So we’ll tell you a bit about the show, then give some opinions, and finally give it a “Recommend” “Consider” or “Pass” grade. Here we go:

05/04/06

Let me just say right from the start, TVadviceguy loves Chris Elliott. “Get a Life” is simply one of the best sitcoms ever made. Cabin Boy is one of the best comedies of all time. Okay? Get it? I’m biased.

“You’ve Reached the Elliott’s” is the CBS pilot from Chris Elliott and Rob Deshotel. It’s a semi-autobiographical comedy that follows the family life of actor/comic/genius Chris Elliott. After realizing that he’s away from his family too often because he’s out shooting movies like “Scary Movie 6,” he decides to be a better father and husband and stay home more often. What results is a fairly generic family sitcom.

The script was kind of interesting because it almost felt like the first act was written by Rob Deshotel, and the second act was written by Chris Elliott. Then they sent each other their pages, and voila! A complete script. The tone of the first act is standard run of the mill family sitcom fluff, and then the second act suddenly has that famous Chris Elliott brand of silliness.

So, at the end of the day, or the end of the script as it were, “You’ve Reached The Elliott’s” has potential, but it didn’t kick my ass. Hopefully I will be able to see the actual shot pilot, because I’m sure Chris Elliott can make this so-so script really come to life. So for that reason…

05/04/06

“Union Jackass” is the FOX pilot that tries to make a BBC type show for an American network, rather than the usual effort of an American network trying to re-make a BBC comedy. For the most part, I think it works.

“Union Jackass” stars English comic Al Murray, who plays a character named Al Murray. Al lives in England where he tends bar at an English pub. One day he receives a letter from his ex-wife who now lives in Santa Monica, California. The letter says she’s getting remarried and intends on staying in California. But that means Al's son will be staying in California as well, and Al doesn’t like that idea so he heads to Cali to get his son back.

Al hates Santa Monica. In fact Al doesn’t much care for “Yanks” in general, but especially those in Santa Monica. When Al realizes that he’s not going to be able to get his son to come back to England with him, he decides he’s going to stay in California. He gets a job at a wannabe English Pub, and settles in for his new life in the States.

There’s your plot. Now, onto the review: The script was pretty darn funny. If the show gets picked up, I’m sure critics will be saying, “This is just an ‘All in the Family’ rip-off, except the Archie Bunker character is an Englishman this time!” And you know what? They’d pretty much be right. Except, of course, "All in the Family" was based on a BBC show anyway. And, either way, it’s not just an “All in the Family” rip-off; it’s also an “Archie Bunker’s Place” rip-off too, because a lot of the scenes are going to take place in the pub that Al works at. But who cares? It works. It’s funny.

Maybe I just happen to think stereotypes and racist jokes can be funny sometimes. There are not enough of them on TV anymore because everybody is so “politically correct” and all that crap. Well, “Union Jack” might not be the most original script I’ve ever read, and some of the jokes about Irish people or Indian people might be borderline offensive, but I chuckled. And that’s all that matters.

03/29/06

After slacking on these pilot script reviews, I decided to hunker down and read “Andy Barker, P.I.” because it comes from Conan O’Brien, so I figured it would be a fun read. Well, I was like totally wrong.

“Andy Barker, P.I.” is about a CPA named, well, Andy Barker. Andy goes out on his own and opens up his own office, and things are going really slowly for him (and me, as the reader) until a Russian woman asks him to find her dead husband. See, she mistakes Andy the CPA for a Private Investigator because the office he’s in used to be the office for a P.I. Inexplicably, Andy decides to take on the case. However neither comedy, action, nor anything interesting whatsoever seems to ensue.

The pilot written by Conan O’Brien and one time “Late Night” writer Jonathan Groff is far fetched, ridiculous, unfunny, and uninteresting. Most of all it’s a total disappointment because I had such high hopes for this since I like the writers, and I like Andy Richter who is cast as Andy Barker. Tony Hale, brilliant as Buster on “Arrested Development” gets to play the one dimensional character Simon here, a video store owner who obnoxiously makes movie references throughout the script.

