Monday, December 13, 2010

The Tick

Years: 2001-2002
Seasons: 1
Episodes: 9
Created by: Ben Edlund

Main Cast:

Patrick Warburton as The Tick
David Burke as Arthur
Nestor Carbonell as Batmanuel
Liz Vassey as Captain Liberty

One of the best things about going over a bunch of canceled TV shows is that, while there are always the obvious “gone too soon” series with rabid fanbases, occasionally you’ll find something brilliant that hardly anyone remembers and that you didn’t even know existed. This is certainly the case with The Tick, a show that deserved at least a couple full seasons to grow, but was sadly cut short after a mere nine episodes. While it does maintain some cult popularity (what the hell doesn’t these days?), it definitely deserves the kind of fan worship that helped created the Firefly movie and brought back the dead Futurama and Family Guy.

I haven’t read the comic books, nor have I ever seen the successful cartoon version, but apparently The Tick was always a parody of the superhero genre, and the man himself was kind of a bumbling dumbass with super strength. In this version he’s played by Patrick Warburton, famous for playing Puddy on Seinfeld. Warburton plays the Tick as somewhat slow, borderline retarded at times but generally good-natured. He doesn’t mean harm, he’s just an idiot, and his stupidity sometimes leads to things inadvertently getting destroyed. Imagine Homer Simpson without his asshole streak, and you get the idea. He’s teamed up with his idealistic sidekick Arthur, who has no real super powers and works as his frustrated voice of reason. You see, Arthur became a superhero because he wants to do good in the world, to make it a better place for everyone. He’s a rookie at this kind of thing, and more often than not gets tossed around rather than tossing other people around. He and the Tick share an apartment, and sometimes have Odd Couple-like exchanges, such as the Tick leaving the cap off the toothpaste and whatnot. It’s funnier than it sounds, trust me.

The two are also usually accompanied by two friends, the boner-inducing Captain Liberty and the ridiculous Latin lover, Batmanuel. Captain Liberty works for the government, which is unfortunately only explored briefly in the series when some nude photos of her turn up in a local stroke magazine, putting her job in jeopardy. Like the Tick, she seems to legitimately have superpowers, and can easily beat the crap out of villains without much trouble. She is frequently joined by Batmanuel, her occasional fuck buddy who takes every opportunity to get back into her pants. He has an ridiculously high opinion of himself, and typically evaluates things on how it would benefit him the most. He drives around in the “Manuelmobile,” which is just an old car that he loves so much that he takes up two parking spaces for it, just to make sure it has room. His superpowers are a little more dubious, and in a few episodes we get to see people kick the crap out of him. He’s played by Nestor Carbonell, who also plays the eyeliner enthusiast Richard Alpert on Lost.

While occasionally battling supervillains, the show deals more with the day-to-day problems that plague a superhero, such as getting a license to fight crime, dealing with the judicial system while putting a supervillain on trial, “coming out” as a superhero to your friends and family, etc. The best way to describe this show is to mention what executive producer Larry Charles had in mind for it. He basically wanted the characters to share a friendship similar to that in Seinfeld, which he wrote a bunch of episodes for (he’s also directed several episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm). I personally love the idea of Seinfeld with superheroes, and even in it’s embryonic phase, you could see where the show was going with that concept. The small annoyances that take up a superhero’s life make for the funniest jokes, such as Batmanuel needing a ride from Captain Liberty to pick up the Manuelmobile from the repair show, and Arthur trying to get the Tick out of the apartment so he can screw an old high school crush. What doesn’t work so well are the more obvious jokes that spring from the Tick just being an idiot. There a scene in one episode where Arthur and the Tick see a document written on extremely rare paper, and you pretty much already know what’s going to happen with the Tick grabs it. Also, when the Tick enters Arthur’s apartment for the first time, he starts guessing where all the secret devices are, which leads to him almost completely destroying the place. The dumb jokes get even worse when Batmanuel and Captain Liberty try to explain to him was sex is, and when another hero keeps removing his glasses, therefore bouncing back and forth between his superhero and secret identities.

