Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 4, 1993 TAG: 9303040069
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Tom Shales The Washington Post.
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
NEW SITCOMS FIT FINE IN THE `TGIF' LINEUP
Those who think "good sitcom" is an oxymoron will not be amused. But ABC's "Getting By" and "Where I Live," both premiering Friday night, are honorable entries in a much-maligned genre.Sitcoms do reduce life to basics and simplistics, but in 22 minutes of program time, complexity and nuance are not practical goals. The two new shows join ABC's popular Friday night "TGIF" lineup, a concentrated weekly dose of lightweight escapism, and there they'll be right at home.
These are adult-oriented family comedies, a bridge between the kiddie-oriented family shows in the first hour of prime time and "20/20," the ABC News magazine, in the last hour. It's a wholesome block of programming, and thus a very pleasant alternative to whatever is on Fox.
"Getting By" gets by mainly on the strength of its co-stars: Cindy Williams, once Shirley of "Laverne and Shirley," and Telma Hopkins, another sitcom veteran with a wickedly sarcastic delivery. They play working single mothers, one divorced and one widowed, who decide to share a house in Oak Park, Ill., to save money.
Naturally most of the comedy has to do with the kids. Cathy Hale (Williams) has two daughters, one a teen-ager and one a maniacally cute blond tot; Dolores Dixon (Hopkins) has two teen-age sons, Darren and Marcus, the latter something of a troublemaker.
Told that Marcus is in a bad mood, Dolores says, "Well, honey, Marcus has been in a bad mood since he was born. That's why I didn't breast-feed him."
What the two women, both social workers, can learn from each other is obvious. Cathy is naive starry-eyed, and has too much faith in people, including her ex-husband. Dolores is practical, sassy and has too little faith in people. It's a good combination.
Another big plus is that the show depicts a black family and a white family living together in relative harmony. Race is not an abiding issue here, and there are few racial references.
While no sane person would call it hilarious, the show is soothingly funny throughout, especially so when Cathy and Dolores are having philosophical debates. It's nice that the adults get as much screen time as the kids do.
The series and its stars prove again that sitcoms are almost always personality-driven; if you like the characters and the actors playing them, you'll like the show. By that standard, "Getting By" is magnificently likable.
"Where I Live" is more ambitious, a hang-loose comedy about a teen-ager living in Harlem and watching the world go by from the front stoop of his apartment building. Two friends join him there. One friend is a little smarter, the other a little dumber. You don't pick friends by their IQ's.
Engaging, fresh and contagiously upbeat, "Where I Live" tackles the small crises of everyday urban life in a style that seems less phony and less preachy than other sitcoms. True, it doesn't offer the brutal realities of inner-city life, but you can always find those elsewhere.
Doug E. Doug, who plays the central character, Douglas St. Martin, and is one of the show's producers, has a deft and breezy charm on screen. In the premiere, he talks to the camera, introducing the setting and the other characters. But in subsequent episodes, this technique, already a nuisance on CBS's "Love & War," is dropped.
Lorraine Toussaint and Sullivan Walker emit warm authority as Doug's parents; Yunoka Doyle plays his sister. The boys on the stoop are Shaun Baker and Flex as Malcolm and Reggie. Yes, Flex. Just plain Flex. He's part of the new age of names.
In the second show (March 12), Doug discovers that mom, when a young woman, appeared nude in the musical "Hair." He is shocked, as shocked as she is that he's brought home a rap record called "Shoot Your Mother." The clash of generations is one of the oldest sitcom themes and here, it works again, partly because it's done with savvy credibility.
Like the other "TGIF" shows, these new additions are not likely to inspire millions of Americans to cancel all Friday night plans and stay home. But millions more stay home anyway, with TV serving as comforter and entertainer.
For them, "Getting By" and "Where I Live" ought to be as welcome as popcorn from the microwave, and the resemblance doesn't end there. Washington Post Writers Group