Worst Week

CBS pilot airing Mondays at 9:30pm.

Oh, where to begin... okay, first, I'll say that, wow, CBS doing a single-camera sitcom. Second... please, stick with your multi-cams.

Worst Week, or the pilot anyway, is about a hapless man named Sam (Kyle Bornheimer) visiting his girlfriend/almost-fiancée's parents' house (Erinn Hayes in a bland role), a place he apparently burnt down (at least some of it) the last time he visited. Think Meet The Parents, but as a weekly TV show (and not quite so charming... yes, MTP more charming than something, I know right). It tries very hard to be funny and I won't get into the shenanigans (all of which seemingly would be solved if Sam grew either a pair of balls or a brain), but I think the show ought to have tried to be Everybody Loves Raymond. The parents, Kurtwood Smith and Nancy Lenehan had potential to be the lovingly overbearing and bothersome parents like Frank and Marie Barone (Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts). Instead... it's about Sam being a screw-up. Which is a shame, because TV is really lacking a traditional family sitcom. It remains to be seen, of course, if future weeks are as crude and unfunny as this pilot, and how they incorporate the parents into it. But will Two and a Half Men viewers stick around for this? I have my doubts.

Next: FOX's "Fringe"