October 2, 2007
SFist Watches: Even More Tuesday Fall TV Premieres
OK, we're kind of loathe to even mention one of tonight's series premieres because it is that infamous sitcom that's based on a series of Geico commercials. We're speaking, of course, of "Cavemen", and it premieres on ABC at 8 p.m. Now, the last time a TV sitcom was based on a series of commercials, the result was "Baby Bob," so we can't blame people and their knee-jerk reactions to this. That trailer up there isn't helping much, either. We will, however, withhold judgement until we actually watch it, but will note that one of the actors playing a caveman is Nick Kroll, who is usually pretty damn funny on "Best Week Ever," and we also kind of liked his sketch comedy series "Human Giant" on MTV...Whether that has anything to do with the quality of this show remains to be seen.
"Carpoolers," about a group of guys who...wait for it...carpool together, follows at 8:30 p.m.
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Don't hate on Cavemen. Those Geico commercials are funnier and more creative than most of the sitcoms that the networks can come up with on their own (e.g. Carpoolers). It shouldn't be surprising that ad agencies have better talent -- they pay better.
I..I don't hate it! *faint*
Yeah, count me in for the Cavemen premiere.
But I hear a lot of comments like Rain's. My girlfriend is similarly unimpressed. It could be a function of the gender gap. Maybe the idea of men as primitive cave-dwellers is a bit too on-the-nose to be funny to the ladies.
But I gotta say, the gimmick of treating Cro Magnons as an aggrieved minority is pretty fucking clever. If you substitute "caveman" for "black" you can see how subversive a series this could end up being. It may turn out to be a very shrewd way to to way to talk about race in primetime.
But hey, how about that Journeyman? Quantum Leap rip-off for sure, but man, are they Bayareaing the shit out of every freaking scene or what?! No Charmed or Dharma & Greg bullshit here (where they film a few victorians and then do 99% of the filming elsewhere). Journeyman has trolleys! Fog! Earthquakes! SFO! Fog! iPhones! Fog! Palace of Fine Arts! Fog! Fog!
The star of Caveman was on The View the other day. (I know, I know) They had him in his caveman costume and in caveman character. It was really sad to watch.