As disappointing as Frasier is, it looks like King Lear compared with the debut of The Michael Richards Show (last night on CTV and tonight at 8 p.m. on NBC).
This show already had a stink on it after dismayed NBC executives scrapped Richards' first one-camera effort last summer. It was retooled as a typical four-camera, studio sitcom and shot before a live audience, the same formula Richards played to perfection for nine seasons as kooky Kramer on Seinfeld.
HUGE mistake. It only reinforces comparisons to Seinfeld, one of the funniest TV shows of all time. The three Seinfeld scribes working on this show make matters worse by keeping the scenes Seinfeld-short.
Too bad they're not Seinfeld-funny. The Soup Nazi had more charm than this show.
Richards shows no range whatsoever as bumbling detective Vic Nardozza, basically Kramer with slightly shorter hair and a suit. He doesn't come through a door funny but he does fall out a window and even falls down dancing. Twice.
Tim Meadows (Saturday Night Live), William Devane (Knots Landing) and Amy Farrington (ER) are around to make everyone miss the rest of the Seinfeld ensemble.
Wow. Not even George Costanza could have bungled something this badly.
It gets worse. Another episode was originally supposed to air tonight, but NBC thought it was so bad they bumped this turkey up instead.
So not only isn't it funny, it's confusing, and there's an even worse show that will set up that all these people are part of some hapless detective agency.
As Jerry would say, what's the deal with Kramer? Who are all the strange people? Where's Elaine? Where's my apartment?
Where's my converter?