There are a number of reasons why this show failed, but the most baffling one has to do with FOX under-promoting it due to them not owning the series. I understand that running a major TV network is complicated business, but why the hell would you even green light an expensive show like The Tick and then not even try to make it successful? Further, they botched the scheduling for this show, and put it up against NBC’s “Must See TV” lineup, where it didn’t stand a chance. Wouldn’t it make more sense to put this show on after The Simpsons? The humor is so similar that at least some of their fans would stick around and keep watching. I know that networks make enough money that they can just chalk something up as a loss and forget about it, but the total indifference that the network had with The Tick is mind-boggling.

What if it was a hit? The first season of any show is usually the weakest, as everyone is fumbling around trying to find an appropriate rhythm. The idea behind The Tick was so good that it probably would have had a strong run of at least a couple great seasons. There is so much about the daily lives of superheroes that never gets addressed in comic books because of how mundane they are, and a show like this could take that and run with it. It would basically operate “between the panels,” so to speak. In order for that to work it would have to had been a huge hit, due to the budget needed to produce each episode. Even with a lower budget, I think the show would still have been great, and I wish that they had the opportunity to do something like that Chinese restaurant episode of Seinfeld or something. More than anything, I just want to see more of Batmanuel. Now that’s a character I’m going to miss.

Recommended for: People who really wanted to like Mystery Men, comic book fans with a sense of humor, people who love bad “Latin Lover” stereotypes.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Heil Honey I’m Home!

Year: 1990
Seasons: None
Episodes: 1 (allegedly there were 7 made)
Created by: Geoff Atkinson

Main Cast:

Neil McCaul as Adolf Hitler
Denica Fairman as Eva Braun
Gareth Marks as Arny Goldenstein
Caroline Gruber as Rosa Goldenstein
Patrick Cargill as Neville Chamberlain
Laura Brattan as Ruth

The problem with trying to do a faithful parody of classic 50s sitcoms is that the style of humor used in those shows has been ditched for a reason. Like everything else, humor evolves. These shows come with all kinds of expectations on how humor worked when they were written; hence it’s no longer an acceptable joke to walk on stage wearing a dress and just stand there. With some jokes what used to be a punchline is now a build-up to another punchline. If you follow the old style too closely and don’t make any attempt to do something new with the jokes, people aren’t going to enjoy the show. They’re just going to find it corny and unfunny.

The only way to clear that hurdle is to give the show memorable, interesting characters that the audience cares about and wants to watch. And here we have the biggest issue with the show Heil Honey I’m Home! The show revolves around Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun living together as a loving couple in an apartment. Since they are the main characters, you the viewer are forced to like them, or at least smile when spending time with them. They live next door to two annoying Jewish stereotypes, named Arny and Rosa Goldenstein. The show operates on the premise of being a long lost sit com (or “hit com” according to the text that opens the program) created by a TV executive called Brandon Thalburg Jnr. that has been found in a Burbank backlot, and involves the wacky day-to-day misadventures of Hitler trying to go about being a good husband while at the same time invading other countries.

Out of seven allegedly filmed episodes, only one ever made it on the air. Viewers thought that it was in poor taste and were shocked, yes, shocked that someone dared make a sit com with Nazis in it. The plot of the aired pilot revolves around Neville Chamberlain coming to the Hitler’s home for dinner to discuss his “Czechoslovakia nonsense.” His irritating neighbors Arny and Rosa are expecting a visit from their creepy niece Ruth, who looks and acts like Marla Hooch from A League of Their Own. Because Hitler hates the Goldensteins (not only for coming over uninvited, but also for being fucking annoying. And Jewish), he tells Eva not to let them know about Chamberlain’s visit. Rosa comes over for a visit while Hitler’s out doing things, and for no other reason than probably just hating her husband, Eva lets her know who their visitor is through a long, unfunny game of charades. Rosa excitedly tells Arny about it, and they decide to fix their niece up with Neville for a date.

