The Neighbors

[BillBrasky]

From ABC press release:

How well do you know your neighbors? Meet The Weavers: Debbie (Jami Gertz) and Marty (Lenny Venito). Marty, in hopes of providing a better life for his wife and three kids, recently bought a home in "Hidden Hills," a gated New Jersey townhome community with its own golf course. Hidden Hills is so exclusive that a house hasn't come on the market in 10 years. But one finally did... and the Weavers got it! It's clear from day one that the residents of Hidden Hills are a little... different. For starters, their new neighbors all have pro-athlete names like Larry Bird, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Reggie Jackson, and Dick Butkus. Over dinner, Marty and his family discover that their neighbors receive nourishment through their eyes and mind by reading books, rather than eating. The Weavers soon learn that the entire community is comprised of aliens from Zabvron, where the men bear children and everyone cries green goo... from their ears. The Zabvronians have been stationed on Earth for the past 10 years, disguised as humans, awaiting instructions from home, and the Weavers are the first humans they've had the opportunity to know. As it turns out, the pressures of marriage and parenthood are not exclusive to planet Earth. Two worlds will collide with hilarious consequences as everyone discovers they can "totally relate," and learn a lot from each other. Dan Fogelman (the writer of Cars, Tangled, and Crazy, Stupid, Love), Director Chris Koch (Workaholics, Modern Family), Jeff Morton (Modern Family) and Aaron Kaplan (GCB, Terra Nova) executive produce this new comedy about close encounters of the 3rd kind, in New Jersey.

PRINCIPAL CAST INFORMATION:
· Clara Mamet as Amber Weaver (Hey, how many daughters does David Mamet have, anyway?)
· Ian Patrick as Lennox Lewis
· Isabella Cramp as Abby Weaver
· Jami Gertz as Debbie Weaver
· Lenny Venito as Marty Weaver
· Max Charles as Max Weaver
· Simon Templeman as Wilt Chamberlain
· Tim Jo as Joe Montana
· Toks Olagundoye as Jackie Joyner-Kersee

CREW INFORMATION:
· Aaron Kaplan as EP
· Chris Koch as EP/DIR (Pilot)
· Dan Fogelman as CRTR/EP
· Jeff Morton as EP/LP

Well, this show sounds a little derivative, of the Coneheads sketches from SNL, and "Third Rock From the Sun", of course, but it's been a while since there's been a show this wacky and high concept on network TV. It sounds like it could almost be a kid's show.

I guess this is probably going to go on Wednesday nights, along with "The Middle", "Suburgatory" and "Modern Family", seems like it will fit in well there. I'm guessing "Happy Endings" and "Don't Trust the B---" will be moving to another night, maybe Tuesday night.
That still leaves ABC with 3 other sitcoms to schedule, two of them single-camera, one multi-camera.

[mueXog]

I guess this is probably going to go on Wednesday nights, along with "The Middle", "Suburgatory" and "Modern Family", seems like it will fit in well there. I'm guessing "Happy Endings" and "Don't Trust the B---" will be moving to another night, maybe Tuesday night.
That still leaves ABC with 3 other sitcoms to schedule, two of them single-camera, one multi-camera.

Wasn't there some talk that ABC might bring back their "TGIF" sitcom block on Fridays, probably making a grouping of their more family-friendly generic stuff that comedy nerds have no interest in, probably pairing that Tim Allen show with the Reba McEntire multi-cam show and whatever that Sarah Chalke/Brad Garrett thing is.

[BillBrasky]

[winnie4theTOUchDowN]

This sounds like it's either going to be completely unwatchable or totally amazing. It could go either way really.

[aenemaTron]

Way to stick your neck out.

It looks like I hate it.

[pixel revolt]

My favorite part was the title card & music awkwardly lingering a second too long at the end.

[Harpsichord]

I'll kill myself if this pile of shit gets past episode 4.

[BillBrasky]

Hey, I forgot about this show! It was even on ABC, it was a TGIF show back in 1996. I guess what goes around comes around.

http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Aliens_in_the_Family

[mueXog]

Looks like ABC is changing their mind about giving this show the post-MF spot.

ABC suddenly decides to swap "Suburgatory" and "The Neighbors" timeslots

[kevin]

my mansion sitting on 40 acres. who da neighbors? kobe bryant from the lakers. now that's paper.

[BillBrasky]

The Futon Critic's first look at this show

What did I just watch? "I don't get it" may be the understatement of the year after watching this one as I literally needed a few minutes to compose my thoughts, not to mention find someone else who'd seen it to ask if I just imagined the last 22 minutes and change. A bouillabaisse of "The Stepford Wives," 1940s doo-wop, "Men in Black"-esque production design, the least funny parts of "3rd Rock from the Sun," technobabble that would make "Star Trek: Voyager" blush and a generally cringe-inducing tone, "The Neighbors" is either a curve ball so far out of my comfort zone I'm completely bewildered or a complete disaster in the making. Much like last season's "Work It," there's the prevailing sense it's the latter but it's not inconceivable others will feel differently.

[BillBrasky]

This show premieres tonight and I keep reading conflicting things about it. Some reviews just say it's awful while other places like Entertainment Weekly seem to indicate there is potential there. EW has a long article about it in this week's issue where the show's creator Dan Fogelman (screenwriter of "Crazy, Stupid, Love", weirdly enough) tries to defend the show by saying that there really haven't been too many successful comedy shows dealing with aliens so it's time for another one. He points out that there have really been 4, "My Favorite Martian" in the '60s, "Mork & Mindy" in the '70s (carrying over into the '80s a little bit), "ALF" in the '80s, and "Third Rock from the Sun" in the '90s. Thinking about it, he's right. I'm all for shows being different, it just doesn't seem like there are really a lot of places they can go with this premise. I'll watch tonight with an open mind but this doesn't seem like a show that's going to be around for very long.

[BillBrasky]

The pilot was fine for a pilot but I really don't see where they're going to go with this for an entire series. I think jokes about the alien father being the one who gets pregnant or the aliens crying green goo from their ears are going to get really old quickly. The aliens don't seem to be weird in an entertaining or fun way, they're just weird. In Third Rock From the Sun you had really funny comedic actors like John Lithgow and Jane Curtain breathing life into the material, whereas the acting on this show across the board is pretty bad.

The actress who plays "Jackie Joynee-Kersee" is half Norwegian and half Nigerian, like Richard Ayoade. I wonder if they're the only two actors in the world who fall into this category.

[thecomedian]

So it's a good thing I passed on watching this one?

[BillBrasky]

The Neighbors received a full season order for 22 episodes

I'm not really sure what to make of this show. It's not really actively BAD, I don't hate sitting through it but I can't really say it's good either. It's just kind of...there. I guess it's good enough to go between "The Middle" and "Modern Family" but I can't really say I look forward to it every week either.
I think there's a lot more potential there in the premise that they're not really taking advantage of.