I watch a lot of television, but haven't seen a good family comedy in years. I like Cynthia Stevenson, so I was hopeful. When I saw my newspaper describe this show as a "hopelessly generic family sitcom", I admit I had to watch because I was thinking it can't be THAT bad. After all, ABC had positioned it right after "Dancing with the Stars". They must have seen something really good in it. Sad to say, my newspaper was right. No, it wasn't right. It's not a generic sitcom. It's a TERRIBLE sitcom, with lots of generic characters -- the annoying neighbor (Jere Burns - I think he's supposed to be a doctor!), the fat female neighbor (wasn't she the actress who played the ton-of-a-bitch boss in the movie "Wanted?), and the precocious and mostly obnoxious children.
Why anybody ever thought Bob Saget could head up a new comedy is beyond me. I know he was a hit on "Full House", but that was an awfully long time ago (emphasis on "awful"). The Olsen twins were still babies then! Did he bankroll this new show? He's just not a good actor.
I was among the unfortunate few who went to see "The Drowsy Chaperone" on Broadway, only to discover that the Tony nominated actor who had been playing the lead when I bought the tickets had left the show, and Bob Saget had taken over the part! He was just about as uninteresting in that show as he is in this new sitcom. (It probably was largely due to him that "The Drowsy Chaperone" closed a couple months after he joined the cast.)
ABC is out of their collective mind if they're thinking the audiences will continue to watch this show. I like old-fashioned sitcoms. Ah, remember "Roseanne" and "Home Improvement". Those were the good old ABC days. This "Surviving Suburbia" is just a bad sitcom. Its chances of surviving are slim. Its chances of being as memorable as those other hit ABC shows is zero. I can't wait to forget about it.
