The Michael J. Fox and Robin Williams Sitcoms

Michael J. Fox and Robin Williams returned to television on Thursday night in new sitcoms. The hopes of their respective networks are heavy on their shoulders. I’ve seen the premiers of both now, so I thought I’d put down some brief thoughts on each.

Up first, “The Crazy Ones,” on ABC, where Robin Williams plays an advertising executive, Simon Roberts, and Sarah Michelle Gellar plays his daughter Sydney, both named partners in their firm Lewis, Roberts & Roberts. The pilot sees them in crisis mode, trying to hang on to their largest client, McDonalds, by coming up with a new campaign, and convincing a weirdly sexed up Kelly Clarkson to sing the song for their commercial. Robin Williams mostly plays himself in Don Draper clothing, ad libbing and going off on entertaining tangents in typical Williams fashion. It’s fun and he’s enjoyable to watch.

However, where I think this show has a lot of potential is the rest of the ensemble. Sarah Michelle Gellar is put in the straight woman role for most of the episode, the harried but loving daughter trying to keep her scatterbrained genius father on track. However, she can handle her comedic moments perfectly well, and makes me appreciate her time on “Buffy: the Vampire Slayer” all the more. James Wolk shows up as staffer Zach Cropper, who not only shows off his comedic timing but he sings! Amanda Setton and Hamish Linklater play other firm underlings and haven’t had much to do yet, but make good impressions.

The pilot is pretty schticky, but it’s schtick that works because the cast is talented and the premise is sound. Setting the show in an advertising agency and using real brands as clients is a fairly craven product placement gimmick, but there’s some good drama and tension generated by the pitching and Gellar and Williams show some appealing chemistry. I bought into their father-daughter act almost immediately. It reminds me, oddly, of Keith and Veronica Mars. I also liked that Simon Roberts is positioned as a legendary ad man who is trying to turn around a difficult career decline, and has to compete with his own past image - a wink to Robin Williams’ own career, perhaps.

“The Michael J. Fox” show also works the actor’s life into the story, but to a far greater degree. You couldn’t have done this show without acknowledging that Fox suffers from Parkinson’s disease, and the creators have decided that Fox’s character, a New York NBC news anchor named Mike Henry, should be similarly afflicted. The show centers around Mike and family, including wife Annie (Betsy Brandt), older son Ian (Conor Romero) who dropped out of Cornell, precocious teenage daughter Eve (Juliette Goglia), young son Graham (Jack Gore), and Mike’ s underachiever sister Leigh (Katie Finneran). At work, the newsroom is run by Harris Green (Wendell Pierce), and Mike has a newbie assistant, Kay Costa (Ana Nogueira).

The pilot focuses too heavily on Mike Henry’s struggle with Parkinson’s, which is completely understandable and necessary. Still, I was very glad that NBC chose to air a second episode, this one about Mike briefly becoming infatuated with an upstairs neighbor and giving him an opportunity to behave like an ass. Fox is still terribly charming, but the Parkinson's hasn’t stopped being a distraction yet, and the series is still in the process of getting the other characters fleshed out. The second lead on the show isn’t Betsy Brandt, but Juliette Goglia, who plays Eve as intelligent but lacking in self-reflection. She’s the best part of the cast so far, and I have to wonder if the show wouldn’t have benefited from being about her instead of Mike Henry.

I can see “The Michael J. Fox” show settling into a nice, sweet little family comedy eventually. The cast is strong, the writing is pretty decent so far, and Fox playing a thinly veiled version of himself works fine, though it is a little jarring to see him in a half-hour sitcom without a laugh track. However, the show feels like it’s on the wrong network. NBC’s Thursday nights are full of workplace comedies and more diverse ensembles. This feels like it should be following “Modern Family” over on ABC. Then again, Sean Hayes’s new show is going to share a somewhat similar warm-and-fuzzy premise.

I give “The Crazy Ones” the edge right now simply because I’m not the target audience for family sitcoms, and Robin Williams continues to amuse me more consistently than Michael J. Fox. Williams’ riff on ejaculating ketchup packets had me on the floor. Also, I can see Sarah Michelle Gellar stepping up and carrying the show in a pinch, something I’m not sure anyone on “The Michael J. Fox” show is capable of doing yet. That, and I’m delighted that Bob Benson from “Mad Men” can do comedy.
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