By Devon Sheridan
Readers may or may not know that out in the vast ethos of space and time exists an alternate universe almost completely identical to ours. There’s one big difference between the worlds: in the alternate universe, television shows think and act like humans. Young television shows, which inhabit this ecosystem wake up and fall asleep every day hoping for a call from a network, to hear those divine words, “You’ve been picked up for _______ channel.”
In this world, television shows are strong of faith. And every night, a certain conglomerate of these humanoid TV shows—television comedies to be exact—pray at the sides of their beds. They pray that they won’t end up on the Fox network. This is because Fox is the worst place in network programming for television comedy. Here is where the alternate universe and our universe collide. In this world, heck, in all worlds, Fox is where television comedies go to die.
Which is why it’s so weird that, today, Fox is the home of perhaps the best single-camera sitcom currently on television. That show is called “New Girl.” You should watch it! In fact, quite amazingly, Fox broadcasts quite a few purposefully funny television shows these days (no, so I don’t mean you, Fox News, you zany goofballs).
If you happen to be an ardent reader of The Fordham Ram—and I’m talking extremely ardent, like, Copy Chief Katie Nolan ardent—then you might remember that about a year ago the Zooey Deschanel-led sitcom first blipped on our radar. Staff writer Megan Cattel gave the show a brief shout-out in her “Netflix Guide: Winter Break Edition.” Good call, Megan.
It’s really no hyperbole to say that “New Girl” is Fox’s most successful comedy to premiere in the last decade. Of course, Fox can boast “Bob’s Burgers” and “Family Guy,” which are both extremely successful cartoon comedies. Much longer-standing “The Simpsons” is probably the most successful show the network has ever had. But, those are cartoons and Fox’s record with those shows is not sterling either—in 2002, the network stopped “Family Guy” for a couple of years.
Oh! Speaking of killing funny, popular and creative comedies, remember when Fox unceremoniously murdered “Arrested Development” back in 2006? See, Fox truly has a horrible track record with comedy TV. Scrolling through IMDb and Wikipedia (I do really hard work), I can’t find one sitcom other than “‘Til Death,” which was the post-“Everybody Loves Raymond” Brad Garrett vehicle that lasted more than three seasons, since its 2004 premiere.
In May of this year, former Fox Chairman of Entertainment Kevin Reilly left the network. His resignation was abrupt and quizzical. Reilly was the one who oversaw the development not only of “New Girl,” but also “The Mindy Project” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” all of which objectively have been the most successful Fox sitcoms since 2000. It seemed like Reilly had the formula.
It’ll be interesting to see where Fox goes from here. With “New Girl,” the network has a bona fide hit: lovable characters played by actors who exude on-set chemistry, a star lead and an extremely consistent writing staff. To anyone who enjoys ensemble comedies, “The Office,” “Arrested,” etc., I strongly recommend “New Girl.” I’m still coming to grips with recommending a Fox comedy. It’s a weird feeling. Welcome to my alternate universe.
