Anyone watch? What did you think?

I read a review somewhere (maybe here) that said the show basically has stellar actors, but juvenile dialogue... that hit it on the head. The only jokes that were funny were the ones that poked fun at the news industry. The little one-liners referring to body parts were just juvenile and not funny.

The weather girl isn't even that pretty, but I enjoyed the cleve shots... Fred Willard and Kelsey were the highlights... Patty Heaton was decent, but my GOD she is anorexic! And I am psyched to see Ty Burrell on a series! The news director was trying to play a cross of Farley's "Matt Foley" character and every Jonah Hill character, but he shows potential.

We'll see what happens... but unless the writing gets smarter and out of the pants, it won't last...

That’s my 2 pennies worth...

The Mrs. and I caught "Back to You" last night. Overall, I thought the show has some promise, and I plan on watching it again.

Positives:

They have a great cast with Grammer, Heaton, Willard and Burrell on top. Grammer and Heaton showed strong chemistry, and I hope to see storylines focusing on Willard and Burrell's characters down the line.

Grammer has the pompous news anchor role down pat. He's very believable in his role, and he comes off as Ted Baxter with a higher IQ.

Heaton looks great at 49, and she's maintaining the same energy she showed on "Raymond".

Maybe it's me, but I always await whatever comes out of Fred Willard's mouth to see if he will say something funny. He was mostly on fire last night and, again, I hope to see some episodes focused on his character.


NEGATIVES

Ayda Field -- her character was annoying to say the least. It's as if she prepared for her role by watching episodes of Married with Children featuring the Latina reporter with 4 or 5 names.

Too much in 22 minutes -- the show simply tried to pack too many storylines in such a short span (Chuck's return, new news director, relations between Chuck and Kelly, Chuck realizing he's a father, etc.).

Ending -- the ending of the show was baffling and flat, to say the least.

On a scale of 1-10, I'd give it a 5.5-6.

Kelsey Grammer is just perfect in his role. The rest of it needed a little work. I actually think it can afford a slow start because FOX will have Idol coming along in the spring to revive everything.

As I feared, it was a very shallow and poorly written show. Although I do understand that many times, it takes a few weeks for things to gel (I had the same hope Til Death last year), I think this show is even worse. I'm a sucker for the traditional sitcoms though (I love 'em!!!) so I probably will watch once more just because I did like the Grammer, Heaton and Willard. (The weather girl though was such a bad one dimensional character I can't see how she made it through the focus groups.)

I thought it was great. It had a good amount of laughs. The acting from the cast was pretty good, Kelsey Grammer was obviously the best at his role (I didn't once think Frasier as I was fearing) but, I thought Heaton didn't get that many great lines, but she was still good. I found Fred Willard hilarious.
I just hope the writers decide to give the supporting cast real storylines and not just leave it with the Kelly and Chuck storyline.

I'll be watching next week anyway.

Also, if this was on CBS, Monday's 9:30, like alot of people, i'm sure, think it should be, it could easily grow out of Men by a few hundred thousand (For the Pilot anyway), especially if Rules could get 15 million for it's premiere.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Jamie,

Well I just caught the pilot on FOX on demand and I have to say that I was disappointed. It wasn't the worst pilot comedy I've seen, but it was far from perfect. There were a few funny lines in the pilot, but most of it was slow and cliche. The weather woman's character is way too cliche and one dimensional, not to mention typecasted. It actually reminded me of a knock off version of Eva Langoria's character in Desparate Housewives. It is by far the weakest of the characters. The two leads have some chemistry, but in the touching this is your daughter scene, it felt forced and insincere. Would you really be making jokes when you are told that you are the father of a child? Not likely. Actually, I think the pilot lost it's focus. It went from the wild adventures of a newsroom to a bad this is your daughter montage. Either stick to the funny newsroom storyline or the drama of being a new parent. It can't straddle both plots. As for it's longevity, I'd say it has a 50/50 chance of making it past the first season. It all depends on how badly people want to watch a sitcom that harkens back to the sitcoms of a few years ago. If I had to make a prediction, unless the episodes get better from the pilot, it's going to struggle to retain it's audience, which could seal it's fate. I might catch it again on FOX on Demand if I'm bored, but I personally wouldn't spend my Wednesdays watching it. America's Next Top Model shows more promise so my viewership will go there.

I saw the premiere and really enjoyed it. It is on my scheduled recording for my DVR.

I think the Gary Crezyzewski(Reporter) and Ryan Church(News Director) characters will really be the comedy of the show.

I really liked Ty Burrell on Out Of Practice

nice to see a new true sitcom back on the air; it was pretty good

I thought the show was quite weak... I laughed one or two times in the half-hour, and I didn't find any of the characters likeable. The only reason I found it passable was because I liked seeing Kelsey Grammar and Patricia Heaton again.

Didn't like it. I'm not wild
about this genre anyway, but I
was open to it. I didn't find it
funny. I didn't see any chemistry,
tone, or individual performance
that was entertaining.

I thought it was okay.

needs stronger writing, the whole i am a dad thing was given away too quickly

Perhaps they are taking a different story line than normal.

Personally, most of the cast was funny and will develop down the road.

I saw the humor in the "Latino" weather girl (Have you watched real news anchors when they come across spanish names/words? The all of a sudden have a spanish accent)

quote:

Originally posted by mjblaser:
needs stronger writing, the whole i am a dad thing was given away too quickly

quote:

Originally posted by TV-aholic:
I saw the humor in the "Latino" weather girl (Have you watched real news anchors when they come across spanish names/words? The all of a sudden have a spanish accent)

I agree. She wasn't exactly hilariously funny, but I could see her (with a bit of writing and character development) becoming quite funny down the road.

Today on his radio show, Howard Stern gave kudos to "Back To You". Here's the summary from Marksfriggin.com:

Howard said he watched Kelsey Grammer's new TV show and it was actually pretty funny. He explained what the show was about and said he's not a big sitcom fan but that show had some good laughs in it.