I don’t remember when and how many times I’ve said it in the past, but Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s performance in Airplane! is probably my all-time favorite athlete-turned-actor moment. And to be fair, Bubba Smith in Police Academy is in the same ballpark. Then maybe Roy Hibbert on Parks and Rec, but that’s only because he was involved in the “Take me there” scene and that has a special place in TV lore. Where was I? Oh yeah, Kareem karapping all over his acting legacy.
NBC will debut Guys with Kids on Sept. 26 as part of its new So You Like CBS Wednesday lineup, and it stars Anthony Anderson as a guy who has the world’s greatest blackmail pictures of a network president. According to the show’s plot synopsis, though, it’s about so much more than that: “30-something dads struggle as parents because they are still children at heart.” Riveting.
Apparently NBC aired the show’s pilot last night, and I wouldn’t know because I was watching Tig’s meltdown on Sons of Anarchy for a second time, but our friends at Guyism checked it out and those poor bastards deserve a few beers for their effort. In the clip after the jump, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar stops by someone’s apartment and the guys demand that he dunk a baby. Trust me, it’s even more meh than it sounds.
I feel bad about exposing people to this, but as EW points out, it ain’t always the best thing for a network to keep trotting out the most cutting edge sitcom ideas (SEE: Arrested Development, Sports Night, 30 Rock, Community, etc.). So maybe Guys with Kids is what NBC needs to get back in the ratings game and maybe Kareem Abdul-Jabbar knows what he’s doing when his agent asks if he wants to collect a paycheck for being tall and famous and he shrugs and says yes.
Either way, I still miss this.
