 Ladies Man (CBS) And finally, there's Ladies Man, in which a dumpy, unassuming guy with no apparent means of income has divorced his non-attractive first wife to marry a sexy new one. They must be paying Alfred Molina a lot of money, or he must be in a serious slump, because those are the only two reasons that would explain why an excellent British actor (well, an excellent, unrecognizable British character actor) would ever find himself in a completely pointless sitcom about a "regular guy" who has to deal with all the "crazy women" in his life. Ladies Man would be more appropriate material for an unwelcome Jackie Mason comeback, or a vehicle for Faceless Standup Comic #3,124. But not Alfred Molina, Sweet Jesus! Not the Alfred Molina I know! (For those still scratching their heads, Molina was the guy who stole the idol from Indy in the beginning of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, and can also be seen as the crazy underwear-dancing drug dealer in Indiana Jones and the Boogie Nights. Molina (as the stupidly-named Jimmy Stiles) has fathered two daughters in a previous marriage, and as the series begins is about to father another one with his sexy new wife (lovely Sharon Lawrence, who has somehow now been demoted from Dennis Franz on the TV love chain ). He's contending with his new wife, his ex-wife (irritating Park Overall) and their semi-delinquent (and promisingly jailbait-ish) daughter (plus precocious andnerdy younger daughter) , and dealing with the two mothers-in-law (charming Betty White and vainglorious Dixie Carter) … meanwhile, fearing that the new baby will also be female. The running gag is that Jimmy hates women, and basically all the jokes revolve around this. The two grandmothers bicker and compete constantly, and some of the most humorous lines occur when this is going on. Other plotlines wind in and out, such as one that sees the older daughter caught shoplifting, which leads her mother to want her to live with Jimmy. This leads to a misunderstanding in which it's thought Jimmy doesn't want her. As a matter of fact, most of this episode just serves to establish that Jimmy is a complete ass and an utter moron. What's most amazing about this show is that the producers have assembled an excellent sitcom cast all around – to waste their collective talent on one of the most derivative variants on the family-oriented sitcom ever made. The only character to get an even remotely funny line is Stephen Root (formerly Jimmy James from Newsradio), who wishes he were man enough to "lie in a field and stroke a man like a pussycat." Not even Betty White, who always hits the mark, can salvage her bland bitter put-downs to Dixie Carter (who, I might add, is getting quite rich off CBS this season, what with Ladies Man AND Family Law). The best I can offer in terms of praise is that 90% of the cast (older jailbait daughter excluded) has excellent comic timing and a lot of mis-placed enthusiasm. But they'd all have been better off putting that comic timing and enthusiasm toward various hilarious rejections of their offers to join the cast. The only thing that could save this show now is changing the name to Indiana Jones and the Ladies Man.
Review by Mario Speedwagon & Crimedog © 1999 |