On Wednesdays, I take a look at a show that lasted one season or less. This week, I am looking at 1993's The Trouble with Larry!
THE TROUBLE WITH LARRY
August 25, 1993 - September 8, 1993
3 episodes
CBS
3 episodes
CBS
Starring: Bronson Pinchot, Courteney Cox, Alex McKenna, with Perry King and Shanna Reed
Created by: Andrew Nicholls & Darrell Vickers
Plot: Larry Burton (Pinchot) has been presumed dead for a decade when he returns home to Syracuse to his wife, Sally (Reed). Sally is re-married to Boyd (King) and has a daughter, Lindsay (McKenna). Larry falls for Sally's sister, Gabriella (Cox).
Well, this pilot got off on a rough start. The first scene was set on a boat and sets up the exposition that Larry has been missing for a decade. It was a unique way to start a TV show but there were seven, yes seven, fat jokes in the first two minutes and ten seconds. Once it got back to Syracuse, the fat jokes stopped but the episode didn't get any better. I think the show severely underplayed Larry coming back after so long away. Courteney Cox barely had a reaction at all when she realized the situation which certainly called for more incredulity. The moment was at least played for laughs when the rest of the characters saw him for the first time but that was ruined by a horrifically unfunny fainting moment from Perry King.
It's too bad the writing is so bad and some of the cast is just as terrible because there are two strong sitcom performers, one who had success before this show and one after. Bronson Pinchot has a ton of charisma and proved he can still nail comedic timing with a lot of his lines and deliveries even when he's not doing his famous Balki persona from Perfect Strangers. He is easily the best part of the pilot and does the most with the poor material he is given though he is left to run rampant towards the end of the pilot and it's a little too much. Courteney Cox showed some nice comedic timing. Despite the underplaying in the first scene, she had a natural comedic rhythm for the rest of the pilot. This genre is often reserved for dramas (long last family member returning) and it absolutely could work as a premise for a comedy, but it didn't work here.
The Trouble with Larry was Bronson Pinchot's return to TV shortly after Perfect Strangers had ended following an eight season run. Pinchot became the breakout star of Strangers and was even nominated for an Emmy for the role. CBS saw this as a worthy bet especially since the creators had been head writers on The Tonight Show for four years. However, the reviews were not kind for Larry with the Baltimore Sun asking "how did this sitcom (using the word in its most expansive sense) ever make it on the CBS fall schedule?" and the Buffalo News saying "the word 'contrived" was invented for show like 'Trouble.'" Variety was kinder with praise for Pinchot specifically.
The Trouble with Larry was planned to be part of revamped Wednesday that started with three brand new shows. After Larry would be The Nanny and then drama South of Sunset. CBS premiered Larry early as it launched on August 25, several weeks before the official start to the fall season. It was paired with a new summer sitcom called Tall Hopes, a family comedy starring comedian George Wallace. CBS's plan to give Larry a head start on the fall backfired spectacularly when the ratings came in and they were so bad that CBS became concerned about it leading into their other new shows. So they cancelled it after just three episodes and before the other shows even launched. Bronson Pinchot returned to CBS in 1997 with Meego which lasted a little longer but was still a one season show. And of course Courteney Cox found superstardom just a year later with the launch of Friends. Meanwhile, the creators had another fall show on CBS: It Had to Be You, which lasted just one episode longer than Larry in a really bad fall for them.
Tomorrow: A look at Season Seven (Part 2) of Perfect Strangers!
Next Wednesday: A One Season Wonder look at The Sinbad Show!
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