Back to You

The good folks at WURG sure know their slapstick. It's been quite some time since I've seen good physical comedy on television, so what a thrill to see it make a comeback. Good slapstick, good slapstick. Now let's get to the better banter.

I'm not sure we've had an episode yet that puts the whole crew in one situation, so this week was a change of pace. Little Gracie's 11th-birthday party was basically over before it started, because the only one of the six adults there who had steeled herself to find and catch the raccoon in the attic was Kelly, and Chuck wasn't about to let her do it. I understood his reasoning (Kelly's done everything for Gracie and Chuck wants to contribute, even if she doesn’t know he's her father), but that part felt a little far-fetched. Chuck strikes me as the kind who'll let anyone take a fall for him — in poor Ryan's case, quite literally — even Kelly, so why take a stand on this thing that he was obviously scared of?

Either way, the guys on this show had me in stitches tonight. Between the aftermath of their bowling game against a rival station ("They called us bitches last year, Gary. Bitches!") and their individual maladies after Ryan's ill-fated trip to the attic, including Chuck's smashed nose, Ryan's various freak outs, Marsh's concussion, and Gary's back and dissolving marriage, the writers gave us some wonderful physical and verbal pratfalls.

The girls finally got in on the action when the raccoon made his way downstairs. Kelly, of course, had the bright idea to try to force him out from under her couch with a fire poker, but neither that nor her "chalky" cupcakes seemed to work. His escape route took him through the fireplace and the back under the couch, setting it on fire in the process. Only Kelly had the bright idea to use the fire extinguisher, but her outburst managed to also extinguish a potential love interest in the form of Gracie's friend's divorced dad ("Actually, we're working things out"). Other characters fared just about as well, considering Gary decided to hobble down the highway back to his wife, Marsh didn't know whether he's coming or going, and Ryan had a panic attack about not being able to swallow following his ingestion of a Kelly cupcake.

It's hard to describe physical comedy, so let me move on to something easier and list the best lines of the week:
• Gary: "My marriage is ending and I'm listening to 'Hey Jude' on a pan-flute!"
• Montana: "OK, there is a possum on my car. Is this Pittsburgh or Narnia?"
• Montana: "I had no idea it was going to rain today."
Kelly: "You're the weather girl."
Montana: "I know, right?"
• Chuck: "I happen to have a huge middle finger. You want to see it?"

Lastly, as far as I know, this is it for new episodes for the next little while. According to this helpful chart that Michael Ausiello put together (which was written before this episode aired), there are only two more left in the can, and I don't have any information about when they'll air. Nothing left to do but wait and see.

Hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!

Check out clips from Back to You in our Online Video Guide.

There is nothing more terrifying than having your 10-year-old classmates meet one (or both) of your parents, and I know this from experience. I felt for poor Gracie Carr, who so obviously wanted both her bully and her mother to disappear from this class trip to the station. She was probably thinking that the only upside was not having to have class.

If only Kelly and Chuck knew that they were probably just making the situation worse for their daughter by wanting to confront the bully, whether through a "conflict resolution" session or the terrifying way that Kelly ended up going about it. (I'm well out of elementary school, but if tomorrow Patricia Heaton said to me, "I will come into your room while you are sleeping and I will rip your head off," I would probably faint.) As soon as Xander Tucker gets over his fear of Kelly, he's going to start bullying Gracie sevenfold. Perhaps by then Chuck will no longer be blinded by Xander's gorgeous, divorced mother and will actually be able to stick up for his daughter's well-being.

The Ryan and Montana storylines kind of fell flat tonight, which was too bad, because they just weren't given enough to do. Ryan's mini-me was the kind of funny, self-assured person that Ryan will never, ever be, which is what made the whole thing more depressing than funny. Mini-Ryan obviously knows how to deal with people — even if he only gained a girlfriend by pulling a fire alarm for her and getting suspended — but just the thought of taking girl advice from a 10-year-old kid was a little creepy. Montana's inability to pronounce "Monongahela" would, in the normal world, probably have disqualified her from a "meteorologist" position in Pittsburgh (if a fifth-grader can do your job better than you can, you deserve to be fired), but I'm OK with suspending my disbelief, because Ayda Field always plays Montana with such conviction that I can't help but crack up. I suppose my real problem with the Ryan-Montana stuff is how awkward the attempts to throw them together are. I'm talking about the halfhearted way that Ryan has been forced to hit on Montana when the two have absolutely no visible chemistry.

