{"id":8185,"date":"2019-09-27T15:49:17","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T19:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=8185"},"modified":"2019-09-27T16:28:05","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T20:28:05","slug":"carols-second-act-part-cbs-next-generation-heartfelt-comedies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/09\/carols-second-act-part-cbs-next-generation-heartfelt-comedies.html","title":{"rendered":"CBS still the place to go for comedies with heart + Tulsi Gabbard talks sense on impeachment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the latest dispatch from the crossroads of faith and media:<\/p>\n<p><strong>CBS&#8217;s classic heartfelt comedy hit parade<\/strong> runs from <em>The Honeymooners<\/em> in the 1950&#8217;s, through <em>The Andy Griffith Show<\/em> in the 60&#8217;s, <em>All in the Family <\/em>in the 70&#8217;s, <em>M*A*S*H<\/em> in the 70&#8217;s and 80&#8217;s, <em>Everybody Loves Raymond <\/em>in the 90&#8217;s and into the 2000&#8217;s, the recently-ended <em>Big Bang Theory <\/em>through the blessedly still-running <em>Young Sheldon<\/em> and <em>Mom. <\/em>All of those shows are absolute classics that stand the test of time and among the best series the medium has ever produced. They expertly balanced laugh-out-loud comedy with genuine heart. They also somehow managed to impart life lessons and wisdom without (usually) coming across as preachy. Sure, there have been other such classics on other networks (NBC&#8217;s <em>Frasier<\/em> immediately comes to mind) but, as a network, I think it&#8217;s fair to say that CBS has produced more than its fair share of the greats.<\/p>\n<p>This week the network introduced three new sitcoms hoping to join that pantheon. So, how do they measure up? My thoughts:<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Bob Hearts Abishola<\/em> (Mondays, 8:30 PM ET)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yw9dEFIaLfY<\/p>\n<p><strong>IMHO:<\/strong> Of the three sitcoms CBS premiered this week, this one is the strongest out of the gate. Be warned, there are moments in the first episode where Bob (nicely played by Mike &amp; Molly&#8217;s Billy Gardell) seems dangerously close to coming across as a stalker, though he does nothing that hasn&#8217;t been portrayed as cute in countless pre-Me Too era romcoms. But that, perhaps, culturally out-of-step aspect of the script doesn&#8217;t erase the show&#8217;s laugh-out-loud moments and positive potential to portray both the American immigrant experiences through the eyes of Abishola (Folake Olowofoyeku) and her family and a growing affection between two people of diverse backgrounds. Plus, the fact that Chuck Lorre, producer behind the aforementioned classics <em>Young Sheldon, Mom<\/em> and <em>The Big Bang Theory<\/em> is behind the show can&#8217;t hurt. <strong>I&#8217;m definitely on board for more.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The Unicorn<\/em> (Thursdays, 8:30 PM ET)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"The Unicorn On CBS | First Look\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vOYqdWp2bqM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>IMHO:\u00a0<\/strong>Gag me with a spoon. I can&#8217;t begin to express how annoying I found these characters and the subtly insulting premise that a decent man is so rare that he&#8217;s like a unicorn.\u00a0 Besides that, I actually fell asleep during the pilot. The worst part is they scheduled this smug mess between<em> Young Sheldon<\/em> and <em>Mom<\/em>, the two best scripted shows currently on network television.\u00a0 <strong>Did you get that I don&#8217;t like this show?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Carol&#8217;s Second Act (Thursdays, 9:30 PM ET)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Watch CBS&#039; Carol&#039;s Second Act Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6oy1USJR348?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>IMHO: <\/strong>A great premise that I suspect would work better as a half-hour single-camera dramady. The idea of an older woman who decides to become a doctor is really appealing and works as sort of the flipside of the classic Steven Bochco\/David E. Kelley show <em>Doogie Howser, MD <\/em>(about a teenage medical prodigy who becomes a doctor).<br \/>\nHowever, the multicam format doesn&#8217;t quite work (so far) for this particular premise<span class=\"st\">. Patricia Heaton (of the classic <em>Everybody Loves Raymond<\/em>) as Carol Kenney, Loyola Memorial Hospital&#8217;s oldest new doctor is, as usual, exceedingly likable and so is her mostly younger cast of characters (Twin Peaks&#8217; Kyle MacLachlanas as veteran doctor Stephen Frost being the exception regarding age) .<br \/>\nOne suggestion I would have made if anyone asked, would have been to write Carol as a widow rather than divorced. While the former situation may provide a sitcomey punchline or two, there would have been more compelling character motivation if her husband had died at the hands of a cold medical system &#8211; with that having\u00a0 inspired her to become a doctor.