After a slew of cancellations, renewals, and announcements, we have the landscape of what TV lineups will look like for the 2014 fall and 2015 spring seasons. Community fans mourned, Parks and Recreation fans rejoiced, and Boston sitcom lovers? Prepare to groan. No, these two new TV shows set in Boston are luckily not reality shows (and, for the record, they’re not produced by Mark Wahlberg or premiering on A&E), but they’re set to be just as stereotype-ridden and cringe inducing as Southie Rules and Wicked Single before them.
Boston, meet Buzzy’s and The McCarthys, the two new Boston-set sitcoms premiering on TBS and CBS, respectively, this fall.
Let’s start with Buzzy’s. Right off the bat, we can’t expect much, seeing as it’s an original TBS series and stars Ashley Tisdale. Sorry, Ashley – only one High School Musical ex-star can be accepted on the other side of Disney, and Zac Efron has you beat. The show is from the creators of Will and Grace, David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, and follows the workers who run a Charlestown, MA barbershop in a multi-camera set up. The barbershop team apparently all went to high school together, and now work together, but get this – they weren’t friends in high school. The plot thickens!
According to Deadline, Their dreams lie across the Charles River in Boston, but for now, their work, their lives, their loves and their worries remain in the town they grew up in. There’s a lot I want to say about that one sentence but ya know, I just won’t.
Watch the trailer below, where you’ll find exaggerated Boston accents (of course), a Sam Adams shout out (of course), and – wait. Is that Norm from Cheers?
As for The McCarthys, the CBS sitcom has one thing going for it that might pull some Boston skeptics: It stars Joey McIntyre. Other than that, this 30-minute show directed by Andy Ackerman (the pilot, at least), has “trainwreck” written all over it.
Let’s take the words right from CBS for consideration:
The McCarthys is a multi-camera comedy about a loud, sports-crazed Boston family whose somewhat athletically challenged son, Ronny (Tyler Ritter), is chosen by his father to be his assistant high school basketball coach, much to the surprise of his more qualified siblings.
Spoiler alert! The somewhat athletically challenged son, Ronny? He’s gay. So, yes, you got that right: this show will not only be loaded with Boston/Southie stereotypes (i.e. loud, sports-crazed), but there will be a hearty helping of homosexual stereotypes served up, too. Who greenlighted this?
All we can hope is that the warm-hearted family bonding that’s sure to ensue is enough to make up for the rest, because I for one am not counting on Joey McIntyre’s acting skills to pull any weight.
Watch the trailer below, where Ronny makes the controversial announcement that he wants to move on to the greener, more gay-accepting pastures of … Providence, RI. And be sure to look out for the TD Garden, Fenway and Dunkin’ Donuts: they all appear within the first ten seconds.
Interested? It’s OK if you laughed just a little bit during those trailers. No judgments.
The McCarthys will premiere at 9:30 p.m. on October 30, 2014 on CBS, while Buzzy’s isn’t slated to air until 2015.
Image via CBS
