The premise for this show was perfect for our times. Spoofing the "self-improvement motivational guru" phenomena could have run at least a second season if it'd been done right, until we as a society had moved on to something else.
However, writers hit and miss (nobody's perfect) and the final product here was a definite miss.
It'd have been nice to see Bob Paterson actually do a seminar or speak at a corporate sales meeting or weight-loss clinic or MLM gathering...it'd have been nice to hear how they spoof the blurb. The promotional work for this sitcom was heading in this better direction ("the only thing standing between you and your dreams is you...and your dreams").
It'd have been nice to see this Bob Paterson as a character with an air of invincibility, one who can't hear how silly he is, while he takes his work far too seriously. It'd have been nice to see him running his business successfully, but we the audience sit back and see the humor in the guru industry as a whole. It'd have been nice to see fresh intelligent insightful humor that didn't insult the audience's intelligence, rather than a bunch of bumblers standing around waiting for the setup to drop their tired cookie-cutter one-liners. With a legacy of such mature sitcomes as Seinfeld and Frazier (mature for their subtle plots, subtle body language, subtle dialogue that is funny without telling jokes or one-liners), Bob Paterson was poised to connect with a mature audience ready to laugh at good material.
Alas, all we got was a self-doubting, insecure high school student in an adult's body, a transplanted George Costanza, and poor cliched attempts at set-up one-liners that were just not funny.
It's too bad, it coulda, woulda, shoulda been great, but it wasn't, not at all.
However, writers hit and miss (nobody's perfect) and the final product here was a definite miss.
It'd have been nice to see Bob Paterson actually do a seminar or speak at a corporate sales meeting or weight-loss clinic or MLM gathering...it'd have been nice to hear how they spoof the blurb. The promotional work for this sitcom was heading in this better direction ("the only thing standing between you and your dreams is you...and your dreams").
It'd have been nice to see this Bob Paterson as a character with an air of invincibility, one who can't hear how silly he is, while he takes his work far too seriously. It'd have been nice to see him running his business successfully, but we the audience sit back and see the humor in the guru industry as a whole. It'd have been nice to see fresh intelligent insightful humor that didn't insult the audience's intelligence, rather than a bunch of bumblers standing around waiting for the setup to drop their tired cookie-cutter one-liners. With a legacy of such mature sitcomes as Seinfeld and Frazier (mature for their subtle plots, subtle body language, subtle dialogue that is funny without telling jokes or one-liners), Bob Paterson was poised to connect with a mature audience ready to laugh at good material.
Alas, all we got was a self-doubting, insecure high school student in an adult's body, a transplanted George Costanza, and poor cliched attempts at set-up one-liners that were just not funny.
It's too bad, it coulda, woulda, shoulda been great, but it wasn't, not at all.