Fox’s back-to-back new sitcoms, Raising Hope and Running Wilde, premiered on Tuesday night, and two more different shows are difficult to imagine.
Raising Hope is from Greg Garcia, the writer-producer who gave us My Name Is Earl. Like Earl, Raising Hope is grungy and low-down, interested in the challenges faced by at least 90 percent of America: how to take care of your family, make money, find time for love. The premise is a nicely exaggerated one that’s quickly rooted firmly in Garcia’s brand of sitcom reality. A teen (Lucas Neff) acquires a baby from a one-night stand; he decides to keep the kid and raise it, even though he’s still being raised at home by his parents (the terrific Garret Dillahunt and the wonderful Martha Plimpton). Cloris Leachman stumps into the room now and then to utter a hostile non sequitur.
I thought Raising Hope was sweet and funny — I laughed at its sight gags (the baby rolling around in its untethered car-seat) and think the chemistry between Dillahunt and Plimpton is what every sitcom needs, which is: You have to believe right from the start that these people love each other, fight a lot, and that you’ve known them for years.
By contrast — and the contrast is huge, maybe insurmountable — Running Wilde is conceived as a classically structured screwball comedy, in which a person of high stature is brought low by gentle humiliation and slapstick. In this case, it’s Will Arnett as a rich jerk trying to buy the affection of a woman he’s loved for years (Keri Russell). Russell uses her wide eyes to express disbelief at the foolish, spendthrift ways of Arnett’s Steven Wilde. As indigent, professional do-gooder Emmy, Russell also has a clever daughter named Puddle (played by the devilishly good Stefania Owen). This trio is supplemented by two characters who work for Steve, one of whom, Robert Michael Morris, will always be, to me, Mickey the makeup man on Lisa Kudrow’s great, short-lived The Comeback.
Another Arrested alum, David Cross, pops up as Andy, Emmy’s fiancé and a radical environmentalist who’s also a complete idiot. I wish I could report that this cheerful-sounding mish-mash of talented performers has resulted in big laughs, but they were more like small ones, weren’t they? Even the sight gags, such as a miniature pony, are small.
Like every other TV critic who carries the membership card, I was a big fan of Arrested Development, which means I should be more effusive about Wilde, which was co-created by Arrested producers Mitch Hurwitz and Jim Vallely. I sincerely hope the show gets funnier. Fox hasn’t done Running Wilde a favor in scheduling it after Hope. I like the characters in Hope more; they don’t seem as assiduously, neon-sign “wacky” as Wilde‘s. Still, whatever its flaws, Wilde is trying something different, and this may be its chief similarity to Arrested Development: most viewers aren’t going to just let it slide in front of their eyes, thinking, “Oh, yeah, I know shows like this; this may be good for a few laughs; don’t change the channel.” No, I think the potential Running Wilde audience is going to have to actively seek it out.
Maybe another reason I like Raising Hope is its time period: I’m grateful for a 9 p.m. alternative to Dancing With the Stars, The Biggest Loser, and NCIS: Los Angeles.
So: Which show was funnier? Or did you like them both, each in its different way?
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I thought Raising Hope was much funnier than Wilde; the baby rolling around in the car and the puking scene made me laugh out loud (and I hardly ever laugh out loud watching comedies alone)… but I think both need to improve a little more in the funny dept. for me to keep watching them.
I agree. However, I love Kerri Russel and Will Arnett so much that maybe the fact that it wasn’t the funniest pilot in the world didn’t matter so much to me. I’ll definitely keep watching!
I could only make it thru Running Wilde for 10 minutes. It was just terrible. Awful characters. Unfunny jokes.
Agree!
And Will Arnett has always given me the “creeps.”
Agree, AJ. Will Arnett has the shiniest, tightest skin ever! Especially his forhead.
Liked Raising Hope better, but both are good. LOL should have hung on longer. Trust Will Arnett, he has good instincts. The true test is if they can keep coming up with plots every week. Sometimes you don’t need a beginning and end, just stuff that happens, like Modern Family.
Raising hope. The Leachman kiss where the young guy exhaled her cigarette smoke after, and when the mother just, without thinking at all whacks the crazy girl over the head with a tv … it was funny.
Wilde seemed too contrived on so many levels. I stopped liking contrived sitcoms since I stopped watching Greene Acres.