On the other side of the chemistry spectrum, we have Gary and Marsh. Gary's investigation into Kelly and Chuck's "boat" (the "She's My Daughter 2") could be dragged out for weeks and I wouldn't care. It's something about how little he thinks of his so-called superiors that always works, and that, combined with his love/hate relationship with Marsh, gives us the best matchup on the show. Poor Marsh. As if crying at Casey at the Bat (and dressing up in full turn-of-the-century baseball regalia, complete with mustache) weren't enough, he's now out $150 for betting that he wouldn't cry. What can I say? I just love these guys.

To tide you over till next week, here are the best lines of the night:
• "They're riveted because they're watching a 60-year-old man have a nervous breakdown."
• "A grown man staring at a bunch of kids? Their teacher is ready to call Dateline."
• "I've seen you laugh at footage of bullfighters being gored!"

It's a new episode next week, but I'm not sure how the writers' strike will be impacting how many new episodes we'll be seeing in the near future, or even if we'll be seeing them in the near future. More on that as it happens.

Check out clips from Back to You in our Online Video Guide.

Is it 1994? I think it must be, because lately Tia Carrere is popping up everywhere — well, if not everywhere, at least on two shows I cover, and I only cover three, so if she shows up on Friday Night Lights, I know something's up. Between her hanging out with Larry David (cocreator of Seinfeld, coincidentally on in 1994) and Kelsey Grammer (Frasier, also on in 1994) in recent weeks, I just have to wonder if I've been witness to a time warp. She did a cute job tonight, playing a woman — not a hooker, apparently — who almost managed to seduce Chuck, so it's a shame she was rather underutilized.

Of course, had she actually managed to "take a ride on the Chuck wagon," as Montana so delicately put it, we wouldn't have been able to see that Chuck is, at heart, a decent guy. Sure, he only took Ryan out to dinner to prove to Kelly that he didn't donate the rude gene to Gracie, and yes, he did repeatedly try to hurry up and ditch this dinner to be with Carrere's unnamed hottie, but he did take Ryan back to his hotel room to let him shower up (after falling over drunk and depressed in the restaurant) and bond a little. Let's say it all together now: "Aw…."

Montana and Kelly's girls' night didn't work out quite as well. Turns out that Kelly's rigidity wasn't as easy to shake as Chuck's rigidity. She couldn't quite bring herself to go out clubbing, which was probably for the best if she thinks "Mambo No. 5" is a danceable song. However, it was sweet to watch the two of them act like eighth-graders with regards to Kelly's once and possibly future crush on Chuck ("Oh my god! You're totally hot for him!"). On a somewhat related note, I'm glad that they've backed off from the Chuck-Gracie storyline a bit. It's being handled in a much subtler way now, which really allows Kelly and Chuck's chemistry to shine as it did tonight. Obviously Gracie will always be a focal point of the show, but if a discussion about her is used as a launch point for some good adult back-and-forth, it'll be a much lighter and funnier show.

Speaking of light and funny, can I just say how much I love Gary and Marsh together? Gary didn't even have much to say tonight, but his facial expressions were brilliant. I think we all know a driver like Marsh ("The only reason he's still alive is because the Grim Reaper's afraid to get in the car with him"), but then the conversation's probably never been as interesting ("I don't know what the hell she shaved with my razor but it's dull as a popsicle stick").

All three of tonight's segments were funny, and the pacing was great, so it's a shame that we'll be breaking the momentum over the next couple of weeks due to baseball (though if the Red Sox are involved next week, I won't be complaining). Ah, well, until then, I'm going to be looking for a club called "Pajamas" that serves free drinks when I show up in my sweats.

Check out clips from Back to You in our Online Video Guide.

Well, I'll say one thing: This is the first time in recent memory I've heard the phrase, "Recorded in front of a live studio audience" outside of a 20-year-old rerun. In fact, it made me think I was too hard on last week's episode. It's a retro show in its own way, and perhaps I needed that jolt of perspective that Kelsey Grammer's little intro gave me.

