Tracy Morgan Show OUCH!! NY Daily News Review

[vashti1999]

Tracy Morgan's new show debuts on NBC tomorrow. The sitcom's next episode airs on Thursday.

After that, expect it to plummet from view, because I can't imagine anyone outside Morgan's immediate family wanting to see it a third time.

"The Tracy Morgan Show" isn't just bad. It's the sort of bad that smells of being concocted to be terrible on purpose - not unlike a "Saturday Night Live" skit of a family sitcom that gets its laughs by never acknowledging how inept and unfunny it is.

On "SNL," Morgan was funny, but here, he seems to have abandoned his edge.

The pilot, tomorrow night at 8, introduces him as a family man (Tamala Jones plays his wife, and Marc John Jefferies and Bobb'e J. Thompson are their two young boys) who runs a garage populated by two bickering mechanics (played by John Witherspoon and Heavy D).

At work, Witherspoon and Heavy D outshine Morgan in every scene. They're the funniest part of the show - but that's weak praise. At home, Jones deserves an Emmy for a role that requires her to act amused by Morgan's bad jokes and flat antics. Not since Marcia Strassman in "Welcome Back, Kotter" and Pam Dawber in "Mork & Mindy" have female sitcom co-stars had more thankless roles - but those women, at least, were watching someone who was saying and doing funny things.

Thursday's show will draw more viewers, because it will air between "Friends" and "Will and Grace," but the episode is no better. The jokes fall flat, the sincere scenes lack credibility, and elements of the plot - such as Tracy and his 7-year-old son acknowledging the sex appeal of the other son's 13-year-old classmate - are uncomfortable bordering on tasteless.

I don't know what Morgan was thinking when he agreed to star in this show. Then again, I have no clue about what NBC was thinking, either.

The result, though, is one of the worst premieres of the season, followed by the worst show ever to appear in NBC's Thursday lineup.

And that, as you know, is a very low new low.

Originally published on December 1, 2003

[vashti1999]

By the way, the critic is David Bianculli

[Brent88]

I'll let you know what I think after I watch tomorrow night. I am one who hates a lot of current sitcoms, and I am giving this one a chance for now.

[felicitylen]

His review was harsh. The Tracy Morgan show doesn't look that bad. I'll be watching tonight.

[*Pleasant Tomorrow*]

Originally posted by felicitylen
His review was harsh. The Tracy Morgan show doesn't look that bad. I'll be watching tonight.

Yeah, ditto

[MochaBabe74]

I guess I try to give all new (Black) shows look see. But I thought it was funny. So now the the problem is tape All of Us or this show, because I must watch both

[Bugiddle]

I didn't see the premiere because I wasn't home. (I might have watched it.) However, I thought it was strange that the only previews of this show that aired were three scenes of the smart-alecky 7 year old son. To me, that inferred that they thought he was the funniest actor in the show. If that's true, why didn't they just cast this kid in his own sitcom?

[dpops]

Where does David Bianculli get the damn nerve to say.

"At work, Witherspoon and Heavy D outshine Morgan in every scene. They're the funniest part of the show - but that's weak praise."

John Witherspoon has been hilarious in all of his roles on TV and the big screen. Anyone who remembers The Five Heartbeats, Wayans Bros., all the Friday movies, and Boomerang know that John Witherspoon is a great comic talent. But then again Bianculli just rips this show unmercifully.

David needs to check himself.

[vashti1999]

Bianculli was probably saying that it's weak praise in relation to the fact that he hates everything else about the show so much, maybe not that he didn't think John Witherspoon is funny. I don't know. I read this guys reviews all the time he often gives negative reviews to shows that aren't bad at all.

[misterblowhole]

I don't know what this reviewer is talking about. For me, the Tracey Morgan Show is the pleasant suprise of the season. I wasn't expecting much, but it's funny, and I appreciate the fact that it is fairly family-friendly.

[TMC]

Short-Lived Sitcom Potpourri (XXV) – Broadway Video Busts

THE TRACY MORGAN SHOW (Dec 2003 – Mar 2004, NBC)

It’s a simple low-concept setup that puts all the burden on the characters and the ideas they help inspire. Fortunately, the scripts, led by scribes from 3rd Rock From The Sun, are humorous, and the cast is (for the most part) quite capable – the guys at Tracy’s garage are naturally comedic, and Tracy’s two sons at home, particularly the younger one played by Bobb’e J. Thompson (who’d again play Tracy’s son on 30 Rock) are hysterical. In fact, I’d go so far as to say Thompson – think: a sassier Rusty Hamer from Make Room For Daddy – steals the show, and indeed, it quickly becomes clear that home-set stories, or stories revolving around the family, have even more comic potential than those at Tracy’s work. The problem, unfortunately, is that, for as amusing as some of these players are, the series’ basic premise does not help spark any naturally great ideas, and nothing here storywise feels like something truly specific or unique to The Tracy Morgan Show and its characters. More importantly, as a vehicle for the crazy SNL star who’d later prove his brilliance again on 30 Rock, this show built around him never manages to showcase him well, eschewing centerpieces where his mad genius can be displayed (you know, like Martin was able to do for the similarly wild Martin Lawrence) in favor of formulaic domestic plots where he’s structurally forced into an anchoring, straight man role.