RAISING HOPE. At first I thought it offensively trashy, but I also LOL’ed literally, at the puke, and the car-seat, and the TV to the head.
But what really got me was the silent, poetic flashback moment with the young boy looking through the HOLE IN THE CAR FLOOR. It was a level of Coen Brothers cinema brilliance I have not seen on TV.
My thoughts exactly, Stefan with the LOL moments, but I have to add in the dad knocking the cousin over while he was peeing. This may be my new favorite show, I REALLY enjoyed it. My husband only watches two shows (yes, total!) and he even watched all of Raising Hope (and laughed!).
I watched about 10 minutes of Running Wilde. Maybe my expectations were too high for RW so I was disappointed (although I already adore Puddle). And no expectations for RH made for that much more of a pleasant surprise.
Wow. Ditto! we loved Raising Hope, which surprised me, because I thought it would be just like Earl, which was just ok. The second show? 10 minutes and click time… but I loved Puddle.
They both were awful. FOX cannot do sit-coms for some reason. They should take lessons from CBS in that area.
To each his own, I suppose… I can’t stand any comedy on CBS, the only network still using laugh tracks.
HIMYM would be better without a laugh track – it’s single-camera, for crying out loud, what were they thinking? It’s so out of place, and comes off even worse than in most sitcoms in a show that is (or was, at least) much better than most and doesn’t need the help.
Because CBS knows their audience. An audience who, for the most part, needs to be told when to laugh.
It’s NOT single camera, it is a hybrid: combining the usual, three camera system with close-ups and location shots done on a single camera…
I’ve never noticed the CBS comedies have laugh tracks. I’ll have to pay attention next time.
I liked Raising Hope. I wasn’t planning on watching it but there was nothing else on. Anyway, glad I caught it. I’ll definitly keep watching. Not so much with the other one, I do not care for that Arnett guy.
kathleen- consider your cbs comedies days over. Once you become aware of the laugh track, its hard to watch them. That the reason why I cant watch Everybody loves raymond and that 70′s show reruns.
I totally agree. CBS’s old school multi-camera laugh-track sitcoms are LAME. I mean, come on. Charlie Sheen???? Laugh tracks are over. Done. They are Cosby Show and Roseanne. They are history.
CBS comedies are the worst comedies on TV. Only How I met your Mother is sometimes funny. But the rest (especially the crap coming from Chuck Lorre) is all garbage.
I disagree-The Bfg Band Theory is hysterical.
Grr stupid small iPhone keys-Big Bang Theory! Though it would be amusing trying to say bfg.
To each his own. I’ve tried Big Bang Theory several times. I didn’t find it funny, smart, or creative.
Big bang theory is for morons living in their mom’s basement playing dungeons and dragons by themselves.
@Cee–perhaps you’re on to something, though–Big Band Theory could be a spin-off with geeks into swing dancing…
Please don’t give them any ideas. Ripoffs of “Glee” will start coming soon enough.
everytime i’ve watched big bang they’ve told a joke i’ve heard somewhere else. every. time. lame lame lame…running wilde improved, but really? they replaced russell’s husband with david cross? WHY? because it’s david cross? there was some other adjustments but it still doesn’t seem like they’ve fixed it…at all. raising hope wins (even if there’s no way that guy look slike a teenager).
Bruno…I think the guy is supposed to be 23…young man living at home
you disqualified yourself by liking CBS sitcoms. fail.
yep…i,m checking out survivor this year because of j.j but other than football on sundays i wouldn,t even remember CBS exsisted.
The only good sitcom on CBS is The Big Bang Theory. I gave “Mike & Molly” a shot on Monday night and couldn’t believe how awful it was. Two and a Half Men is also wretched. Funny that all the shows I’ve mentioned are from the same producer.
I gave Mike and Molly a shot too … mostly because I had a dog on my lap and couldn’t get up to find the remote … it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but not really as good either. My husband thought 2 1/2 men was the funniest he had seen in a while, I think he hit his head as I found it almost intolerable. But we LOVE Big Bang, so sorry it’s gone from my monday night line up
I agree with Carl. They were both awful and I wasted an hour watching them for one slight chuckle (the rolling around baby)
CBS comedies are for old folks. They’ve completely taken the edge out of comedy.
