbeat. Faster, actually. Those heartwarming Whitney promos aren’t going to produce themselves.
Every week in this space, Grantland’s Andy Greenwald will run down the happenings and mishappenings in NBC’s Thursday comedy night done mostly right. (Note: The order reflects newsworthiness, not quality. Although occasionally the two just might overlap.)
1. Parks and Recreation
Last week, I led this piece by suggesting that “all great comedies are at least a little bit serious.” Now, I’d like to take it one step further: Sometimes the best parts of comedies are the moments that aren’t funny at all. The trend in modern sitcoms is to speed everything up: more jokes, more references, less time to catch your breath. But the old-fashioned Parks has always appreciated the value of the slow build, the pause, the very human need to inhale oxygen before LOL-ing it out with glee. As Claude Debussy — himself a huge fan of Cheers — once put it: “Music is the space between the notes.”
Every week in this space, Grantland’s Andy Greenwald will run down the happenings and mishappenings in NBC’s Thursday comedy night done mostly right. (Note: The order reflects newsworthiness, not quality. Although occasionally the two just might overlap.)
1. 30 Rock
All truly great comedies are at least a little bit serious. It’s a delicate, delightful balance to mix purely goofy laughs with those that resonate on a deeper, Homer Simpson–y level. In the past few years, as 30 Rock has pushed its jokes-per-minute ratio to nearly unheard-of proportions — in our recent podcast, former staffer Kay Cannon talked about how her job went from two jokes per page to a joke every line — it’s been easier to overlook the sharp satire lurking behind all the silliness. But the archly brilliant, Tina Fey–scripted “Stride of Pride” proved that, just like Jenna doing Kegels and thinking, it’s more than possible to do two challenging things at the same damn time — and look awfully good in the process.
The last time we checked in on Andy Samberg he'd just signed up for a low-risk, short-run BBC show called Cuckoo, and his Adam Sandler movie hadn't yet bombed. Meaning: It wasn't really clear yet how his post-SNL run was shaping up. These days, though, the picture is a bit clearer — and things are looking good! Deadline reports that Samberg has been cast in an untitled Fox comedy pilot from Mike Schur and Dan Goor, the Parks and Recreation executive producer duo. He'll play the lead detective of a diverse precinct on the edge of New York City (but, like, in a comical fashion, and not in a Darkness on the Edge of Town fashion?). This seems like a real juicy situation for Samberg: The Parks and Rec pedigree speaks for itself, but the clout of Fox — which, with New Girl and The Mindy Project, has a recent track record of supporting sharp comedies — means the show has true (as in, not in the NBC cult-style) hit potential.
Every week in this space, Grantland’s Andy Greenwald will run down the happenings and mishappenings in NBC’s Thursday comedy night done mostly right. (Note: The order reflects newsworthiness, not quality. Although occasionally the two just might overlap.)
1. 30 Rock
A few days ago I recorded a podcast with Warren Littlefield, the former entertainment president of NBC and the man who, in the '90s, oversaw the last great era of Must See TV. The pod will be posted in a few weeks, but one thing he said seemed particularly relevant to last night’s slate. While Warren agreed that The Office, in its prime, was a worthy successor to Cheers and Seinfeld as the 9 p.m. “tentpole” of a night of sophisticated comedies, he used another term to describe the fringier pleasures of shows like Community and 30 Rock: “velvet rope.” He was in no way disparaging the quality of either series, just pointing out that both maintain an air of exclusivity to their humor, that life in a boring yet familial workplace might prove slightly more universal and relatable than, say, the continuing adventures of a man who transports a pregnant snake in a casserole dish. The television landscape may have changed radically since Warren was in charge, but the mission remains the same for current topper Bob Greenblatt: Expand the audience, don't limit it.
Every week in this space, Grantland’s Andy Greenwald will run down the happenings and mishappenings in NBC’s Thursday comedy night done mostly right. (Note: The order reflects newsworthiness, not quality. Although occasionally the two just might overlap.)
1. The Office
As if powered by a Pawnee-esque serving of Dwight’s vomitous blue energy drink, the momentum of last week’s final-season premiere carried through last night’s cold open. The quick degradation of the chore wheel into a much more exciting fun wheel (cue Erin sound effect) was everything that was and is still delightful about The Office: a gaggle of brightly drawn, warmly familiar characters elevating the mundane into absurdist glee. (Who would mind scrubbing the toilets if a tiny piece of circular cardboard commands it?)
