TV Review: Rodney

Rodney Carrington stars as . . . Rodney Carrington on ABC's Rodney. He works in the fiber glass industry he wants to be a famous stand up comedian. He's married and he and his family (wife, two kids) live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That's the basis for this sitcom. Does it seem thin? Thread bare?

You are correct. Despite doing standup for over a decade (16 years), there aren't a lot of laughs onscreen from the Kilgore College alumni Rodney Carrington. (We told you there are a ton of Texans on TV these days -- we could have noted that with Veronica Mars as well but we're sure someone's already on this "trend story.") At 37, he's the perfect age for his TV debut as yet another not-so-smart TV dad. Has there ever been a really sexy TV dad? We can't think of one and baby-toothed Carrington continues the tradition.

Baby-toothed and baby voiced. (The children playing Jack and Bo, like everyone else on the show, have deeper voices than Carrington.) If you're having a hard time seeing him as a standup comedian, that may be due to the fact that his act, in real life, plays with that image. When he does a "Dear Penis" song, for instance, part of the joke is that it's coming from someone who makes Mayberry's Opie look cutting edge. The act won't play on broadcast television. (There's a reason his comedy albums come with an advisory sticker.) So why did anyone think that Carrington playing a stand up comedian would work on television? It's as convincing as Kurt Russell in Touchstone's Captain Ron. (Rodney is also a Touchstone production. In some language, Touchstone must mean "crap.")

It doesn't work. He's barely registering as a character wanting to be a stand up comedian. In one of the episodes we watched last week, he picked up a guitar and sang a song. He's believable as a country & western singer. Whatever his deficiencies in a the restrictive medium of broadcast TV, he can convincingly come off as someone who could realistically dream of being a singer.

These shows about people wanting to break into the performing arts rarely work (Joey is the rule; That Girl the exception) but if the "joke" isn't that the person has unrealistic dreams, a show about a struggling artist needs to show the audience that the person has a degree of talent in the area s/he is pursuing.

Rodney is pursuing laughs and never catching any. The laugh track actually exists as a mocking track -- blaring out at humorless moments and reminding you just how lacking in humor this show is.

How bad is the show? Amy Pietz, who provided the only life there was in the sedate-com Caroline in the City, barely registers. Pietz who managed to pierce through the lifeless blob of Caroline and wring out some laughs can't do it here. (Maybe the whole backing the truck into the lake bit -- offscreen, by the way -- isn't as funny as it is seemed when thought up as the last can of Lone Star got downed and the last chip fished out of the Fritos bag?)

Why can't Pietz get her footing? Because the show doesn't know what it is. Sometimes it wants to be so sweet you can feel your teeth aching. Sometimes it wants to be a little raunchy. Sometimes it thinks it's Home Improvement. (Which may explain the Jonathan Taylor Thomas vibe from coming the child actor playing Jack but certainly explains Carrington's grunts and the tool humor.) Worse yet is when, in a single episode, it moves from Life With Bonnie to Grace Under Fire to According to Jim and back again. More than any other sitcom, this show needs a strong bible and the writers need to follow it.

They don't. And jokes bomb. Tone falters. Time is wasted.

Like in this opening scene between married couple, Rodney and Trina (played by Jennifer Aspen):

RODNEY
What you doing?

TRINA
Sorting through the bills. Trying to figure out which ones we don't have to pay right away.

RODNEY
Didn't we just not pay bills two weeks ago?
[Loud canned laughter.]

TRINA
Well we didn't pay some of them and now we've got to not pay the other ones.
[Polite canned laughter.]

RODNEY
So how bad is it?

TRINA
I cancelled the newspaper last week, we're floating three credit cards, they tried to disconnect the telephone but I managed to stall 'em.

RODNEY
Have you been flirting with that phone guy again?
[Loud canned laughter]

TRINA
Yep and if we don't pay him this month, I'm going to have to meet him for coffee.
[Loud canned laughter]

RODNEY
Well things are better than you think. As it turns out, you are married to an up and coming stand up comedian.
[Polite canned laughter]
And as of this afternoon Big Daddy booked himself a five day a week gig down at a new club down town.

TRINA
And does this Big Daddy mind paying our bills?
[Loud canned laughter]
Why didn't you tell me?

RODNEY
I was going to surprise you. I was going to come here tonight, scatter money all over the bed and just have my way with you.
[Loud canned laughter.]

TRINA
That is so sweet. You haven't paid me for sex in years.
[Loud canned laughter]

You hear a hilarious joke above? You hear anything funny above? Don't think you're missing some wonderful bit of physical humor that's been thought out and executed because there is none. With sitcom veterans and a professional stand up comedian on stage, did no one have any clue how to punch the scene up? And did no one grasp how deadly wrong this line is:

And as of this afternoon Big Daddy booked himself a five day a week gig down at a new club downtown.

"And as of . . ." does that fit the character of Rodney? ". . . down at a new club downtown?"
Down . . . downtown? Did no one grasp how clumsy this line would sound?

The baby voice may result in huge gales of laughter when Carrington's in a club repeating naughty bits but it and his non-existant grasp on the concept of delivery aren't working on the television. They've surrounded him with a strong supporting cast but they can't dig into their characters when the show's never sure what it wants to be.

Rodney should have never made it on the air. Now there's hope that they can "fix it" in the second season. (As with Joey.) The "thought" (such as it was) that went into this show was that ABC Disney et al would own it (syndication money) and that a stand up comedian (second string) could somehow be funny if you put him with a strong supporting cast. That's it. No one bothered to think of characters. Instead they attempted to mimic Carrington's own life. They take an easy ride (which includes the "thought" involved in naming Rodney Carrington's character . . . Rodney Carrington) and then expect that their sketchy show will somehow lead to huge laughs.

It doesn't. And Carrington can bluster all he wants about "creative control" but it's just a phrase if you don't know how to use it. Roseanne, to name but one, knew how to use it. When that show came on the air (Roseanne) the "brains" thought the joke would be ha-ha fat lady. Roseanne knew what she wanted to say and she fought for it and fought for her show. She was willing to walk away if she wasn't given input.

That's the difference between a real sitcom, a funny one, like Roseanne and this ill thought out, unfunny Rodney. Roseanne succeeded because Roseanne cared, she had something to say and she was damn well going to say it or she was going to walk. Rodney has nothing to say and it has no point of view. No thought went into it and no thought makes it up on screen. Someone has to be in charge of a show, whether it's the onscreen talent or the people behind the scenes (a Diane English or Jim Burrows, for instance). But Disney's never been big on talent. It's existed as a factory churning out crap year after year. Find an exception to that rule and note how acrimonious the departure was for whomever broke through the system and actually found a way to say something. (Example, Jeffrey Katzenberg.)

If Carrington wants to do more than cash his paychecks, he better be prepared to use that "creative control" to make the show about something. As it stands, it's just one more sausage churned out by the Disney factory. The big difference between a sausage factory and Disney is that a sausage factory (presumably) has some sort of quality control, Rodney is further proof the Disney does not.