I really liked Raising Hope. I love Martha Plimpton and thought Cloris Leachman’s little bits were great. I’ll continue watching that for sure.
Running Wilde on the other hand…I was disappointed, and I like all the people in it and behind it. But it didn’t cut it. Maybe I’ll give it 1 or 2 more weeks but that’s it.
hey man, you gotta remember that it took like 4 episodes to really build an interest in arrested development. Give this show the same chance too, lest we all miss out and fox cancels it too quickly.
Which is why I’m giving it 1-2 more episodes, no more though.
And FYI: I like AD after the first episode.
i’m gonna catch running wilde tomorrow. but i loved raising hope. great set-up. it’s very charming, well-cast (hooray for the amazing martha plimpton!), and just has a certain funny and endearing quality to it. the grandma was funny too, although she needs put clothes on cus seeing like that creeped me out. if the next two or three episodes are as good or, hopefully, even better, i’ll have to add it to my list.
hopefully these two don’t completely bomb for FOX like lone star did.
Raising Hope was excellent.
I went into this hour-long comedy block really looking forward to Running Wilde (since I’m a big Arrested Development fan) and figuring I might as well check out Raising Hope while I was at it. In the end, I came out a much bigger fan of Raising Hope. It was absurd, but funny and sweet. The main character is goofily charming and likable. And I could definitely see similarities to My Name is Earl and Malcolm in the Middle (certainly not a bad thing). I was very pleasantly surprised.
Running Wilde, on the other hand, was a letdown. It was okay, but not too funny. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something was off. I’ll keep tuning in (since there’s really nothing else on TV at that time that appeals to me), and hopefully the show will improve. There is some promise, but if there were some kind of TV face-off for me in that timeslot, I’d probably drop it.
I think Running Wilde seemed like it was trying too hard to be like Arrested Development and it just wasn’t working. But maybe that’s just me. Or maybe eventually they will be able to pull that off. We’ll see.
Yeah, that’s kind of what I was feeling too. I hope the show gets better. And I did enjoy some of the gags, like the girl eating leaves and the look on those boys’ faces. Hopefully more odd stuff like that.
That’s so weird, I thought it wasn’t working because it was trying too hard NOT to be Arrested Development. I also thought things jumped around a bit too much. It was amusing enough for me to give it a few more episodes though. I see the potential for it to be awesome and to be a huge letdown – hopefully it goes in the awesome direction.
I thought it was hilarious when the girl said he was “about to make a huge mistake.” Classic AD!
That MADE the episode for me, I was just waiting for GOB – er, Steven Wilde – to say, “I’ve made a huge mistake.” But the voiceover will have to do…
I totally have to agree with you Dave. I went in being a fan of Arreested Development so I thought I would give Wil Arnet’s show a shot. Soooo boring I thought I couldn’t believe he exec produced this. I didn’t even try to finish it. Raising Hope was just alright. Again went in thinking I loved Raising Arizona so this should be the hit. Not! I’m not saying I won’t watch it again, b/c I like the premise and the actors, but I’m not siked about it.
I disagree wtih those people who say the CBS comedies suck, maybe they used to but these days the Mon night lineup is the hit and Big Bang is the best show on tv.
@Dave: I completely agree. I was most looking forward to Running Wilde but Raising Hope is the winner in my book.
Maybe Running Wilde will be like Parks and Rec. I thought the first few episodes were dreck, but then it hit it’s stride and is one of my favorites. Will Arnett is hilarious, so I’m giving this one another few episodes.
Running Wilde was definitely the best. It’s worth watching for Keri Russell alone.
Raising Hope is crude, full of unlikeable loser characters. I hope it’s cancelled soon.
I have to disagree about Raising Hope’s characters. I felt the parent characters were unlikable until they played and sung the baby to sleep, then they became more than just one-dimensional losers. I laughed a good bit and hope the show keeps it up.
As for Wilde, I liked it. It will need to keep getting better (more gags like the daughter eating the plant leaves please – that cracked me up). And are we really supposed to believe the deep-voiced guy from Shaun of the Dead is an Arabic guy?? Or is he just rich, nutty and pretending to be Arabic?? I hope it’s the latter because he didn’t quite pull it off if it’s the former.
LOVED Running Wilde. The throwaway stuff like him going back to turn off the piano and when he thought he was a mindreader – awesome.
