She plays a recovered alcoholic single mother of two. Hilarious, right? Well it is. When I saw Chuck Lorre's name in the first episode, I knew it was going to be good. Two and a Half Men and Big Bang Theory Chuck Lorre. Weather or not you like those shows, the guy knows the half-hour sitcom formula for laughs.
Allison Janney plays Farris's mom on the show. Janney is also in recovery, and the two didn't have a relationship when the show started. They have since grown with each other in AA meetings, and I think Janney even lives with Farris on the show now. The two pair for big laughs on Mom. I remember one scene where I laughed at every line of dialogue. That is rare.
Breaking Bad fans will also enjoy seeing Badger as Farris's ex, and father of her son. Farris's daughter on the show got knocked up by her namby-pamby teenage boyfriend early on too, which will make Farris a grandmother in her 30's. That will keep the show fresh going into its second season.
I just found the other show last week. I took a sitcom writing class where we wrote an episode of ABC's The Middle. When writing a sitcom spec script you must know the show you're writing. You need to write in every character's voice, so I started watching The Middle before that class. It's a good show too, but I don't watch every episode. I was watching it the other night and I didn't know what time it was. I thought it just started.
Turns out it was 7:28 and The Middle was just ending. Megan was putting Ozzie to bed, and she came in the room just as The Goldbergs was starting. I don't know what made us not talk to each other and focus on the TV. Maybe it was the radical 80's clothes, or the narration of Patton Oswalt, but during the first commercial I said to Megan "I love this show." It wasn't until the end that I remembered seeing commercials for it in the summer (and thinking the show looked terrible and wouldn't last).
The show is set in the loud neon decade of the 80's, when I was age 3 to 13. It follows the Goldberg family and stars Jeff Garlin as father Murray, and Reno 911's Wendi McLendon-Covey as mother Beverly. They have three kids, the youngest of whom is Adam, narriated by Oswalt. He's based on the show's creator Adam Goldberg.
Beverly's dad Pops is usually up to something too. Pops is cast well as George Segal. Adam loves to film with his video camera and play Nintendo. He's usually wearing an 80's pop culture tee shirt. Big brother Barry is a dork, and reminds me of me. Everyday Murray takes off his pants as soon as he walks in the door when he gets home from work.
The episodes usually end with an actual video the show's creator filmed when he was a kid that was recreated in the episode you just saw.
The best part of these shoes is you can jump in whenever. They're not serials where you'd be lost without catching up from the beginning. They're just great sitcoms that I'm glad I found, and I hope you like them too.
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