The newsroom of WURG certainly was all a-twitter this week. After Chuck overheard some network brass (who were in Pittsburgh for a program at Carnegie Mellon on "The changing face of network news") talking about how he's gone from one of the biggest markets in the country to being Kelly's sidekick — even going so far as to say, "I'd put a gun to my head" — Chuck decides to take the lead story for the day's news: A family that went missing while camping was finally found. To say he steals it out from under Kelly's nose wouldn't even be an overstatement, and he leaves her with the less enviable, "Building on fire!" headline. Chuck manages to convince Kelly to switch when that looks like it'll be the lead, only to have the story collapse out from under him (bodies become burned mannequins and a freak rainstorm puts out a fire that was really only "five percent out of control").

In the end, of course, Kelly finds out about the network guys and offers the missing-family story, now complete with a bear attack and a wounded father in the studio for an exclusive interview, to Chuck. The only problem? The man's voice is so high-pitched that Chuck refers to him as a dolphin in a wheelchair. Well, Ms. Carr, you've won this round.

The whole thing was sweet and well-paced, but it was the secondary story that had me smiling. Marsh's inadvertent hiring of elderly intern Troy for Montana yielded several of the night's best lines, including Troy and Chuck's exchange: "Rome wasn't built in a day"; "Well, if anyone would know." I also laughed, and laughed hard, in the final, post-credits scene when Troy mentioned that all of the other interns were coming over to his place to "spark up some of [his] glaucoma medicine." But even that line came in second banana to my absolute favorite piece of dialogue this week, courtesy of Chuck and Kelly:

• "I had a rough childhood"
• "In Greenwich, Connecticut?"
• "When you never have to ask for anything, you never learn how."

So on the plus side, it was a funny episode. But imagine how much funnier it would have been had Gary been there. Speaking of which, where was he? I had to go back to rewatch the opening credits (which, I don't believe I've mentioned, I absolutely love) after the episode was over to make sure Ty Burrell was still on the show, which he is. Maybe Gary was down covering the "inferno"? Here's hoping he's back next week.

Clunk. That's the sound this episode made as it hit the air. You may be wondering how a show could make a physical clunk sound, but (and imagine some dramatic flare here) they found a way! It's almost as if after last week's great momentum, the powers that be decided that they didn't want to give us too much funny too fast, and so they churned out an awkwardly paced and plotted car boot of an episode.

On the upside, Fred Willard's Marsh was on fire tonight, and doing his proprietary shtick that I've loved since Best in Show. From his opening where, after reporting that Jason Shaw, a Steeler, was dating a supermodel, and exclaiming, "Now that's one person I'd like to trade places with for three hours," only to insist on explaining that he meant he wanted to exchange the football player, and very emphatically not the supermodel, I knew he was back in fine form. In fact, Marsh and Gary's shared scenes were, to borrow a term, "the adorablest," of the episode. Gary's robotic delivery in reporting a story about a house fire for his demo reel, and Marsh's coaching ("You're not hungry!"), once again had me, if not exactly on the floor, at least chuckling wholeheartedly.

The other two storylines, however, had me reaching for my Tums. We get it: Montana's an insecure knockout, Ryan's an insecure nerd — it's kismet! Her speechless reaction to finding out that the Steelers player (with whom Marsh wants to trade places and whom she'd been dating) was cheating on her with a supermodel was pretty amusing ("You're looking at a major depression here"), but her subsequent breakdown seemed more like an excuse to watch Ryan ogle her in a towel than anything else. To give them credit, though, Ryan's reaction to Montana's lament that she and Jason were supposed to spend Christmas in the Bahamas ("Montana, if it makes you feel better, I don't think I could have given you the time off") was actually the most unexpectedly sweet line of the night. No, not enough to make them the adorablest, but it does merit an honorable mention.

Getting to what could be considered the main plot of the night, Kelly continued to want to keep Gracie in the dark about Chuck. Gracie, seeing Chuck show up at the same restaurant in which she and her mom were eating, invited him to join them. They quickly bond, thus throwing Kelly into a moral crisis as to whether it's right to keep them a part. Lucky for her, Chuck isn't as keen on reuniting after Kelly starts going through the laundry list of activities involved with raising a child, thus preserving this dilemma for another week.

Here's hoping we get back to the sublime of last week's fish massacre, or at least give poor Gary "How much do you think this pumpkin weighs" Crezyzewski some more airtime. Gary, you'll always be an anchor to me.


Check out clips from Back to You in our Online Video Guide.

