Looking at guest list rosters: The Crazy Ones, Masters of Sex, Arrested Development, Mom

The Crazy Ones: Ashley Tisdale, Brad Garrett*, Brad Paisley+, Cheryl Hines, Ed Asner, Fred Meladed, Josh Groban, Kelly Clarkson+, Marilu Henner, Pam Dawber, Saffron Burrows, Sandeep Prakh

Notes: The opportunity for the cast to interact with a wide array of famous names outside the world of sitcomdom playing themselves was one of the selling points of the show. The pilot (as well as a clip of that pilot presented at the upfronts) featured Robin Williams dueting with Kelly Clarkson as herself. Despite the early promise, the show remained relatively tame in comparison to a show like Extras (whose entire gimmick rested on a guest star of the week making a fool of themselves) or Party Down (where not all but part of the allure was tuning in for a guest star of the week). The most meaningful guest stars the show boasted were the ones of star Robin Williams’ generation such as Ed Asner, Marilu Henner or Pam Dawber. The latter allowed the show to promote the episode as a Mork and Mindy Reunion.

Highlights: Josh Groban’s strange trajectory to TV acting has evolved from cornering the niche market of opera singers teeny-boppers will save a spot for on their playlists to using those singing talents for a standout guest spot on Ally McBeal to roles as aloof characters  on The Office and  Coffee Town. Groban channels his voice and doofus charm as an old coworker of  Sidney’s who carries a torch for her. Addiionally, Ashley Tisdale displays the kind of meta-awareness that is needed for ex Disney-stars trying to outgrow their squeaky clean image as a bratty intern. 

Arrested Development (Season 4 Only): Adam Devine, Alan Tyduk, Anders Holm, Andy Buckley, Andy Richter, Ben Stiller, Ben Schwartz, Blake Anderson, Bobby Lee, Bruce McCulloch, Carl Weathers+,  Chris Dianotopolous, Christine Taylor, Diedrich Baker, Ed Begley Jr, Ed Helms, Garcelle Beauvais, Henry Winkler, Ian Roberts, Ione Skye, Isla Fisher, James Lipton, Jeff Garlin, Jerry Minor, John Michael Higgins, John Beard+, Judy Greer, Kristen Wiig, Lennon Parham, Lonny Ross, Liza Minnelli, Mae Wittman, Margaret Cho, Maria Bamford, Maria Thayer, Martin Mull, Mary Lynn Ruskjab, Natasha Leggero, Nadine Velazquez,  Parveesh Cheena, Rizwan Manji, Ron Howard+, Seth Rogen, Terry Crews, Tommy Tone, Zach Woods

Notes: The fourth season is a testament to just how much talent a casting director can accumulate if they have seven years of anticipation and a decade of good will to work with.

In addition to the superbly talented ensemble of the Bluths, fans of the show are equally as likely to cite the brilliant creations of Lucille Austero (Liza Minnelli), Bob Lablaw (Scott Baio), Anne “Her” Veal (Mae Wittman), and others when discussing what made the show so memorable. For actors like Liza Minnelli, Carl Weathers and Henry Winkler, the show gave the chance to redefine themselves for a new generation.

In order to give the 4^th season an added flavor, AD weaved a handful of new characters as central parts of the story: Maria Bamford as a looney drug-addled soulmate to Tobias, Chris Dianotopolous as an activist to give Lindsey new purpose and love, Terry Crews as a soulless politician loosely modeled on 2012 also-ran Herman Cain and Isla Fisher as an intriguing actress who gets entangled with both Michael and his son. 

On top of that there are a number of blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameos by luminaries such as Natasha Leggerro (Now on Another Period), Lonny Ross (30 Rock) or Nadine Velazquez (My Name is Earl).
Mom: Ed Asner, French Stewart, Jaime Pressly*, Jim Piddock, Justin Long, Kevin Pollock*, Mimi Kennedy*, Missi Pyle, Nate Curddroy, Richard Schiff, Rick Fox, Sarah Rue

Notes: For all the talk of Kevin Pollock as a character actor, this is the one of the few times where he gets to do some acting as opposed to doing impressions. Every other time, I scratch my head and realize “Oh, that’s just Saul Rubineck.” One of the most critically respected multi-cam sitcoms out there, “Mom”  is a great venue for veterans like French Stewart, Ed Asner, and Sarah Rue to dip their toe in a more sophisticated comedy while staying in their comfort zone. The blue collar nature of the show has proven to be a great fit for Jaime Pressly whose most famous role was a similar financially down-and-out character in My Name is Earl’s Joy

Masters of Sex: Alex Borstein, Allison Janney, Beau Bridges*, Betsy Brandt, Frances Fisher, Greg, Grunberg, Josh Charles, Julianne Nicholson*, Judy Greer, Laura Silverman, Keir O’Donnell, Mae Whitman, Nicholas D’Agosto*, Rene Auberjonois, Sara Silverman*, Tate Donovan

Notes: A prestige period drama like this will inevitably attract the usual candidiates: The versatile Betsy Brandt, fast-rising Julianne Nicholson, the droll Rene Auberjonois and Josh Charles who’s been immersed in high-level drama since he broke out some 25 years ago in a period piece (“Dead Poets Society”). At the same time, the show is trying to bring a bit of edge which is why they’ve also reached from the comedic pool of actors including Mad TV’s Alex Borstein as a crazy zoo lady and the counter-intuitive choice of Sara Silverman. While Silverman is too idiosyncratic in her comedic style to convince someone that she’s from the 1950’s, the exuberance and sassiness in her comedic persona make her an ideal source of attraction to the high-spirited character of Betty DeMilo. 

