Calling a spade a spade

Occasionally, I can see why new TV shows wedged between popular shows attract viewers. Since I actively care about half of Fox's Sunday night lineup, inertia will occasionally prevail, and I'll watch the filler in between. Right now, that consists of Fox's new Oliver Beene and, as of this past week, The Pitts.

Beene is quite obviously the result of putting Malcolm in the Middle, The Wonder Years, and a 60s variant of That 70s Show in a blender. As such, it hasn't quite found it's own voice yet, and I'm almost willing to give it some time to figure itself out.

That's not what I want to talk about, though. The previews for The Pitts made it look, well, excessivly stupid and not very funny. But it's coming from Mike Scully of The Simpsons, so I figured I'd give it a shot, particularly because I was in no condition to move from my couch on Sunday night. Put simply, there is nothing even remotely redeeming about this show. The Pitts is, duh, the pits. I had an inkling that, with the Simpsons pedigree, there might be some other level to it, like it was deliberately taking sitcom conventions to absurd extremes, including quite possibly the most unbearable laugh track in the history of television. Heck, maybe the whole thing is an April Fools prank, putting the crappiest show imaginable on just to see how many people won't turn it off. Except I see no evidence of that. No hints of it in interviews, no nothing. Someone actually seems to think this is a good idea. Moreover, they think it's a better idea than Andy Richter Controls The Universe, which is downright insulting.