2008 Woodie Awards
ABC's Freddie Aims Low With Humor, Hits Its Mark
Ed Bark / The Dallas Morning News (KRT)
Issue date: 10/17/05 Section: Entertainment
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The last of fall's thirty-one new series checks in Wednesday and instantly finds its level of humor when the shirtless star of the show greets a new morning by scratching his behind.
His four live-in female relatives happily capture the moment with a cellphone camera to the delight of an easily amused laugh track. ABC's Freddie has made its first impression as a juvenile, sub-par sitcom that makes Who's the Boss? seem textured.
Freddie Prinze Jr. (Scooby Doo, I Know What You Did Last Summer) had a gainful if not lustrous film career going before succumbing to this. He plays bachelor chef Freddie Moreno, whose swingin' Chicago lifestyle suddenly is road-blocked by the arrivals of his divorced sister, her 13-year-old daughter, the widowed wife of his deceased brother and a cranky grandma. It is a full house, all right. It is just not a very funny one in a Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. slot that actually has two even lamer comedies in CBS' Yes, Dear and Fox's Stacked.
Prinze is not the principal problem with Freddie. He is an engaging enough guy whose late father, Freddie Prinze (Chico and the Man), had an abundance of comedic timing. Son Freddie seems to have inherited some of it, even if ABC sees him first and foremost as a pretty boy magnet for advertiser-coveted young female viewers.
Freddie's man-about-town exploits and mishaps are shared by a knuckle-dragging pal named Chris (Brian A. Green from Beverly Hills, 90210). Chris is dumb enough to make even Joey Tribbiani seem like Jeopardy! genius Ken Jennings. But Freddie apparently is none the wiser, summing up his philosophy of life by telling sister Sofia (Jacqueline Obradors), "Stupid works for me."
Sofia's daughter, Zoey (Chloe Suazo), seems to be the show's brightest bulb. Meanwhile, sister-in-law, Allison (former Twin Peaks girl Madchen Amick) is a barely functional scatterbrain, and grandma (Jenny Gago) chooses to speak only in Spanish although she understands all of the English around her.
His four live-in female relatives happily capture the moment with a cellphone camera to the delight of an easily amused laugh track. ABC's Freddie has made its first impression as a juvenile, sub-par sitcom that makes Who's the Boss? seem textured.
Freddie Prinze Jr. (Scooby Doo, I Know What You Did Last Summer) had a gainful if not lustrous film career going before succumbing to this. He plays bachelor chef Freddie Moreno, whose swingin' Chicago lifestyle suddenly is road-blocked by the arrivals of his divorced sister, her 13-year-old daughter, the widowed wife of his deceased brother and a cranky grandma. It is a full house, all right. It is just not a very funny one in a Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. slot that actually has two even lamer comedies in CBS' Yes, Dear and Fox's Stacked.
Prinze is not the principal problem with Freddie. He is an engaging enough guy whose late father, Freddie Prinze (Chico and the Man), had an abundance of comedic timing. Son Freddie seems to have inherited some of it, even if ABC sees him first and foremost as a pretty boy magnet for advertiser-coveted young female viewers.
Freddie's man-about-town exploits and mishaps are shared by a knuckle-dragging pal named Chris (Brian A. Green from Beverly Hills, 90210). Chris is dumb enough to make even Joey Tribbiani seem like Jeopardy! genius Ken Jennings. But Freddie apparently is none the wiser, summing up his philosophy of life by telling sister Sofia (Jacqueline Obradors), "Stupid works for me."
Sofia's daughter, Zoey (Chloe Suazo), seems to be the show's brightest bulb. Meanwhile, sister-in-law, Allison (former Twin Peaks girl Madchen Amick) is a barely functional scatterbrain, and grandma (Jenny Gago) chooses to speak only in Spanish although she understands all of the English around her.