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[Vanity] "Mulaney" ... Really? An Astonishingly Laughless "Seinfeld"
FOX ^ | 9/20/14 | FOX

Posted on 09/20/2014 8:47:19 PM PDT by JennysCool

Holy cow! After the football game, FOX showed a preview of their new sitcom "Mulaney" ... named for the stand-up comic who stars. Never have I seen this kind of preview that had not ONE laugh. Not ONE. And the set-up is a blatant "Seinfeld" rip-off. Completely fake interaction amongst the characters. WHAT a disaster. Very sorry Martin Short is peripherally involved here. HE's the real deal. This show looks bad on so many levels.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: johnmulaney; lornemichaels; martinshort; mulaney; nasimpedrad; sitcom; snl
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To: JennysCool

I didn’t plan on watching it, because it looked like a shameless rip-off of the Seinfeld format. Besides, even the commercials for it looked terrible.

If you’re going to rip of the Seinfeld format, at least give credit where credit is due. Don’t sell it as the incredibly bright idea of a newcomer, and this is exactly what it appeared to me they were doing.

Seinfeld was a very good show. He, the other actors, the writers and the production company made it look so easy, others thought it would be an easy hit. I think crews like the Seinfeld crew don’t come along very often.

Something magical either happens or it doesn’t. In the case of Seinfeld, it hit. Leave out one element and it won’t. Actors, writing, production..., any hitch in the process and it all suffers.

It is interesting how Larry David’s endeavors seemed to flop. The program he was involved in on HBO left me without so much as a smile.

Others may have liked it, but I watched it a few times and it was downright painful.

Seinfeld is a funny quirky guy. He had an advantage right there. He had that Jewish thing going on, and it was very entertaining. His and George’s family situation. Elaine, Kramer, some of the colorful side characters, wow what a hilarious show.

No Martin Short, I think you can cancel that Mulaley appointment.


21 posted on 09/20/2014 9:07:49 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Obama and the Left are maggots feeding off the flesh of the United States.)
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To: GeronL; wastedyears

People, people ... Can we lose the hentai? This thing is bad enough with REAL humans.


22 posted on 09/20/2014 9:09:50 PM PDT by JennysCool (My hypocrisy goes only so far)
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To: GeronL

Very little of the show is making and selling. The moral dilemmas and the guy’s process of trying to make good out of a bad situation, only making things worse, is something on a human level (not bible-believing christian level) that one can relate to, but not celebrate.

It’s like on a base level, you can understand why he did it, but you wouldn’t do it.

To me the show was a great metaphor for how a secular person tries to solve their problems. Their solutions - not based on anything biblical - solutions devised by man alone - only go on to make matters worse - even when they are trying with the best of intentions. They could have used anything - drugs was just a story mechanism. It could have been other things. If it was about a person facing a tragedy who decided to do something else illegal to make money, it could have worked with that.

It is a story about morals and rationalization. That’s why it worked. Because everyone still has a sin nature and it’s a story - to me, because the guy was not a christian, there were no churches, prayers, at all in the story - about how natural man, when he tries to make things right, just screws things up more.

And because it ran this way, it came across as REAL, plausible. For a secular guy to end up this way, rationalizing more and more of his choices that get darker and darker.


23 posted on 09/20/2014 9:09:52 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man ( Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: fieldmarshaldj; GeronL
It’s OK, GeronL only watches The 700 Club and Lawrence Welk all day, every day. ;-D

Him too..., I've got to talk to that guy. :^)

24 posted on 09/20/2014 9:10:59 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Obama and the Left are maggots feeding off the flesh of the United States.)
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To: JennysCool
Probably more like the Peterman Bus Tour
25 posted on 09/20/2014 9:11:06 PM PDT by eyedigress ((zOld storm chaser from the west)/?s)
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To: Mears

I’ll agree with you. I stopped watching after the first episode, thinking that a show that glorified or trivialized the drug trade was the last thing I was interested in. But somehow toward the end I caught a couple of episodes and changed my view. Managed to find and watch many of the back episodes to get caught up and I was very impressed with the writing. The acting too, for that matter. The show was very well done.


26 posted on 09/20/2014 9:11:44 PM PDT by marron
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To: JennysCool

I am binge-watching Parks and Rec. Way funnier!


27 posted on 09/20/2014 9:12:27 PM PDT by rabidralph
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To: JennysCool

He brought it up first!

Hmpf


28 posted on 09/20/2014 9:14:04 PM PDT by wastedyears (Aldnoah.Zero - Best new anime of 2014.)
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To: fatnotlazy

Humor is that way. In the early days all Steve Martin had to do was show up, and I’d laugh. Other comedians are the same way. Rodney Dangerfield and other just hit me a certain way. I would start smiling as soon as their act/television spot was starting.

