Martin Lawrence And Kelsey Grammer's New FX Comedy Just Broke The TV Trope Machine

Let’s consider all the television tropes and conventions were sick of, OK.

Lawyer shows: Check.
Fish out of water: Check.
Black/White Buddy comedy: Check.
Mismatched Buddy Comedy: Check.
Unexpected meet cute: Check.

That’s all from a two sentence description for the as yet untitled sitcom, but the fact that it comes from Bob Boyett and Robert Horn (Designing Women, Full House, Family Matters) also suggests a laugh track and very broad comedy. That may play well on Friday nights on ABC in 1992, but this is FX, home of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Wilfred, Justified, and Archer. Get your weak-ass sitcoms off of our beloved network.

It gets worse.

The sitcom is expected to have the same deal that Charlie Sheen’s Anger Management has, which is a deal where if the first 10 episodes meet a certain ratings threshold, 90 additional episodes will be automatically ordered. In the case of Sheen’s show, the first 10 episodes got solid ratings due to heightened interest in Sheen’s brand of crazy, but now less than midway through its run, the ratings have plummeted to around a 10th of its debut ratings. But F/X is stuck with it.

Given Kelsey Grammer and Martin Lawrence’s peak popularity, I’d expect that people would at least sample the show, and if they sample a full 10 episodes, we could be in for a long haul. I am looking forward, however, to Grammer and Lawrence’s inevitable dance of joy, which will likely arrive by the third episode.

(via)

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