I can only hope this show makes a phenomenal improvement from page to screen, otherwise it’s DOA.

03/29/06

“If You Were Here, You’d Be Home By Now” might be the worst title for a sitcom in the history of mankind, but luckily it wasn’t the worst pilot script I’ve read, so that’s nice. Here we have a pretty neat little concept, a pretty funny script, and if everything goes just right, it could be a cool show.

Real quickly, the story follows six different people who all move into a temporary living facility in Los Angeles at the same time. There’s Curtis, whose Malibu home was ruined in a mudslide, there’s a Sherry and Cody, a mother and son who have moved to L.A. so Sherry can become an actress, there’s Scott who has lost his job and his wife, there’s Amy a farm girl who moved west, and there’s Brad a womanizing businessman who has been relocated to L.A. for his job. They all take residence at Morningwood Temporary Apartments, and then we get to watch as their lives intermingle.

The script was written by “Friends” alumni Andrew Reich and Ted Cohen, and although I never laughed out loud or anything, I was always interested in the story and the characters. Without getting too detailed in the story, some of these characters have interesting lives and one has a “secret.” It kind of seemed like a sitcom meets “Lost” story, except nobody is trapped on an island and there are no mysterious human eating beasts. Okay, never mind about the “Lost” thing, but it was still a cool little script and I’d love to see the shot pilot.

03/18/06

“Community Service” is about a dude named Will who was a very successful New York real estate agent. Will was great at his job, but he was also great at staying out late and partying. So, when his party life got in the way of his work life, he was fired.

On his way to rehab, Will decides to stop off in Ohio to see the one true love of his life, Carly. Carly used to work with Will before he left for New York. He was in love with Carly, but their relationship ended when she caught him cheating on her. Now that he’s reached rock bottom, he decides he should tell her that she’s the only thing that ever mattered to him. Long story short: Will meets Carly. Carly is engaged. Will gets arrested after accidentally punching a police officer. Will is sentenced to 500 hours of community service and therefore is stuck in this small Ohio town for a while. One assumes romance and comedy will then ensue.

The script by David Israel and Jim O’Doherty is at times cute, funny, and charming. However, it doesn’t seem terribly original. There’s a certain familiar feel to it. Oh yeah, that’s right, it’s just like “Ed.” You know, one time big-shot New York guy (Ed was a lawyer, Will was in real estate) shows up to a small town in Ohio (Stuckyville in “Ed,” Cliffwood in “Community Service.”) to win over the love of his life only to find out she’s already involved with someone else. Only instead of a bowling alley to keep him there, Will has community service.

Jay Mohr has been cast as Will. No word on a guest appearance from Tom Cavanagh.

03/18/06

Here we have a traditional multi-camera comedy from writers Jackie and Jeff Filgo (“That 70’s Show.”) It goes a little something like this:

Henry returns home from a fishing trip to find out his girlfriend is breaking up with him because “things aren’t awesome anymore.” Henry doesn’t want to let it end so easily, so he decides he has to stay in the same apartment building to keep an eye on Heather and wait for her to come back to her senses. So he finds a guy in the complex, Larry, who is looking for a roommate after his previous roommate, Brad, moved out with his ball-busting fiancé.

So basically what we end up with is an “Odd Couple” of sorts, where you have two outlooks on love. Henry is very optimistic, Larry is very cynical. But the bottom line is, none of it is very funny. The characters seem very one dimensional, the jokes fall flat, and I was pretty bored the entire time. Unless the casting is perfect and there’s some kind of magical ensemble chemistry, I’d be pretty shocked to see this on the FOX 2006 schedule come September.