If the comedian doesn’t strike you that way, they can come up with the funniest stuff, it just doesn’t sell.

You probably appreciate comedians I wouldn’t like at all. That’s just the way it works. It’s sort of like men or women. You either get them, or you don’t. You generally know in seconds too.


29 posted on 09/20/2014 9:14:51 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Obama and the Left are maggots feeding off the flesh of the United States.)
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To: DoughtyOne
Seinfeld is a funny quirky guy.

Watching his stand-up routines, no he really isn't that funny. But in his sitcom, with that collection of characters and writers, somehow it all clicked. It was very funny and gave him, them, a vehicle to make fun of things in a gentle way without being preachy.

30 posted on 09/20/2014 9:15:21 PM PDT by marron
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To: DoughtyOne

You’re so right. I have never seen commercials for a comedy show where every joke landed like a thud. The half-hour promo that arrived INSTANTLY after the football game was even worse. You would see cast members telling the camera how funny the other cast members were, and then they’d show clips and ... Thud. And as I’ve mentioned, the obviously complete rip-off of the “Seinfeld” situation just felt insulting. Wow.


31 posted on 09/20/2014 9:15:40 PM PDT by JennysCool (My hypocrisy goes only so far)
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To: marron

I was doing a Wiki search and found tons of shows that hardly lasted a season that I had never heard of.


32 posted on 09/20/2014 9:17:54 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: rabidralph
I am binge-watching Parks and Rec. Way funnier!

Leaving aside the pathetic nature of a personal admission that one is binge-watching Parks and Recreation, pleased be advised that your average funeral is funnier than that show.

Thought you might like to know. ;-)
33 posted on 09/20/2014 9:19:39 PM PDT by Milton Miteybad (I am Jim Thompson. {Really.})
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To: wastedyears

“Romance” is where high school kids are having sex but it’s not shown?

I am so glad I don’t watch that crap


34 posted on 09/20/2014 9:19:44 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: GeronL

http://www.crunchyroll.com/love-chunibyo-other-delusions

This is a funny one. And no, there’s no sex in it.

There’s Attack on Titan which isn’t romance at all.


35 posted on 09/20/2014 9:22:27 PM PDT by wastedyears (Aldnoah.Zero - Best new anime of 2014.)
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To: DoughtyOne
Something magical either happens or it doesn’t. In the case of Seinfeld, it hit. Leave out one element and it won’t. Actors, writing, production..., any hitch in the process and it all suffers.

Such a good observation. A classic is when everything comes together. The Dick Van Dyke Show is a perfect example, and the first few (Larry Gelbart) seasons of M*A*S*H.

36 posted on 09/20/2014 9:23:53 PM PDT by JennysCool (My hypocrisy goes only so far)
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To: GeronL

I was thinking a while back, that there are generations of TV actors who have come and gone and if they sat down next to me at Denny’s I wouldn’t recognize them. Except if they had turned up on the cover of National Enquirer. Then I know they’ve been having a lot of trouble lately, but I still don’t know who they are.

I kind of like that, actually.

Now, some of the realtors on House Hunters International, them I might recognize. And the spear-fishers on that spear-fishing show, them I’d recognize. Like I say, my viewing pleasures aren’t that high-brow, I just don’t watch sitcoms anymore. :)


37 posted on 09/20/2014 9:24:41 PM PDT by marron
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To: JennysCool

That’s something I catch on to real quick, where cast members praise each other. It’s like a round robin love fest.

I really get a kick out of the shows where a person comes on you’ve never heard of before, and another cast member will rattle off how important they are, and a list of their accomplishments as if they knew all this right off the top of their head.

No, they had never heard of the person before either. It’s all scripted.

It was insulting wasn’t it. Good call.


38 posted on 09/20/2014 9:25:07 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Obama and the Left are maggots feeding off the flesh of the United States.)
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To: wastedyears

By “Romance” you include what they call “harem” shows?

There was one anime where a boy lived with a family, there were twin girls who had the parents permission to have sex with their live-in. They even had the lingerie.

It was not hentai, but in one episode they showed the girls pushing and pulling his covered penis back and forth as he dreamed of another girl he liked and would have unshown sex with later.

It never “showed” anything but it was definitely prurient.

They are all perverts over there as far as I am concerned, Tokyo could use a good mushroom cloud.


39 posted on 09/20/2014 9:26:05 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: wastedyears

I don’t care if there is sex in it if isn’t perverted and it does not involve minors. Japan just fails on this all the time.


40 posted on 09/20/2014 9:30:51 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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