SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

Welcome to SitcomsOnline Digest! We're entering into an extended holiday weekend with Christmas coming up on Tuesday, but as has been the case so often in recent weeks, the news isn't as slow as it typically has been around this time of the year in years past! This week, we're hearing about another reboot of Beverly Hills, 90210 (one that fans of the original series may appreciate this time), the cancellation of an NBC summer comedy, and more. Let's get going!

HIGHLIGHTS FROM SITCOMSONLINE.COM AND AROUND THE WEB

NBC has set premiere dates for its new immersive-reality drama series Reverie, starring Sarah Shahi and Golden Globe Award nominee Dennis Haysbert, as well as last summer's #1 new scripted series, Marlon. New drama Reverie will launch Wednesday, May 30 at 10 p.m. ET/PT immediately following NBC's popular summer alternative series American Ninja Warrior. From Mickey Fisher, the creator of Extant, this grounded new thriller follows Mara Kint (Sarah Shahi), a former hostage negotiator and expert on human behavior who became a college professor after facing an unimaginable personal tragedy. But when her former boss, Charlie Ventana (Dennis Haysbert), brings her in to save ordinary people who have lost themselves in a highly advanced immersive virtual-reality program in which you can live out your wildest dreams, she finds that in saving others, she may actually have discovered a way to save herself. The cast also includes Sendhil Ramamurthy, Jessica Lu and Kathryn Morris.

Sitcom Marlon returns for season two on Thursday, June 14 at 9 and 9:30 p.m. with Steve Harvey's Little Big Shots serving as its lead in. It was summer's #1 new scripted series on the Big 4 networks in 18-49 and total viewers. Marlon concluded its first season by matching the show's "live plus same day" season highs with both its 9 and 9:30 p.m. telecasts. Loosely inspired by the real life of star Marlon Wayans (In Living Color, Scary Movie), this update to the classic family comedy centers on a loving (but sometimes inappropriate) father committed to co-parenting his two kids with his very-together ex-wife. While his misguided fatherly advice, unstoppable larger-than-life personality and unpredictable Internet superstardom might get in the way sometimes, for Marlon family really always does come first - even if he's the biggest kid of all. The cast features Marlon Wayans, Essence Atkins, Bresha Webb, Diallo Riddle, Notlim Taylor and Amir O'Neil.

Netflix's Alexa & Katie will return for Season 2! Alexa & Katie, Netflix's first tween sitcom, will be returning for a second season... sophomore year, here we come! Season 1 of Alexa & Katie launched on March 23 and is currently streaming on Netflix. Alexa & Katie, Netflix's first fully produced tween sitcom, is a funny and heartwarming show about two best friends eagerly anticipating the start of their freshman year of high school. Despite the fact that Alexa (Paris Berelc - Mighty Med, Lab Rats: Elite Force) is undergoing cancer treatment, her outgoing personality and enthusiasm for life never falter, especially with her loyal and awkwardly adorable best friend Katie (newcomer Isabel May) by her side. At times they're left feeling like outsiders, during a period when what seems to matter most is fitting in. Tiffani Thiessen (White Collar, Saved By The Bell) also stars as Lori, Alexa's determined and protective mother. Created and executive produced by Heather Wordham (Hannah Montana, Reba), the show's star is Alexa and Katie's friendship; whether it be at school, at home, or in the hospital, they are by each other's side through thick and thin, serving as role models for modern-day female friendships.

Welcome to SitcomsOnline Digest! It may be Saturday, but we have news this week that will make every single day a Friday night in the 90s this week. Additionally, we're hearing about a renewal for a NBC summer series and more. Let's get going!

HIGHLIGHTS FROM SITCOMSONLINE.COM AND AROUND THE WEB

Who to Follow: Elliot Gould (Twitter), "Actor. Producer. Father. Grandfather. Animal lover."

Claim to Fame: Elliot Gould is far from a new face in the entertainment world. At age 79, is an accomplished actor who has been appearing in movies for over five decades, and won many awards. So far, though, television hasn't gone well for him. He starred in the sitcom E/R, and that didn't go well. He did well with recurring roles on series including Friends and Kim Possible, but then he went back to trying being a regular again on Mulaney (which didn't last long), and even worse the CBS drama Doubt (which was canceled very quickly). But now, he is trying to find his small screen success once again in the upcoming CBS sitcom 9JKL, which debuts Monday.
Pick of the Tweets: "Hello everybody. I am really happy to take this journey on social media and to communicate with everybody out there." (January 26, 2017)

Marlon - Wednesdays at 9:00PM & 9:30PM ET/PT on NBC
Premieres Wednesday, August 16, 2017 at 9:00PM & 9:30PM ET/PT

by Skees

Marlon (Marlon Wayans) and Ashley (Essence Atkins) are a loving couple who just can't quite love each other enough to stay married, but that doesn't stop them from spending plenty of time together. That's the premise of NBC's newest comedy, Marlon, which is based upon Wayans' real life experiences of co-parenting and trying to love each other as much as two divorced people can.

