I've heard it said that only two people can get money for a show in Hollywood without doing a pilot--Michael J. Fox and Bill Cosby, and certainly we all understand why that is. Michael J. Fox is a wonderful and funny actor who can "accidentally" throw a dinner roll at a man's crotch and joke "Parkinson's!" and it's funny.
However, the rest of the cast doesn't quite live up to the star. The premise is that Michael Henry, beloved New York news anchor, left his job because of Parkinson's, but is now returning to work.
His family is a deadbeat son, smart teen daughter, and young son who is so far no more than a punchline occasionally. His sister is a selfish freeloader, and his wife is there, too. She's just there. All the family characters are stereotypes and not too interesting. I don't think this is the fault of the actors--they play stereotypes just fine.
Only two shows have aired so far, but I feel disappointed. If it wasn't Michael speaking, my attention wandered. The other characters just can't seem to hold their own against Fox.
The two plots so far have been Michael's return to television, which was somewhat fun, and flirting with the sexy upstairs neighbor (Michael's real-life wife, Tracey Pollan) which was so trite I was truly surprised it made it past the drawing board.
The most interesting characters so far are Michael's TV friend, Harris, played by Wendell Pierce, and the "lesbian" friend of his daughter, who was on screen for less than 5 minutes.
His news channel "family" is a bit more interesting, and perhaps if the show focused on that aspect of his life, it might be worthwhile.
I'll give it a few more tries, but am not too hopeful--so far it's thumbs down. I really wanted to like this, but it needs a big rewrite and perhaps some recasting.