Looking at some of the 2013 shows that didnt measure up

I just posted my Top 10 List along with an Honorable Mention. On top of that, I include a list of shows that I watched so someone reading my Top 10 List will know what it was up against because no critic watches everything. In that respect, I'd like to also review 2013 by discussing some of the shows that fell short of being considered by myself for the year's best TV:

The Crazy Ones-It's a somewhat dependable sitcom and the Robin Williams/Sarah Michelle Gellar is a great pairing. I'll never understand the school of thought that Robin Williams is kind of annoying instead of a supremely talented guy who is among the most gifted comedians out there. Though I'd place myself in the top 10% of the population in terms of how much they like Robin Williams, even I found him a little redundant here. The show also loses points for having one of my last favorite stock characters: The lothario who is effortlessly irresistible to the opposite sex. This wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that it's supposed to be his comic trait and there's nothing that inherently funny about a guy who uses women like he does. Amanda Setton is clearly a talented actress but she isn't used particularly well here (ironically, I think she fit in better on "The Mindy Project") and she's given her character a weird tic of making every line of dialogue sound like a nervous question (perhaps she's trying to get on the cast of "Whose Line is It Anyway?").

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: This was a great addition to my weekly schedule for several weeks but the show had some irritating traits that eventually cancelled out the show's strengths. Andy Samberg does not make a believable cop (or a likable character for that matter) which begs the question: If the show's sole function is as a vehicle for Andy Samberg, why place him into TV's most overused genre when he doesn't fit into it? While some of the side characters (this show could win a diversity award for best Latino cast on TV) and relationships are excellent, the show lacks any sort of grounding upon which to build comedy. The comic tone is geared so much towards one-liners and quick gags, it feels more like vaudeville than a multi-layered source of laughs.

Modern Family-The show is high enough in quality to have merited honorable mention every year thus far, but by this point, the show has used up nearly every bag of tricks at its disposal. At this point, how many more hidden talents can Cam reveral? How many more revelations can there be that Jay's really a softie? How many more times can Alex surprise Haley by climbing her way up the social ladder? Hasn't she had her first boyfriend three times by now? This is not a fault of the show as it's doing what it is designed to do: Produce consistent and interchangeable episodes so that it can make a killing in syndication. I would happily watch this show five years from now when it turns up on the TV on a random afternoon and I still watch it now. It's just no longer event viewing.

The Sing-Off-It was probably right around #11 the last time it came on in 2011. Since the Sing-Off came back from the brink of cancellation, it acquired a new corporate producer in the form of Sony Television which made a few small changes that ended up making the show worse. I thought seven episodes was the optimal number but I didn't feel like I got the chance to know most of these groups. More backstory was needed and the swan songs, Ben's blog and the post-performance camera chats might have helped that.

The Awesomes (Hulu)-Seth Meyer's newest venture, the show got off to a great start and seemed to find something unique to say in the now overcrowded genre of superhero spoofs. I still watched it all the way through but the plots lost a little firepower after a while as certain plot motifs started repeating themselves (i.e. no one catching onto Malocchio's plan, Prock having a crush on Hotwire, Muscleman dealing with his inferior intellect in comparison to Prock) in ways that didn't build. Of the eight superheroes, I found only about half to really hold my attention as interesting characters. Coincidentally, that's the same hit-miss ratio as SNL sketches so, hey, at least Seth is consistent.
 
Alpha House (Amazon)-Based on an article from the New York Times, the show about four Senators sharing a house in Washington is a premise winning enough to get a good bidding war and the necessary amount of hype to kick off Amazon's original content platform. The show is pleasant and breezy through the first three episodes. At the same time, it's somewhat underwhelming due to the fact that it seems episodic in tone with little serialization. It almost seems like the remnants of a multi-camera sitcom. It's also worth noting that John Goodman seems to be recycling some of his old roles for the lead character (I see some traces of Evan Almighty, Flight, the Babe and some of his  Coen brothers films). He is a bit grumpy, a little lazy, and that's about it. This is is even more disappointing considering that most standout shows in the Golden Age of TV have incredibly strong protagonists. The upside is that the show has a lot of potential for good plots as there's a lot of amusing situations I can imagine placing four senators in. In the third episode, for example, they go to Afghanistan on a fact-finding trip for self-serving reasons. Although I was disappointed that they were in Afghanistan only in the episode's third act, it had potential.


My disappointments with Lilyhammer, Scandal, American Horror Story, and 1600 Penn are covered elsewhere on this blog.