Cast Details:

Marlon Wayans as Marlon

Essence Atkins as Ashley

Notlim Taylor as Marley

Amir O'Neil as Zackery 

Datillo Riddle as Stevie

Bresha Webb as Yvette

Marlon Wayans (Marlon) stars in the series, playing a character named (appropriately enough) Marlon. As one of the siblings of the well-known Wayans family, his first prominent role came in the fourth season of In Living Color, which was the last season that the Wayans family was involved in that series. He bounced back rather quickly with The Wayans Bros. on The WB, where he starred alongside brother Shawn. Along the way, he has also appeared in numerous movies, mostly parody films.

Essence Atkins (Ashley) plays Marlon's ex-wife. She is known for her roles in Smart Guy and Half & Half. Additionally, she appeared in the TBS series Are We There Yet? Her career began in the 80s with guest starring roles on series such as The Cosby Show and Family Matters.

Notlim Taylor (Marley) plays Marlon and Ashley's daughter. She has had guest roles in Real Husbands of Hollywood, Instant Mom, and black-ish.

Amir O'Neil (Zackery) plays Marlon and Ashley's son. He has appeared in the series Mann and Wife.

Diallo Riddle (Stevie) has appeared in Silicon Valley, but has spent most of his career in writing, where he has worked on Chocolate News and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Bresha Webb (Yvette) has had recurring roles in both of the truly iconic medical dramas of the past decade and a half (namely Grey's Anatomy and ER), and also starred in the series Love That Girl! She also starred in the short-lived NBC sitcom Truth Be Told.

Pilot Plot:

We have watched the first four episodes for review (the first two of which will air this week), and the plots of them are as follows.

"Pilot" (Airs August 16 at 9:00PM ET)

Marlon is trying to adjust to his life as a divorced man in the pilot (as well as adjusting to his friend Stevie, who has been living on his couch for years), where we're introduced to the entire family as well as his internet vlog.

"Cleaning Out the Closet" (Airs August 16 at 9:30PM ET)

Marlon and Ashley share a storage unit, but it has to go, and that means Marlon has to go back and take out his memories from 1997. But he finds out that letting go is much harder than anticipated.

"Boys Only Want One Thing" (Airs August 23 at 9:00PM ET)

Marlon's daughter, Marley, is bringing a boy home from school, which is very hard for him to accept. But it only becomes harder to accept when he learns that the boy looks like a grown man.

"Exes with Benefits" (Airs August 23 at 9:30PM ET)

Marlon and Ashley learn that 38% of all exes continue to have sex after they break up, and they're part of the other 62%... and now, given that they are already sharing much of their lives together anyway, they want to figure out if being part of that 38% is something that they want to do.

Analysis:

I went into this show with high expectations, as NBC had promoted it in a way to make it look like it was going to be similar to The Carmichael Show, which this show has effectively replaced. I was lukewarm on that series originally, but it very quickly grew on me to become one of my favorite sitcoms on TV. Unfortunately, this series just doesn't live up to that series at all. It's more of a standard sitcom that doesn't really delve into any controversy at all. That isn't to say that a series needs to be all about controversial topics to be good, but it has to have something, and I'm not really sure what this series has.

It does have a good cast, which sort of amazes me. How could they have taken a cast like this and used it so poorly? Marlon Wayans didn't quite stand out on In Living Color the way that his siblings did, but he did shine with his brother Shawn on The Wayans Bros. (which I never watched even once during the original run, but became a fan of through DVDs and syndication). Essence Atkins also did pretty well for herself on Smart Guy (something else worth pointing out is that I never really knew how old she was, and was surprised to learn that she was 25 years old when that series started, but playing a high school student). She was also in the TBS TV series version of Are We There Yet?, which somehow became the red-haired stepchild of the TBS comedies of that era even though it was about the only one that I truly liked. I felt like a show with a starring cast like that could carry itself along just fine, but I'm sort of reminded of another series that had an even more stellar cast, the Fox series Back to You that started Kelsey Grammar and Patricia Heaton, that fizzled very quickly. So clearly, a cast can't carry a series along.

The pilot goes really slow. I've always contended that it is hard to judge a series based solely upon the pilot, because they have this incredibly difficult job of introducing you to the characters while also trying to tell a good story, and it is hard to cram that all into one episode. But truth be told, there was really not any story of significance in the pilot other than introducing the characters.

I really don't get the whole element of Marlon's YouTube vlogging (that's video blogging for the less tech savvy) as it is in the series. They seem to want to make that a focal point of the series, all of the things that he is doing for his vlog, but nothing about the vlog seems to fit it at all with the series. It sort of reminds of Last Man Standing where Tim Allen's character Mike Baxter was forced to do the vlogs for his work, and it always seemed out of place and bizarre in that series, and even more so here.

I just don't know what this series is supposed to be about other than the co-parenting, which really does take co-parenting to a whole new level. If you didn't watching, then you would assume that Marlon and Ashley are still happily married and living together. And it actually does happen far more often than people realize that two people can be divorced and still care about each other, but this series hardly even gives you the impression that they're divorced.

Finally, one more thing that bothered me about the series is that Marlon Wayans (much like his siblings) is known for being funny. This series just sort of wasn't. There were little things that made me smile here and there, but I was disappointed that there wasn't more.

