Back To You: Pilot

ORIGINAL EPISODES, WEDNESDAYS @ 8PM ON FOX

In this pilot episode, Patricia Heaton and Kelsey Grammer make their return to television in a comedy about co-news anchors who have a past relationship. The two anchors, Chuck and Kelly, were originally co-anchors in Pittsburgh when Chuck's career took off and he left for greener pastures. Until one day when he freaked out on a co-worker on the air and was fired from his job. And so he ends up back in Pittsburgh working with Kelly again as co-news anchors on his former network news show.

The episode was basically uneven. Throughout the first half, the comedy hit peaks and valley's alternating between smart and funny to dumb and forced. I saw flashes of possibility at times and utter disappointment at others. The problem most comedies face, in my opinion, is that the writers attempt to create a hit from day one. When they do this they end up with jokes that try to force the audience to laugh rather than allowing the audience to fall into the jokes. Unfortunately, this show hit this problem early and often.

Thankfully, the second half of the episode was much better. I think this was because more of the show took place outside the newsroom. This gave Patricia and Kelsey an opportunity to show off their great comedic ability (which we know they both have) and really capture my attention. While in the newsroom I was too distracted by the less than stellar acting of Laura Marano (Gracie), Josh Gad (Ryan), and Ty Burrel (Gary). Their awful acting and significantly less than funny jokes made most of the scenes in the newsroom just terrible. If there's anywhere to improve it's here and the producers should seriously think about making a change before it's too late. The show could definitely hold its own if it was two-thirds Patricia and Kelsey outside the newsroom and one-third newsroom (with different actors and better writing).

On another note, whoever is in charge of the laugh track on this show needs to be fired. A laugh track only works when the viewers don't actually notice it, but rather, laugh along with it. When you're hitting the track so often that I can't hear the actors and I only hear weird laughing, you need to find a different job.

Some good things about the show - Patricia and Kelsey are great actors and easily give the show credibility. They are great at what they do and definitely bring life to almost-dead writing. The one good thing the writers did was to throw in the twist about Kelly's daughter. With Chuck finding out he's the father of an 8-year old (no wait, 10-year old), it added a taste of drama to the show and spiced up the storyline quite a bit. I didn't see it coming actually and that made it an excellent idea.

Overall this show deserves a couple more chances. Any show that pairs Kelsey and Patricia together deserves at least that much. Plus, Fred Willard is also a starring actor (by the way, he also starred in Everybody Loves Raymond with Patricia Heaton as Amy's father) and you have to give any show a shot if he's in it, come on now. If the second half of this show can be built upon then there is some definite potential here. Give it a shot for a couple more weeks and let me know what you think.