The Goldensteins pop in, Hitler yells at Eva about it, and they come up with the idiotic plan of getting the Goldensteins drunk, so that when they pass out they can carry them back to their own apartment and as far away from Chamberlain as possible. Predictably, the Goldensteins stay perfectly awake when Chamberlain arrives, and are even more obnoxious than when they’re sober. Chamberlain is played as a doofus, who loves the wacky antics of the Goldensteins when he sees them. An example of this comes when, for no apparent reason, Chamberlain starts singing I’m a Little Teapot, which ends with the studio audience wildly applauding, as if he did something mind-blowing. When he asks to speak to Hitler privately in the kitchen, it’s revealed that he brought along a treaty for Hitler to sign promising “peace in our time.” When Chamberlain leaves the kitchen Hitler chucks the treaty into the ice box, telling the audience he has no intention of signing it.

When Hitler comes back he sees Chamberlain, Arny, and Eva in a conga line chanting “I came I saw I conquered,” then joins in. Ruth finally pops in and is introduced to Chamberlain, and her cock-shriveling strangeness does little to scare him away. She even asks him “you want a lock of my hair for your wallet?” Out of nowhere, the Goldensteins drunkenly tell Chamberlain about Hitler hiding tanks and planning on invading more countries, and then somehow pull out a copy of the missing treaty and try to read what it says. This thankfully leads to Hitler yelling at them to get out. After the disastrous dinner party, Hitler signs the treaty to prove that he’s a “nice Hitler,” and Chamberlain makes him promise “no more naughty little invasions.” After Chamberlain leaves with Ruth for their date, Hitler and Eva get cozy on their couch. Eva lovingly calls Hitler “Mr Sausage” and he calls her his “Hootchie Cootchie Girl.” The end.

I’m not one who gets offended over Hitler jokes, but I do get offended over bad, annoying humor, and this show was loaded with it. Keeping with the “classic sit com” feel, Hitler sounds like the Vlasic Pickles Stork (who’s name is Jovny, by the way), but is clearly a take on Ralph Kramden, with Eva Braun being a take on Alice. Switching shows, the Goldensteins play more like Fred and Ethel Mertz than Ed and Trixie Norton. The jokes are typical, with Arny talking shit about his mother-in-law, the dinner party gone bad, the botched attempt to hide something important, etc. It’s actually pretty similar to another parody of classic sit coms, Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s That’s My Bush! Hell, they both even end with an exclamation point. A big difference has to do with how they decided to work with this format. Parker and Stone added bad taste plots involving aborted fetuses and botched lethal injections. This show just added some hated historical figures and said things like “I’m a bad little Hitler” and hoped for the best. It wasn’t exactly razor-sharp parody.

Even though there have been comedy shows about the Nazis before, this one is notably different because regardless of how bad the humor is, you can’t help be sympathize with Hitler and want him to succeed over the course of the show. You are just as annoyed as he is with his Jewish neighbors. You want the treaty he hides to stay hidden. If this show became a hit, then millions of viewers would grow to love being with this character. That’s how these shows work. Therefore, it’s a little disingenuous when people watch the pilot and say “it wasn’t that bad” or claim that it’s no different from the other Nazi comedies. No shit this show was immediately yanked off the air. It inadvertently asked the viewers to love Hitler.

This type of show only works as a short skit. When stretched out to half an hour, it gets old really quick. If it found an audience, it would probably have had the typical short run that most British sit coms have, and be remembered as “that strange comedy with Hitler in it.” It’s hard to tell what would have happened once the show ran through all of the standard sit com plot devices, but it seems strange to think that the creators expected this to have a long run at all. I can only imagine that the show would have lasted around 30 episodes before fatigue set in and the novelty of having Hitler as your leading man wore off. A good story arc may have been interesting, though thank god we were spared an episode where Hitler tries to persuade the Goldensteins to go camping.

Recommend for: fans of bad parodies, people who thought The Honeymooners needed more Nazis.