Sean Hayes Blames NBC for Disappointing Rates — Page 3

I do like this show, it reminds me of the 90's and I think it's funny. As it goes on it's getting better. I think it should be given a chance to gain its footing.

I keep forgetting when the show is on. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Good. Now maybe they can order a full season of COMMUNITY.

That's sad. I've watched every episode so far, and I just commented to my boyfriend that this most recent episode was the first time the show made me laugh.

Too little too late, I'm afraid.

Last week's episode was quite funny (it was written by Joe Keenan former head writer of FRASIER) and one was able to see what good actors can do with good writing but by that time the show had lost most of its audience and there was no realistic way to get it back. NBC knew this and by now Sean Hayes must have known also.

As far as, Michael J. Fox, the network is probably holding onto the show as a courtesy to the star but I expect it will be put on "hiatus" which basically means you don't cancel Michael J. Fox. CBS did the same thing with Mary Tyler Moore's return to sitcom in the late 1980s. As one CBS executive put it, "The show is on hiatus. You don't cancel Mary Tyler Moore."

It's a tough life for a clown. Not a literal makeup-and-wig clown, but clown in the vaudeville sense, someone who is always more a performer than an actor, with a talent for verbal and physical and character comedy. Clowns don't slot well into roles that aren't tailor-made for them. Consider Martin Short, who Sean Hayes played/embodied by proxy on SMASH. Absolutely talented, but absolutely a clown first and an actor second, and phenomenal at it. Things Short appears in are either cult classics or immediately forgettable.

I watched the show once and my problem with it was that it went: "Joke...joke...joke...joke....joke..." and so on. Yes, a sitcom is supposed to have jokes, but here, virtually every single line was written for a laugh, and that tends to weaken any serious interest in the characters or situations, especially when so many of the jokes are strained and lame.

Love the people, but the writing I could not deal with. The jokes weren't funny and I feel like the actors were trying too hard to make them be.

They need to put Thomas Lennon on another show.

Agreed. He and Linda Lavin were the only reasons I watched the show.

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Even Partners was better than New Normal.

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Aw, man! The show was getting better! I think Sean is great and enjoyed Linda Lavin. Even his boss was starting to grow on me. Unfortunately, Megan was terribly miscast as well as his other office buddy - his name escapes me at the moment. I didn't feel they truly would have been friends. I agree with poster that said this show needed another character (his partner, perhaps) to help carry the story. It would have made the show richer and allowed some breathing room before it jumped back to Sean. I love Sean, but like him I'm in smaller doses.

"Yeah, I liked Partners. It reminded me of the Justin Bateman/Alec Mapa "Some of My Best Friends.""

I thought Partners was a very slight but fun old style sitcom. Sean Saves the World was an old style sitcom but I just found nothing about it charming or fun (and I like many of the actors and actresses, like Linda Lavin.) I believe they were on different networks, but did they have different production companies? Because both shows had the same kinda annoying "rhythmic clapping" music between scenes.

Some of My Best Friends -- from what I remember was pretty good too. I looked for it online a while back without much success (this was before people started paying attention to Bateman again--it was based on Kiss Me Guido with Danny Nucci in the Cuban role and apparently and Wiki says that annoying super Republican gay man/Sondheim fanatic Marc Cherry co-created it before Dhousewives.)

I prefer however the early 70s Some of My Best Friends Are movie (which is basically Boys in the Band set in a gay bar -- but adds Rue McClanahan and Fannie Flagg!)