Fran's new sitcom airs on TV Land (streams at TV Land and at Hulu) and is entitled Happily Divorced. A number of friends have asked us, "Did Fran really not know her husband was gay?" See, the new series is based loosely on her own life and her TV ex-husband, like her real life ex-husband Peter Marc Jacobson, is gay. Did Fran (real life Fran) really not know?
Oh, kids, not only did she not know she wrote a book (Enter Whining) that all but screamed "MY HUSBAND IS GAY AND I DON'T KNOW IT!!!" on nearly every other page. For example, page four about their jobs in high school:
Peter quit and decided to try his skills at Baskin-Robbins, but he was fired because he was too creative. He use to take the straws out of the wrappers to put them in the whipped cream of an ice cream soda to give it a little style. Some panache. Something to look at.
Happily Divorced opened with Fran (her character's name is Fran also) in bed with husband Peter (John Michael Higgins) where he confesses that he's gay. It's in that scene that the show makes clear it may not recover.
Some people feel uncomfortable watching the show. It's not homophobic and Fran's own reputation for embracing full equality for all is well known. But there's a problem and they can't put their finger on it. Like the character Fran or the actress, they're missing the obvious.
The problem is Higgins.
John Michael Higgins plays shy, retiring types. In fact, "reticent" probably best captures his presence. He can be very good such as in Christopher Guest's classic films A Mighty Wind, Best In Show and For Your Consideration. If he were playing "Mr. Mooney" to Fran's "Lucy Carmichael," it might work. But he's playing Fran's ex-husband whom she's angry with. And he's gay. So her barbs and snap are hitting weak Higgins. What's next? An episode where Fran beats up on the elderly?
It's not that the writers don't give Higgins lines to say. Fran's not continually pelting him with insults. But his energy level is so low and Fran's is so high that their exchanges are uncomfortable.
Since they won't recast the role of Peter, the smartest thing the show can do is start taking the barbs Fran is supposed to hurl at Peter and giving at least half of them to Peter so that he's making comments about himself. That would do so much to fix the show.
All the other elements work. Rita Moreno as Fran's mother (Dori) works -- and we love Rita but who would have thought she could pull off that? Valente Rodriguez is doing a wonderful job as Cesar. And Tichinia Arnold (Everybody Hates Chris, Martin) is everything she needs to be as Fran's best friend Judi. She's everything and more and, in fact, the relationship Judi has with Peter is the sort people need to see between Fran and Peter.
There seems to be some belief that if every script doesn't repeatedly note that Fran and Peter divorced because he's gay, the audience will be confused. But each episode features a theme song that goes over all of this. It's as if every episode of The Nanny had included multiple jokes about Fran working at a bridal shop in Flushing Queens -- forgetting that this had already been covered at the star in the animated opening.
Fran developed this show but hadn't planned to play the lead. If she had cast someone else in the role, we think she would have seen the problem in rehearsals. Instead, she's the actress in the moment and Fran the producer is missing the problem while, we're guessing, Peter Marc Jacobson is too close to the issues to speak up.
The reality is that when the pilot was filmed, the proper move would have been to have reviewed it and come to the conclusion that Higgins wasn't going to work in the role. Truthfully, he's an 80s TV gay man. That is his type. As Peter, he gives off this kind-of-gay-maybe-not-I-can't-tell vibe. Will & Grace imploded that type and gave us Will as leading man and Jack as sexpot. So Higgins playing the a-sexual gay is something of a set-back.
But they didn't make the needed decision. That's too bad because every other element of the show works and we'd love to see a second, third, fourth, fifth season. But when Fran starts again going to the well on how their marriage ended, it's as if they're zooming in for a close up as she's kicking a defenseless puppy to the ground.