Raising Hope started very badly to me, bought another week when the parents did the singing bit. I like the cast, but it feels like “My Name is Earl part 2 when we ran out of ideas.”
I also disagreed with Rion – yes, the characters in Raising Hope initially seemed like typical tv sit-com poor white trash, but as the story developed, so did the characters in what I found endearing ways. I think there’s a lot of room here for more character development, not just slap-stick comedy with laugh tracks (which I am so sick of!) and I’m looking forward to seeing how the writers/producers develop this show in the weeks ahead. I think there’s some tremendous potential here …
i’m with you… raising hope has that perfect mix of outrageous family behavior (if you live in the south like me, you see on occasion at family reunions) and still keeps its charm and makes the characters likeable. Most out loud laughs i’ve had in a while…
I wanted to like Running Wilde, but I didn’t have the patience for it after about 15 minutes. The assistant (with the headset) was annoying.
Raising Hope was good, although I wish they would have kept the original title, Keep Hope Alive (I usually hate pun titles, but that would have been a good one).
They fought for Keep Hope Alive, but there were legal issues as the phrase is trademarked.
My Name is Earl the white trashiness was funny and absurd. Raising Hope white trashiness is just sad.
The rolling the baby in the car seat gag was a bit shocking, but not funny. Cloris Leechman had a few laughable gags but not enough to carry the show. The main character isn’t likable, he’s just pathetic.
Running Wilde was worse, I think the pony gag was the only attempt at comedy.
Tuesday is a good night to not watch TV.
The rolling baby in the car seat was freaking hilarious! Get a sense of humor.
agreed:)
I was cringing more than laughing, but I have a baby just a little older so that’s probably why. Hopefully they’ll move past that because if I have to watch this child be put in dangerous situations every week, it will get old quick.
Totally agree with that. I did laugh when the baby rolled across the seat because it was so unexpected, but it wasn’t really funny at all. Puking on a baby?! That is not funny. Mostly this show – is not funny. Also the cashier reminds me too much of Ellen Page’s Juno. Didn’t like either.
wow, I’m glad I’m not K or Cheri – I’d kill myself.
I have to agree. It was offensive and mean-spirited. I sat through it waiting for Running Wilde, but now I think I’ll DVR Running Wilde and watch something else at 9 instead.
Did you not listen to what the main character was saying at all towards the end of the episode? He’s very likable… and a lot like normal guys his age. We’re not all perfect families like you man. The show was offense and mean-spirited? Oh yeah… I absolutely hated the parents singing the baby to sleep too.
Matthew Schwartz, I’m sure your local video store still has some VHS tapes of 70s sitcoms you can watch. You’re dated sense of humor is no longer relevant.
Raising Hope was great. Actually laughed out loud a couple of time. From the commercials I also thought Martha Plimpton was his sister not his mother. The puke scene was funny. Running Wilde seemed like it was trying too hard. It’s just Will Arnett being Will Arnett
totally agree, i found myself surprised while watching raising hope how many times i laughed out loud. def will be watching after glee regularly
i thought raising hope was horrible and offensive, wilde was funny at points i’m willing to give running wilde another week but raising hope is definitely not worth watching ever again!
Raising Hope was hilarious. There was so much inappropriate humor! I loved it. I am putting that as a DVR setting.
I totally agree! I can’t believe there isn’t more love for it! We had to pause when the cousin gave the baby the finger mustache and said “We’ll give it a giant lollipop and tell everyone it’s a munchkin!”
I thought it was a great pilot and has huge potential. I think people forget that most pilots aren’t that good, but all things considered I really enjoyed this one.
Bang on. Inappropriate humor well delivered. I’ll be back ….
Totally agreed. That little tattoo mustache was the funniest sight gag I’ve seen in forever. The timing was fantastic…the mom coming into his room and telling him his dad’s home and to come and eat…and his dad’s the a hole he was working with earlier and quit. Hilarious.
Sometimes I just can’t understand how some people are so easily offended, especially by something like a TV show.
I really liked Raising Hope, aside from when they actually showed the puke. Not necessary, show.
I wasn’t really looking forward to Running Wilde, and only watched the first bit. Got as far as the horses and shut off the TV for the night. Meh.
What? When is people puking not funny?
About the time your voice finishes changing or you get your period, whichever applies.
when you clean up patient’s puke or poops everyday