Chicken Soup for Nobody’s Soul
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Nothing could possibly explain tonight’s disastrous debut of “Father of the Pride” on NBC except perhaps the kooky kinship between two short, bald guys named Jeff – Jeffrey Katzenberg (the Dreamworks executive who helped create it) and Jeffrey Zucker, the NBC executive who put it on the air. Mr. Katzenberg, whose office is down the hall from Steven Spielberg, ought to know better than to foist a series so annoyingly unentertaining on the television audience. NBC, which hasn’t had a comedy smash hit since the debut of “Friends,” continues its streak of failures here with a series that offers no hope of entertaining anyone. I defy
Steven Spielberg (or any of his children, to whom the show may or may not be aimed) to happily sit through more than one episode.
The idea behind “Father of the Pride” was to capitalize on the huge success of “Shrek” by trotting out its animation technique for a half-hour series. In a cruelly ironic twist, the show’s characters and setting – the animals that participate in Siegfried & Roy’s Las Vegas show – turned macabre: Roy got mauled by a tiger and landed in a coma. Inexplicably, NBC concluded that to continue with “Father of the Pride” signified no lapse in taste; it stayed in production, while NBC promoted the show as its biggest hope for the fall season. Now it has turned up on Tuesday night at 9:30, a time slot Mr. Zucker has failed to compete in for several years, and will not with this.
The series centers around Larry and Kate, a lion couple voiced by John Goodman and Cheryl Hines, two gifted comedy performers who can’t elevate the sorry dialogue (or animation, for that matter) – and who seem miserably stuck in stories better suited to bad sitcoms from the 1980s. In tonight’s episode, the first to air – “What’s Black and White and Depressed All Over?” – Larry and Kate attempt to interfere with the romantic entanglements of two pandas (voiced by Andy Richter and Lisa Kudrow, also sounding sorry to be here) brought together by their trainer to mate. It’s filled to overflowing with the double entendres and sex jokes that fill bad, star-driven comedies like “According to Jim” and “Two and a Half Men.” I watched the show with my 9-year-old daughter, who asked me at one point, “Who is this supposed to be for?” The answer is no one.
John Goodman must have some big bills to pay. This terrific actor has another terrible sitcom ready to launch in September: “Center of the Universe” on CBS. It’s sad to see the decline of the man who brought so much to his role as Dan, Roseanne’s husband on “Roseanne,” both in his choice of roles and his enormous weight gain. (Even John Goodman’s animated characters look like they’re about to have a heart attack.) Here Mr. Goodman confines himself to an excessively narrow range; I wanted to hear more growling from his lion, more king-of-the-forest type stuff. But I suppose he was stymied by Cheryl Holliday’s hackneyed script; it didn’t do much for Cheryl Hines, famous for bringing so much original humor to her role as Larry David’s wife on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Here there’s no joy in the recognition of her voice; it turns out there’s little worse than listening to a lioness whine.
How is the sitcom supposed to get better when so many millions get wasted like this? It’s sad when men like Mr. Katzenberg – who’s been behind so many game-changing movies, including “The Lion King,” an animation classic – resort to repetitive imagery and stale ideas in their desperate pursuit of syndication billions.
It’s obvious they weren’t doing “Father of the Pride” for their children. The crude sexual references sailed blissfully over my daughter’s head, but older kids will get them and groan. I don’t get it; what’s the point of doing an animated show with dialogue (and a time slot) that rules out the elementary-school audience? I’m no genius programmer like Jeff Zucker, but that just doesn’t make sense. The appeal of classic animated series like “South Park” and “The Simpsons” is that they reach adults and children in equal measure. They’re shows families can – and should – watch together. If nothing else, “Father of the Pride” may at least cause families to turn off the television set and talk to each other. If that happens, then maybe it’s not a total failure.
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On Monday night, I happened to catch “The Succubus,” a third-season episode of “South Park,” and it could have made anyone laugh. It was written and directed by the show’s co-creator Trey Parker, and dealt with the always lurking possibility that our girlfriends and wives have been sent by the devil to suck the life out of us. The succubus is defeated by the children who want to get Chef away from his girlfriend, and to do so must sing “The Morning After” backwards. I know I’m eight seasons late to the party, but in case you are, too – hey, “South Park” is worth watching!