<\/span><br \/>\nIn any event, there&#8217;s some good potential here &#8211; and the show is well-paired with <em>Mom<\/em>. <strong>I&#8217;m going to give this one a chance to grow on me.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>_____<\/p>\n<p><strong>Democratic Presidential Candidate Tulsi Gabbard on impeaching President Trump.<br \/>\nIMHO: <\/strong>Gabbard shows a restraint and balanced wisdom that is, unfortunately, in short supply from either Trump or the majority of his Democratic opponents.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Tulsi Gabbard: Transcript does not show &#039;compelling&#039; case for impeachment\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sV-vNOqeSLI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the latest dispatch from the crossroads of faith and media: CBS&#8217;s classic heartfelt comedy hit parade runs from The Honeymooners in the 1950&#8217;s, through The Andy Griffith Show in the 60&#8217;s, All in the Family in the 70&#8217;s, M*A*S*H in the 70&#8217;s and 80&#8217;s, Everybody Loves Raymond in the 90&#8217;s and into the 2000&#8217;s,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,16,26,31,1],"tags":[9495,9492,9494,652,9491,9497,399,9493,9496],"class_list":["post-8185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-humor","category-politics","category-television","category-uncategorized","tag-billy-gardell","tag-bob-hearts-abishola","tag-carols-second-act","tag-cbs","tag-folake-olowofoyeku","tag-impeaching-president-trump","tag-patricia-heaton","tag-the-unicorn","tag-tulsi-gabbard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>CBS still the place to go for comedies with heart + Tulsi Gabbard talks sense on impeachment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/09\/carols-second-act-part-cbs-next-generation-heartfelt-comedies.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CBS still the place to go for comedies with heart + Tulsi Gabbard talks sense on impeachment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here&#8217;s the latest dispatch from the crossroads of faith and media: CBS&#8217;s classic heartfelt comedy hit parade runs from The Honeymooners in the 1950&#8217;s, through The Andy Griffith Show in the 60&#8217;s, All in the Family in the 70&#8217;s, M*A*S*H in the 70&#8217;s and 80&#8217;s, Everybody Loves Raymond in the 90&#8217;s and into the 2000&#8217;s,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/09\/carols-second-act-part-cbs-next-generation-heartfelt-comedies.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-09-27T19:49:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-09-27T20:28:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. Kennedy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"CBS still the place to go for comedies with heart + Tulsi Gabbard talks sense on impeachment","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/09\/carols-second-act-part-cbs-next-generation-heartfelt-comedies.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"CBS still the place to go for comedies with heart + Tulsi Gabbard talks sense on impeachment","og_description":"Here&#8217;s the latest dispatch from the crossroads of faith and media: CBS&#8217;s classic heartfelt comedy hit parade runs from The Honeymooners in the 1950&#8217;s, through The Andy Griffith Show in the 60&#8217;s, All in the Family in the 70&#8217;s, M*A*S*H in the 70&#8217;s and 80&#8217;s, Everybody Loves Raymond in the 90&#8217;s and into the 2000&#8217;s,&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/09\/carols-second-act-part-cbs-next-generation-heartfelt-comedies.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","article_published_time":"2019-09-27T19:49:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-09-27T20:28:05+00:00","author":"John W. Kennedy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/09\/carols-second-act-part-cbs-next-generation-heartfelt-comedies.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/09\/carols-second-act-part-cbs-next-generation-heartfelt-comedies.html","name":"CBS still the place to go for comedies with heart + Tulsi Gabbard talks sense on impeachment","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-09-27T19:49:17+00:00","dateModified":"2019-09-27T20:28:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/09\/carols-second-act-part-cbs-next-generation-heartfelt-comedies.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/09\/carols-second-act-part-cbs-next-generation-heartfelt-comedies.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/09\/carols-second-act-part-cbs-next-generation-heartfelt-comedies.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"CBS still the place to go for comedies with heart + Tulsi Gabbard talks sense on impeachment"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/","name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - John W. Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8185"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8190,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8185\/revisions\/8190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}