03/18/06

Did you watch “Emily’s Reasons Why Not?” If you have, then you pretty much have seen “More, Patience” the script from Jed Seidel. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Mr. Seidel ripped off “Emily’s Reasons” or anything, because his script has been in development since 2001. In fact, the pilot was picked up and shot as a half hour comedy for the 2001-2002 season, but wasn’t picked up. Then it came back for the 2002-2003 season as an hour long dramedy, but was once again passed on. Now, it’s back as a 30 minute comedy, but I suspect the third time will not be the charm.

“More, Patience” is about a New York therapist named, yep, Patience, who is great at giving advice to her patients, but not so great at dealing with her own problems, especially those in her love life.

It’s another single camera comedy smothered in voice overs and quirky dialogue that no one in real life actually uses, and again, unfortunately it stinks way too much of the aforementioned flop “Emily’s Reasons Why Not.”

Mr. Seidel got screwed by having his pilot go back and forth for too many years because now his script seems a bit too familiar, and I doubt it gets picked up.

03/18/06

Bonnie Hunt is back on TV. Or at least she’s trying to be. She has once again cast herself in her own written and produced comedy. This time it’s a little different though, because it’s not a traditional multi camera comedy. And this time the script isn’t very funny.

I like Bonnie Hunt. I also like her writing partner Don Lake. I think they have done a lot of great projects together. This one didn’t work for me. At least not on paper.

This time around, Bonnie is playing a recently divorced woman named Kate who works as a private detective. She is trying to forget about her failed marriage and move on. But, of course, she’s not sure she’s ready to move on. When a handsome doctor asks her out, she worries she’s out of practice and finds excuses to find something unappealing about the man. Of course the story of Kate’s love life is just part of the pilot, the other part has her investigating a gritty murder case; Always a wonderful storyline for a situation comedy.

Another thing that turned me off were the scenes where Kate “envisions” things. You know, fantasy sequence bits. This is not original anymore. In fact, in the first scene there is a small boy that Kate “envisions” that talks to her, to remind her that she’s running out of time to have a baby. Didn’t Ally McBeal do this like a decade ago?

But, if there’s anyone who can bring some life to this limp script, it’s Bonnie Hunt. So it’s hard for me to completely write this off as a “pass.” So I will hold out some hope and…

03/02/06

Let me just say right off the bat that I am always a bit concerned when I read a script that’s “Untitled.” Makes me think, right from the get go, that the script can’t be any good if the writer couldn’t even come up with a damn title!

In the case of Chris Sheridan’s untitled project, however, my instincts were wrong. I really enjoyed this script; so I guess there’s some truth to that old adage, “don’t judge a pilot script by its title page.”

The show is about two brothers who live right next door to each other. One (Paul) is an FBI agent, and the other (Tommy) is a professional thief.

After their father dies, Tommy moves his wife and son across the country to move in next door to Paul to take care of his mother. Since Tommy is the “favorite son,” Paul is extra pissed off, and comedy ensues.

Tommy tells his family that he works in real estate now, and that he's no longer a theif, but of course that's a big ol' lie. So I guess there could be some comparisons to "The Sopranos," except this show will be on network TV and will most likely involve a laugh track.

03/02/06

“Mr. Nice Guy” comes from scribe Jeff Astrof. Jeff has written on “Friends” and he’s also written on “Veronica’s Closet.” The quality of writing on “Mr. Nice Guy” falls somewhere in between. So that’s not a total insult. Anyway, I will say this; it was nice to read a straight up, no gimmick, single camera comedy script for a change.

In “Mr. Nice Guy” we find Guy, a well-meaning dude who keeps running into trouble because he’s always saying or doing the wrong thing. See he always tries to do the right thing, but somehow ends up ruining it instead, much to the humiliation of his wife. Think Larry David in “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” but picture some yet-to-be-cast-actor playing the part of Larry in a generic sitcom set up.

There were a few funny moments (one involving a magnetic pig salt shaker of all things), and I think the show could have potential if cast properly. The script didn’t blow me away, but I wasn’t totally disappointed, either.