Sitcom Review Roundup: Do New Comedies Happy’s Place and Poppa’s House Bring the Laughs?
Sitcoms are back! Well, not really. But NBC and CBS are partying like it’s 1994 this fall and rolling out a pair of old-fashioned situation comedies that would’ve fit right in on a primetime schedule three decades ago: NBC’s Happy’s Place (premiering Friday at 8/7c), starring Reba McEntire; and CBS’ Poppa’s House (premiering Monday at 8:30 pm), pairing up Damon Wayans with his son Damon Wayans Jr. Both shows feature seasoned sitcom veterans cracking jokes in multi-cam yukfests… but unfortunately, both seem to be sorely lacking in the laughs department.
Happy’s Place reunites McEntire with her Reba co-star Melissa Peterman and executive producer Kevin Abbott, so fans of that show should feel right at home. Here, Reba plays Bobbie, a Tennessee bar owner whose beloved father just passed away. She learns to her horror, though, that dear old dad had another secret family — and that she has a much younger half-sister, Isabella (Belissa Escobedo), who now owns half the bar along with her. (The twist is a direct lift from Reba, where she learned in the pilot that her husband cheated on her with Peterman’s character.) They’re joined by Peterman as clueless bartender Gabby, Rex Linn as stoic chef Emmett, Pablo Castelblanco as finicky accountant Steve and Tokala Black Elk as cheerful handyman Takoda.
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Happy’s Place is a real throwback: It takes place almost entirely inside the bar, like Cheers used to in the good old days, and it plays to the back row with loud, broad punchlines, mostly centered around Bobbie and Isabella’s vast generational divide. (“Somebody’s been ghost-lighting you!” Bobbie tells her. “That’s what you kids say!”) But the punchlines mostly fall flat, and the story turns soppy and sentimental when it touches on the indiscretions of Bobbie’s late father. Peterman, though, is a saving grace, able to turn even a tired joke into a laugh, and her well-honed comedic chemistry with McEntire definitely shines through here. The problem is Escobedo’s Isabella: She’s annoyingly self-righteous and not particularly likable, making her an awkward fit with the rest of the cast. By cramming a Gen Z worldview into a pre-Y2K sitcom format, Happy’s Place is trying to straddle two eras… and is all the more shaky because of it.
Speaking of shaky foundations: Poppa’s House clearly exists to get Wayans and Wayans Jr., both gifted comedians in their own right, on screen together… but it has to bend over backwards to justify why these two characters would be sharing a scene. They’re stuck in two totally unrelated storylines, neither of which really work. Poppa (played by the senior Wayans) is a stubbornly old-school radio DJ who is forced to pair up with a new co-host: Dr. Ivy Reed (Essence Atkins), a psychologist who calls him out on his macho insecurities. Junior (played by Wayans Jr.), meanwhile, is a foam roller salesman who still harbors dreams of becoming a big-time film director, but has to keep both his wife Nina (Tetona Jackson) and his father-in-law and boss JJ (Geoffrey Owens) happy.
Poppa’s House is hampered by hacky punchlines that should come with a rimshot from a live drummer, including dumb running jokes about Nina’s short stature and Poppa’s small head. But the low point is its treatment of its female characters, who are painted as irritating, know-it-all nags who just get in the way of a good time. Atkins and Jackson are left adrift, watching disapprovingly while Poppa and Junior have all the fun. The show even resorts to running bloopers at the end of each episode — the ultimate sign of desperation. It does manage to find a few laughs when Wayans and Wayans Jr. are just riffing and one-upping each other; in fact, I’d rather watch Senior and Junior cutting it up off-camera. Instead, we’re left with lots of silly voices, a few crude Neanderthal views… and not a lot of substance.
Of the two new comedies, Happy’s Place has more potential to grow into a consistently funny show, thanks almost entirely to Peterman’s infectiously goofy performance. But both of these shows are hopelessly retro — in all the wrong ways.
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