An alternate title for this episode could have been, "One fish, two fish, overfed fish, fried fish." I doubt PETA will be particularly thrilled with the outcome of the story. Me? I just kind of want to go out for seafood. While the fish-as-child metaphor was not exactly subtle (or original — they did it on Frasier in the episode "Flour Child," leading to Niles' wonderful line, "After all, a real child would have cried before it burst into flames"), it did create an almost Stooge-like backdrop for what was actually a pretty heavy topic: Is it healthy to everyone involved for Gracie to spend time with Chuck? It's obvious they will, and luckily for her, small as she might be, Gracie won't fit in a coffee cup.

The writers could have had no idea that a story about tasers would be so relevant when this episode was in development, so this was quite fortuitous timing. I'm glad there's a force out there bringing such screamingly funny physical comedy around once in a while, reminding us that taser-related sitcom storylines will never go out of style. If taking a "Whale Stopper" to the chest doesn't restore Gary Crezyzewski's macho credentials after the unfortunate baby-llama ear-munching incident, I'm not sure there's much hope left for him. In any case, bravo to Ty Burrell for going whole-hog in that scene.

Marshall and Montana had some really delightful interactions this week; only Fred Willard could throw away a line like, "Oh, Montana, would you see if you can get this orange in my pants without me knowing it?" instead of hammering it into the viewers' skulls, and I'm really enjoying the way Ayda Field has toned Montana down to be less of a cartoon and more of a true supporting character. Ditto for news director Ryan.

The bottom line is this: I liked the first episode, but I was cautious. Now I'm starting to get a feel for where this show's going and I have to admit, I'm dropping my guard. The first five minutes of dialogue were undeniably painful (to wit: "I'm sorry if I invaded your space by a few inches." "At least this time it won't get me pregnant."), but after that funky credit sequence, the episode hit its stride. So yes, it may indeed have been, "the bloodiest day in fish history," but it was also a strong second showing for the gang at WURG.

Check out clips from Back to You in our Online Video Guide.

There's something about this show that reminds me of a glazed doughnut. It's nothing you haven't had before and something you know you should stay away from, but in the end, you choose it anyway, not only because it's comforting, but because as hard as you try not to, you can't help but enjoy it.

Our setup (if the millions of promos that Fox ran didn't give it away first) is this: Chuck Darling and Kelly Carr were the dream team of Pittsburgh's local news scene. Now, 10 years later, Chuck's made it to L.A., where one disastrous on-air blowup regarding a supremely ditzy coworker results in his being bounced back to the minor leagues. Only (in that classic pre-Seinfeldian sitcom twist) it turns out that Chuck unknowingly, "left a part of [himself] in Pittsburgh," in the form of Gracie Carr. Cue the final credits.

Now, I consider myself to be the kind of cool and with-it gal who loves the kind of hip, ironic, single-camera sitcoms that no one actually watches, but I'm also a child of the '90s and "Must see TV (if you haven't seen it, it's new to you!)." In that respect, I have to allow myself to admit that based on the pilot, this could end up being a really funny show. The strengths of the pilot episode were obviously not in the overall plot — and I really hope that the writers don't string out this reunion plot into a dramatic arc — but in the still-sharp script by veteran writers Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd ("I love you like a brother. Actually more — I don't especially care for my brother") and the obvious comedic chops of Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton. Let's face it: No one does the withering glance quite like Patricia Heaton, and no one does pompous quite like Kelsey Grammer.

If this show had to rest on these two heavyweights, we'd probably still have a decent show, but happily, we have some very talented actors in supporting roles. Ty Burrell (who was also very funny on Out of Practice — another "traditional" sitcom that apparently only I and my father liked) as the long-suffering Gary Crezyzewski captures his character so perfectly, I couldn't help but be reminded of some poor souls I've seen on my own local news. Ayda Field as Montana Diaz Herrera, had me in stitches with her batsh--t insane meteorologist, and the always-brilliant Fred Willard is a wonderful if surprisingly low-key addition to the cast. My one major problem with this bunch? The 26-year-old, very sweaty (with disturbing Chris Farley mannerisms) news director, Ryan. If there were ever a sitcom cliché that needed excising, unfortunately, it's him.

So let's see where this goes. It could be as spectacular as Chuck claims his and Kelly's daughter is, or it could be the next Twenty Good Years. In the meantime, here, at the other end of the Keystone State, I have to agree with Chuck: "There was magic in these chairs 10 years ago and I'm sure it'll be there again."

Check out clips from Back to You in our Online Video Guide.

Back to You premieres Wednesday, September 19 at 8pm/ET on FOX.