Conclusion:

I can't say that I have high hopes for this series. I made it through the first four episodes hoping to find some things to like about it, but I really didn't find a lot. It's not that the cast is a problem, it is just that I can't figure out what it is that is supposed to make me interested in the series. I've certainly been wrong about certain series before, including some that I've been skeptical about that I actually ended up liking quite well (The Carmichael Show is a great example of this, as I was unsure of it at first and it quickly became a favorite of mine), but I'm not sure what will keep this series from being cancelled after the summer run is finished. If it does find an audience and fanbase, though, I would hope that NBC would give this series a better chance than being "summer filler," because I'd hate to see this show get the same treatment that The Carmichael Show (which probably could have found a better audience had it not been an annual summer burnoff) received from the network. If there's nothing better to watch and you happen to come across this, whether live on NBC or on demand, you won't necessarily be wasting your time to give this show a chance, because there might be something that you like here. But don't get your expectations too high. 

Final Numbers (out of 5 stars):

Watchability: 3/5

Funniness: 2/5

Overall: 3/5

Discuss the show after you watch it on Wednesday, August 16, 2017 at 9:00PM & 9:30PM ET/PT on our message board.

Related Links:

NBC has announced the rollout of an ambitious summer schedule that includes the premiere of new dance competition series World of Dance with judges Jennifer Lopez, Derek Hough, NE-YO and host/mentor Jenna Dewan Tatum; the return of the #1 show of summer, America's Got Talent, with new host Tyra Banks; and the network's obstacle course sensation, American Ninja Warrior. Also joining NBC's alternative summer slate is the new series Little Big Shots: Forever Young, from the producers of the hit series Little Big Shots; the recently launched success The Wall, back on a new night; and a second season of Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge. Making their debuts on the scripted side are drama Midnight, Texas based on the New York Times best-selling book series by Charlaine Harris (author of the novels that inspired "True Blood"), and Marlon, a family sitcom loosely inspired by the real life of star Marlon Wayans. Returning for their third and fourth seasons, respectively, are critical fave sitcom The Carmichael Show and edge-of-your-seat medical drama The Night Shift. Full schedule below:

MONDAYS
Monday, May 8
10:00pm WORLD OF DANCE (through 5/22)

Monday, June 12
8:00pm – 10:00pm AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR (through 9/18)
10:00pm SPARTAN: ULTIMATE TEAM CHALLENGE (through 7/31)

Monday, August 7
10:00pm HOLLYWOOD GAME NIGHT) (through 9/18)

TUESDAYS
Tuesday, May 30
8:00pm – 10:00pm AMERICA'S GOT TALENT (through 9/19)
10:00pm WORLD OF DANCE (through 7/18)

Tuesday, July 25
10:00pm MIDNIGHT, TEXAS (through 9/19)

WEDNESDAYS
Wednesday, May 24
8:00pm LITTLE BIG SHOTS (through 6/14)
Wednesday, May 31
9:00pm THE CARMICHAEL SHOW (through 8/9)
9:30pm THE CARMICHAEL SHOW

Wednesday, June 21
8:00pm LITTLE BIG SHOTS: FOREVER YOUNG (through 8/2)

Wednesday, August 9
8:00pm AMERICA'S GOT TALENT (through 9/20)

Wednesday, August 16
9:00pm MARLON (through 9/13)
9:30pm MARLON (through 9/13)

THURSDAYS
Thursday, June 22
8:00pm THE WALL (through 8/31, except 8/3)
9:00pm THE NIGHT SHIFT (through 7/27)

Thursday, August 10
10:00pm THE NIGHT SHIFT (through 8/31)

FRIDAYS
Friday, June 2
8:00pm – 10:00pm AMERICA'S GOT TALENT (Repeat) (through 9/22)
10:00pm DATELINE NBC (through 9/22)

SATURDAYS
Saturday, May 27
8:00pm LITTLE BIG SHOTS (Repeat) (through 9/23, except 7/1, 8/19 and 9/9)
9:00pm – 11:00pm DATELINE SATURDAY NIGHT MYSTERY (through 9/23, except 7/1, 8/19 and 9/9)

SUNDAYS
Sunday, June 4
7:00pm DATELINE NBC (through 8/13)

Sunday, June 18
8:00pm THE WALL(Repeat) (through 8/13)
9:00pm – 11:00pm AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR (Repeat) (through 8/20)

Music icon Method Man and supermodel Hailey Baldwin are ready to pick up the mic as the hosts of TBS's Drop the Mic, the new comedic music series from executive producers James Corden, Ben Winston and Jensen Karp. The pair have been tapped to emcee the celebrity battle rap competition based on the enormously popular segment from the Emmy®-winning series The Late Late Show with James Corden. Drop the Mic, which is also co-executive-produced by Ed Thomas, will launch on Turner's TBS on Tuesday, May 2, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT). The series is produced for TBS by CBS Television Studios and Fulwell 73. Drop the Mic will pit four stars from the worlds of entertainment, music, sports and pop culture against each other in a rap battle royale packed with "I can't believe they just said that" moments. At the end of each head-to-head battle, the studio audience will vote to pick the winner.