When bad shows happen to good characters

We’ve all been there. You’re watching something on TV, and things are going just awfully. There isn’t a single part of the show you’re tuned to that would explain how it made it on the air … except for one individual character who keeps on knocking it out of the park. Am I right, or am I right?

It’s a relatively common predicament that I started to think about after Bob recently pondered whether Hank Moody’s too good for Californication (FYI: Hank’s awesome, but so is the show. Just ask Bob now that he’s seen season three).

The thought stirred again for me when I watched The Cleveland Show for my weekly column. And not because of The Cleveland Show, but rather due to Roger from American Dad!. And that’s really where our conversation begins.

Roger is the alien that Stan Smith decided to hide from the government instead of turning in. His alien peculiarities aren’t quite as entertaining as the very many personalities — and lives — that he’s living at any given time. Roger never met a wig he didn’t want to wear, and I love how committed he is to every person he’s created out of thin air. The back stories alone are something to commend him for.

The rest of the show is a train wreck. Total train wreck. So I kind of feel for Roger that he doesn’t get a real opportunity to spread his wings, or a wider audience to spread them for. In fact, if anyone in Seth MacFarlane‘s stable should have gotten their own show, it’s likely Roger (I can tell you that it definitely wasn’t Cleveland Brown). It’s too bad for Roger’s sake.

Perhaps the most uneven ship of all is 30 Rock. Kenneth (Jack McBrayer), Jack (Alec Baldwin), and Tracy (Tracy Morgan) — when he’s not being too Tracy — rock, but the rest of the show’s ensemble lets them down week in and week out. The strength in numbers here keeps me coming back every week, but the lackluster effort that is much of the show makes sure I’m rolling my eyes for most of the thirty minutes.

Once I started to think about this, I realized there are even shows I’ve sporadically continued to try in the hopes that there was a so-called “Roger in the rough” amidst the rubble of awfulness.

Parks and Recreation is just as bad now as it was in its pilot episode. But I’ve popped in here and there because I was one of the five people who loved Aziz Ansari on Scrubs. Unfortunately his Tom Haverford on the show is more Ryan Howard than Ed the awful med student, so no dice there.

Community is also just as bad today as it was in its pilot, but Chevy Chase is Chevy Chase is Chevy Chase … except as Pierce on Community. Yikes. Danny Pudi’s Abed was funny the first time, but he got old fast. Zero for two there.

And scripted shows aren’t the only sinners. Take American Idol for example. Could the show be worth anything without Simon Cowell? The talent has certainly been playing garbage time, as it’s called in basketball lingo, for quite a few seasons now, and Simon was all there was to see for years. Is the show managing without him? I wouldn’t know … take away the “Roger in the rough,” and I was out of there. Even with one there was no guarantee that it would be worth watching.

I think you catch my drift. How about you? What awesome characters do you wish were getting a better platform from which to shine? And which promising “Rogers in the rough” have let you down?

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Feb 03, 2011 @ 12:00 EST5EDT