Someone once described "The Osbournes" as "The Munsters" in rehab. This is unfair to the Munsters, who underneath their monstrous facades were quite normal, almost wholesome (after all, "The Munsters" had the same producers as "Leave It To Beaver.") The Addams Family were truly deranged, which makes them perhaps a more apt comparison. I enjoyed this show at first, mainly because I thought it was all a put on; nobody, I thought, could really be that stupid. Then Ozzy had his near-fatal ATV accident and it stopped being funny. Evidently there really are people that stupid. I must admit I admire Sharon Osbourne, a plain-speaking matriarch who proves the adage that behind every great man stands a good woman. It's largely thanks to her guidance that Ozzy has maintained his credibility with the younger generation despite being one of the founding fathers of heavy metal. He was playing with Black Sabbath back in 1969, when Richard Nixon was president, the Mets won their first world series and Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. The nice thing about "The Osbournes" was that you could enjoy it without being a fan of Ozzy or heavy metal. It's hard to reconcile the kindly if stupefied grandfatherly figure (who always makes me think of Benjamin Franklin) with the ghoul who used to bite the heads off of live birds. The kids were the real stars, especially Kelly, but they've had their fifteen minutes of fame and I doubt they'll have a very long shelf life. Still, it was fun while it lasted.
Review of The Osbournes
