Twenty Good Years

Network: NBC; Genre: Sitcom; Content Rating: TV-PG; Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);

Seasons Reviewed: Series (1 season)

After being forced into early retirement, arrogant surgeon John (John Lithgow) drags his straight-laced life-long friend Jeffrey (Jeffrey Tambor) on a personal quest to squeeze the most out of life in their golden years.

"Twenty Good Years" screams "This is a show your grandparents would watch". While I don't mean that as an insult and the producers probably wouldn't take it as such, that idea must be the most frightening thing a network programming executive can hear. "Years" is a call back to a time when shows like "Empty Nest" and the now cult favorite "The Golden Girls" rested comfortably on the schedule. Before TV bowed at the feed of to the 18 to 49 demographic senselessly and despite the fact that they have the smallest disposable income. It is positive, upbeat, simple and comfortable. It gives a dignity and a respect to a portion of the audience that goes ignored by network TV executives whose obsession with youth is more likely based in a pathetic mid-life crisis than any test group. Like the bald guy with the Ferrari who tries in vein to be hip for his teenage children.

The premise and the sitcom setting are a blank canvas to let the heavy-weight comic talents of John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor run wild and free. Except it looks like nobody communicated that to the actors. With Lithgow and Tambor relying so heavily on the material and the material relying so heavily on Lithgow and Tambor the end result is pretty much a laugh-free empty hole.

Lithgow plays it with the volume on 10 at all times as if the louder he yells the funnier it is. As the Lemmon to Lithgow's Matthau the show makes the biggest miscalculation with Tambor. Coming off playing a duel role in one of the hippest shows in modern television, "Arrested Development", watching Tambor playing a pathetic old man with a 2 decade death clock on his head is profoundly sad and unappealing. I don't know anybody who sees John Lithgow or Jeffrey Tambor and thinks "elderly", which is a big hurdle the show has to overcome.

So here's to Lithgow and Tambor and a production that had the guts to tell the audience and the network that there was life after 49. The audience (or laugh track?) certainly seemed to enjoy it, but I'm going to need a lot more than good intentions and simple sights of two "old men" bungee jumping or skinny dipping in the ocean to get me laughing.

* ½ /4

It was nice to see the clean comedy about two guys that are older. We kept looking for it on TV. The idea of two single middle aged guys could really have some potential. Like to see more situations between these two. The work life, family life and female relationships if any could be developed. It would be nice to know more about these two and some of their everyday life. Both actors have been very funny in other shows so they probably could do a great job together. Kinda like the "Odd Couple" with Jack Lemmon. "Home Improvement", "Everyone Loves Raymond all had some cute scenes and this could too. Our family looked forward to the development of characters in what seemed to be the hope of great clean comedy about people that are older than 30. We saw a scene were one of the guys had a relationship with a lady. The other guy was a little jealous. That was really funny. The language was not full on swearing and everyone kept their clothes on! Now that is a novel idea.

I saw last night's episode. While I have to admit, I was hoping for more. I just love John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor. I can't believe they never worked before. I am hoping that NBC will allow this show to evolve because I think it has a lot of promise especially with first rate cast. I believe that Tambor and Lithgow's relationship on screen mirrors off-screen. I wish the writing was better but I hope that the show will improve if given a full season. I prefer John in 3rd Rock from the Sun but I'll take him whenever he comes on television. Jeffrey Tambor is also a brilliant actor. They could have made it the Golden Boys of this decade. With Lithgow and Tambor, you can't go wrong. I hope they plan on getting stars like Dame Eileen Atkins, Jessica Walter, Jason Bateman, Jane Curtin, and anybody else they worked with in the past. Lithgow and Tambor could be the new comedy team of this century so please let this show developed into something that can last for years.

Yeah, I know that is a big claim. I am sure that there have been shows that are worse than this one. But this show had network hype and big comic talents. What they ended up with was a horrible mess. When the jokes in a sitcom are not funny it's like going to a party where everyone is being goofy and stupid. You want to do nothing but get out of it.

There was nothing unique about this show. Other good current comedies use narration (My Name is Earl), creative editing (Scrubs), or a mockumentary style (The Office). This could have been a sitcom in the 70's, 80's or whenever. I think some of the canned laughter was actually from the 70's, 80's or whenever.