Animal Practice

[BillBrasky]

Hey, I'm on a roll here, why not.

Meet Dr. George Coleman (Justin Kirk, "Weeds"), a top-dog New York veterinarian. With an unorthodox style of operating, George's success comes from his undeniable gift with animals of all kinds. That is, all but the human kind. Dorothy Crane once held the key to George's heart, but today she also holds the key to the family business as she takes over Crane Animal Hospital. Not only is she George's new boss, but her romantic history with him and her lack of experience with animals is seriously cramping his style. Dorothy is whip-smart and ambitious, and she's going to make George pay for the past. Needless to say, he's determined not to make any changes in his (animal) kingdom - which includes poker games with a resident capuchin monkey. Also starring are Tyler Labine ("Reaper," "Sons of Tucson") as Dr. Doug Jackson, a vet who's great with animals but hapless in matters of the heart, Bobby Lee ("Harold & Kumar") as Dr. Yamamoto, and newcomer Betsy Sodaro as Angela. "Animal Practice" is a production of Universal Television and American Work Inc. The executive producers are Scot Armstrong ("The Hangover Part II," "Old School") and Ravi Nandan ("Best Friends Forever") of American Work Inc. ("Best Friends Forever") along with Emmy Award winners Joe & Anthony Russo ("Community," "Arrested Development"). "Animal Practice" was written by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka ("The Sitter"), who also serve as executive producers. Directed by the Emmy-winning Russo brothers, "Animal Practice" is a comedy where the animals are running the asylum.

[mueXog]

Looking forward to checking this out the most of NBC's new comedies I think, especially with the Russos and Armstrong involved.

Hopefully this can break the Tyler Labine curse!

[beewcar]

Will Labine's character contract a virus from a chimp that ultimately leads to the downfall of humanity and the rise of a certain planet of simians?

[mueXog]

Another good sign for this, Gail Lerner (who wrote a lot of good episodes of "Happy Endings") was just hired as the showrunner on this.

[beewcar]

also....Annie's Boobs?

[bradfordevans]

Betsy Sodaro's in this too. She's a UCB LA performer who's really goddamned funny.

[BillBrasky]

Here's the official full trailer for the show:

[BillBrasky]

There is a sneak preview of this tonight at 10:30 on NBC (The series officially premieres on September 26th).

[thecomedian]

I watched the pilot tonight. Looks promising. I laughed a bit, too.

[BillBrasky]

I liked it! I kind of liked that the lead character is not really likeable or even traditionally friendly like most characters on TV; he's kind of a dick and there is something really interesting in Justin Kirk's line readings and facial expressions. He's almost like a Groucho Marx kind of character, subtly insulting people in conversation without them realizing it. The show is a nice mixture of realistic and not at all realistic elements, reminiscent of "Community", which makes sense because the Russo brothers directed the pilot. I guess it makes sense that this is going on Wednesday nights with "Guys with Kids", since it's more of a family-oriented show with the monkey and all, but just like with "Green Acres" there seems to be humor here that adults can enjoy too, along with the silliness with animals.

[misscritta]

I wasn't going to watch this until I saw that photo of a monkey playing cards. Bring it.

[mueXog]

I enjoyed it too. I thought everyone was really funny, Tyler Labine and Betsy Sodaro were the stand-outs for me. A lot of reviews I read were a bit harsh I thought, it sounds like most of these people were going into the show hating it before they even watched it. I'll definitely be giving this I chance, plus I enjoy the work a lot of the people behind the show have done (Russos, Gail Lerner, Scot Armstrong, etc) , so I think thats also a good sign.

Similar to the Happy Endings writers @happywrites twitter, the Animal Practice writers have also created a twitter page: https://twitter.com/AniPractWriters

[thecomedian]

One friend of mine bashed it on Twitter but I digress. I'm going to keep watching for sure.

[JDiddy]

I liked it. I've always been a fan of Justin Kirk. He was pretty much the only good thing going for the later seasons of Weeds. I also like that his character is kind of a dick, and he pulls it off very well as usual. I hope the show catches on and the ratings were pretty solid (over 12 million viewers). That is of course with the Olympic lead-in so it certainly won't sustain that, but if they get half that for the actual premiere that's solid for NBC's standards.

[aenemaTron]

All's I give shits about is Tyler Labine and when he's going to become honorary or elected king of all greatness (nexflix/hulu/steal Reaper and Tucker and Dale vs Evil). Kirk reminds me of a young Odenkirk, face-wise, and I liked him on Weeds, a show I didn't like much except for the theme song. I did not watch the sneak preview, it was too sneaky.

[smartbunny]

He looks exactly like Bobby O in the promo pics.

[misscritta]

I can't pay attention because THAT MONKEY IS WEARING TINY SCRUB PANTS AND A LAB COAT.

[mueXog]

Marco Pennette (Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives) is replacing Gail Lerner as the new showrunner.

A bit strange they're already changing showrunners after only filming a few episodes. Too bad for Gail Lerner, on the bright side, maybe she'll return to Happy Endings now?

[BillBrasky]

I kind of liked that the lead character is not really likeable or even traditionally friendly like most characters on TV; he's kind of a dick and there is something really interesting in Justin Kirk's line readings and facial expressions..... The show is a nice mixture of realistic and not at all realistic elements, reminiscent of "Community", which makes sense because the Russo brothers directed the pilot.

Hey, in the newest episode of Comedy Bang Bang Scott says almost this exact same thing!
Jinx!

[mueXog]

And now another reason to look forward to this:

June Diane Raphael (NTSF, How Did This Get Made) is going to have recurring role on the show.