Hope & Faith

Network: ABC; Genre: Sitcom; Average Content Rating: TV-PG; Classification: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);

Season Reviewed: Season 1+

ABC's TGIF line-up is back and if this show is any indication, it's exactly as we remember it. 'Hope & Faith' is a quintessential "stupid sitcom" with simple, recycled plots, bubble-headed characters and duh-duh humor that brazenly recalls the 'Full House'/'Family Matters' era. And I actually rooted for ABC to bring this idea back- I would much rather deal with this than another reality show.

I understand the niche for this type of simple show. It's Friday night, the kids are excited over the weekend and it's time to just kick back and watch some escapism. So it goes almost without saying that 'Hope' is mind-numbing, but it manages to be even worse than those low expectations. The stories barely make sense from minute to minute and every joke has a blinking neon sign hanging around it. It's also -surprisingly - toward the crude side of generic as we can see the lowered bar of TV standards has even infiltrated TGIF. The show is almost epically stupid from the directing and writing down to the lighting and visceral look. Where we aren't just not laughing, we feel embarrassed for the actors.

The actor I don't feel embarrassed for is Kelly Ripa. Ripa is a gorgeous girl and on 'Hope and Faith' we certainly get to see her with great hair and in a vast wardrobe of attractive outfits. But the series is clearly designed for those who can't get enough of her acting stupid on 'Live with Regis and Kelly' in the morning and want to see her acting stupid in the evening as well. And Ripa hams it up big time here. Meanwhile, we get the sense that everyone else in the cast is trying to tell us they know they can do better. Poor Faith Ford (so good playing a naive ditz on 'Murphy Brown' and now saddled as Ripa's straight man) looks like she's just barely trying to keep up with Ripa in the embarrass-yourself department. Jump the Shark patron saint Ted McGinley is probably the best thing about this show. Most of the time we can find McGinley happily off to the side, away from the blast, filling reactionary shots with a look of amazement at whatever chicanery is going on between the sisters. Elsewhere we find the stock obnoxious kids, also in the periphery as to not divert any power from the gleaming spotlight on Ripa.

This whole affair is the type of obnoxious, bottom-of-the-barrel awfulness that give sitcoms a bad name. It's purpose is to be an escape, but it just might give you a migraine. This was all foretold from the beginning where the show must have set a land-speed record to the bottom by resorting to a food fight in the first episode. A food fight. Of all the sitcom clichés that need to be put a moratorium on, I'd trade them all just to get food fights off the air for good.

* / 4

The American Broadcasting Company, the biggest network mess in the U.S., brings us arguably one of the worst sit-coms ever conceived in Hope And Faith. H&F stars Kelly Ripa as Faith Fairfield, a washed up soap opera actress who moves in with her sister's family because she has no money left (she must have spent it all on her clothes). Ex-Murphy Brown star Faith Ford plays her sister Hope and Ted McGinley plays Hope's husband.

This show relies on 50 years of classic situation comedy devices. Unlike some shows that try to bring in something original on occasion, H&F plays it safe with hackneyed plots that have been used for decades. The show has some brutal acting (Ripa is a gorgeous woman but she has a very grating voice), awful scripts, and poor direction and awful logic. The good thing about the show is that its sheer awfulness makes it a must-see for people who truly cherish bad products. It's truly worth watching this show to see what rehashed plots they trot out, to see what Kellly will be wearing, or seeing Ms. Ford and Mr. McGinley playing thankless roles and playing second fiddle to everyone's favorite baby factory.

They also rely on a lot of guest stars; Clint Black, Regis Philbin, Kathy Lee Gifford(!), Kevin Sorbo, and Roger Clemens are just some of the people who've decided to appear in this embarrassment. Still, the show is doing pretty good for ABC but if this show was on a better network it would have been canceled long ago. If this is the best that ABC can do for a sit-com, ABC will be the Number 4 network for a good long time. Still, if you cherish cheesy, awful-out-of-the box products then check this out because I can't see any non-reality T.V. show being worse than this.

You may talk a lot about this show's faults like being: traditional, formulaic, overacted, goofy.. whatever. Though, strangely it worked and with honors! I feel that big part of its real joy came from the funny 2 leads (Faith Ford) and (Kelly Ripa). They are so cute and vigorous on the screen, having a productive chemistry, looking interestingly idiot, or honestly childish, and by their overacting they deliver hilarious performance. The rest of the cast wasn't that good, but close. The scripts were surprisingly hitting the mark every time, I've never felt bored, and it managed to be unpredictable, for instance: how (Faith) is going to survive in the soap opera that she had part in?, how (Faith) will do in the shop that that she went to work at?, and how (Faith) and (Hope) may do when they found themselves imprisoned in a supermarket?, or unit to save (Hope)'s daughter from some evil party? By the way, these episodes were memorable and top notch. It wasn't another sitcom on TV, albeit it seemed so. It was so nice sitcom despite any criticism. And it's a rare time to love a work with what are supposed to be its faults, or maybe love it because those very faults!

I make time to watch one thing on Fridays and that is Hope and Faith (and I'm a 40 yr old guy). I think it's real funny. The chemistry between Faith and Kelly is perfect. You couldn't find a better partner for Kelly. To add to that you have a third person who fits right in with the two: Ted. He is also great. I like him better now than I did 20 years ago. Kelly is funny as hell. I think she's one of the funniest women in TV today. Her character is perfect for her and she knows how to whine and complain and showoff like no one. Her timing is great. She worked for Charlie in his dentist's office and she was a scream! She botched everything and pursued one of the younger patient's father (while the patient had a mold stuck in his mouth!). Ha! The show started off without many sexual innuendos which was a real nice change but this season the shows are full of them and I think that's kind of a shame. It's even funnier that they have brought in Kelly's husband and Regis and jokes are made about their real-life relationships. Show is way better than Bonnie Hunt's show which went off the air (although I watched that, too, and I think Bonnie and their crew were real talented). I think it is the funniest show on Friday nights. Oh, the writing is great! Please don't go off the air!

This is a really cute show that I like a lot! It is very funny and is similar to Life with Bonnie. I can see the station that plays both these shows getting a lot of viewers. This show may look a little stupid or goofy at times and being totally truthful I never had intentions to watch it. There was really nothing else on tv and I like Kelly Ripa and Faith Ford so I thought I would give it a shot. To my surprise it was a very cute and easy to follow show. I recommend this mostly to women but everyone should really give it a shot. Really Cute! I give it 4 out of 5 stars.