the loud bassoon guide to television: the mike o'malley show

The Mike O'Malley Show (NBC)
1999

The Mike O'Malley Show was the funniest comedy to premiere in years, consistently delivering with hearty belly laughs, misunterstood by the critics and not given a chance with the public! Had it remained on the air, it would quickly eclipsed Seinfeld and Friends to usher in a bold new comedic era! The world is a worse place for the failure of The Mike O'Malley Show!

If anyone says any of these things about The Mike O'Malley Show, then his name is probably Mike O'Malley.

The premise was one we've seen done better a billion times before: Loser bachelor ("Mike O'Malley," played by Mike O'Malley) with quirky friends stumbles through life, learning from his failures, and teaching us valuable life lessons along the way.

SEEN IT! As had everyone else, apparently … it was yanked after two weeks.

I watched patiently through the whole thing, waiting to have a good laugh, or a gleeful titter, or even a slight chuckle. They never came. I think the most I mustered up was a wan smile. There just weren't any really good jokes, or at the very least, there weren't any jokes delivered well enough to coax a laugh out of me.

Don't get me wrong, it was by no means a God-awful show. The cast and writing were adequate, but that was the central problem. The whole show smacked of adequacy. Perhaps if they'd show'd even the slightest effort or imagination, such as naming the lead character something other than the actor's actual name, this might have lasted.