Father of the Pride: NBC's Attempt to Create The Simpsons

Published on September 21, 2004 By joeKnowledge In TV Shows

I didn't watch the show so I guess this is a late post considering its 9/21 2004 and the show aired Aug 31.

Straight from MSN TV

"Father of the Pride"
NBC, Tuesday 9 p.m. ET/PT
Premieres Aug. 31

NBC takes an ambitious leap into computer-generated animation with this series from DreamWorks, currently flexing its CGI muscle with "Shrek 2." This small screen comedy captures the domestic travails of a family of white tigers featured in Siegfried and Roy's Las Vegas animal act, with the comic themes reportedly aimed at grown-ups, not kids. Voice talent features John Goodman, Cheryl Hines and TV comedy veteran Carl Reiner.

Comments

bakerstreet

on Sep 21, 2004

To me it is a marketing expert's idea of a media executive's idea of what the average consumer wants. There's a gloss to efforts like this, and that gloss is *exactly* what most people who like the simpson's despise.

Instead of slipping into fame-mongering and then making fun of themselves, like the Simpson's did time and again, this is shamelessly starting out with that kind of hype. It is hard to put into words, but when I see the previews I am immediately seized with the same sick feeling I get from all the Lion King clones and every other "make the action figures and Happy Meal toys before the movie comes out" thing.

The world is sick of the whole "With voices by Robin Williams and a score by Randy Newman/Phil Collins" thing *gag*. I have been surprised by such before. Finding Nemo was a pleasant surprise, not, I think, because there was much heart in it but because it had a decent backbone beneath all the gilding.

In short, I'm dubious...

historyishere

on Sep 21, 2004

Bakerstreet, have you watched the show though?

joeKnowledge

on Sep 29, 2004

I probably won't watch it this week either. I just remembered a few minutes ago.

Gene Nash

on Sep 29, 2004

It's a decent enough show, but I'd be surprised if it lasted long. It doesn't help that it has a horrible lead in from the unfortunate 3rd incarnation of Last Comic Standing. That situation that will only get worse with NBC's next reality show poised to slip into that slot: a competition between two teams of extremely obese people where the one who loses the most weight wins. I'm not kidding. The show after it, Scrubs, may well be the worst show on television.

Father of the Pride has more laughs than most sitcoms I see -- including Joey and Will and Grace. I'm surprised by what pompous, self-important boobs they make Sig and Roy out to be. They bicker like an old married couple minus the affection. So far they have side-stepped the whole gay issue. Last week Siegfried slept with an old woman! Though Barbra Streisand showed up this week, Roy had more than a gay man's interest in her; he seemed to be secretly hoping she wanted him. Hmm....

Maybe that's one of the problems with the show, though. I find the subplots with R&R more entertaining than the main stories with the animals. Another problem is, as Baker mentioned, it is overly polished. Comedy shouldn't be that clean and spit-shined. On a strictly aesthetic note, I've never cared for the style of voice recording where the actors are never in the same room with each other. I find it lifeless. There's a magic, realism, and immediacy that comes from the interaction of actors brushing up against each other in the same room. The blandness of people reacting to no-one, reading their lines without input before or after that comes off as bland. Unfortunately that blandness permeates the show.

So, it has its moments, but enough to make it a hit.

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