Ashley Spurgeon is a lifelong TV fan — nay, expert — and with her recurring television and pop-culture column "And Another Thing," she'll tell you what to watch, what to skip, and what's worth thinking more about.
This is probably due to excessive childhood viewing of Nick at Nite, but I believe American sitcoms can stand proudly among the world’s greatest art forms. And in my heart, there’s an extra-special place for the multicam show. Usually filmed before a live studio audience, a multiple-camera setup was standard for most comedies for most of the 20th century — think Cheers, think The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Multicam filming was one of the reasons I loved the (sadly already canceled) One Day at a Time reboot so much — it’s just fun to watch actors play off of one another, hit their marks on the large, open set, hold for laughter and applause from the always-game-for-it audience. When edgier single-cam sitcoms like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Arrested Development took off in the early Aughts, multi-camera sitcoms began to seem kind of old-fashioned, literally of another age. (There were popular exceptions, but I’m not a Chuck Lorre fan.)
And hey, speaking of age! Have you seen The Cool Kids? The multicam Fox series, set in an Arizona retirement community, stars David Alan Grier, Vicki Lawrence, Martin Mull and Leslie Jordan. Average age of the cast — 67. And in spite of now looking exactly like Betty Boop’s friend Grampy, Grier is in fact the baby of the bunch, a mere 63 years old. It is exceedingly satisfying to watch a cast this pro, this stacked, utilize their combined 160-plus years of television experience to create a sitcom where, like, people fall through the ceiling.
The Cool Kids adheres firmly to the “wacky” sitcom tradition — Oh no, we’re stuck in a sauna! Oh no, I’m an old man and have to learn how to ride a bike! This world exists within the bright, heightened, inane realm of the dumbest, best sitcoms. It premiered in the fall, and I’ve happily watched every episode of this first season. Professional curiosity led me to check out early reviews — it didn’t surprise me most were mixed to poor, but it did disappoint me. Some complained about the occasionally smutty humor (this is still a show on Fox), others that the jokes seemed “corny” and too neatly set-up. (Follow the etymology of the word “hoary” and you end up at “gray” — this is ageism against perfectly good jokes!)
I mentioned Always Sunny for a reason: The Cool Kids was co-created by Sunny’s Charlie Day. You can find similarities — the way The Gang (three guys, one girl) is open about their vices and gross humanity, the fact that there’s a weird character called Charlie (Mull) who sleeps on a mattress he pulled in off the street (it came with a raccoon). The most obvious to me is the through-line of bizarre, bright-eyed darkness — it’s likely the Zodiac Killer lives in this retirement community, and everyone knows, and no one cares.
So it’s kind of an odd show, but really, is it any more odd than Vicki Lawrence’s No. 1 hit pop ballad from 1972 about a young woman who does some murders and gets her innocent brother executed for ’em? The stars are seniors, aesthetic is old-fashioned, it’s on Fox and not Netflix. Like all network TV, this is a show “for” older people — folks who grew up with that multicam format and find it comforting, people who are like, “Hell yeah, Ed Begley Jr. is in this episode!” (It is not for older people still afraid of seeing gay men show public displays of affection.)
Truly, the guest stars are a cornucopia of blessings on blessings for a particular kind of pop-culture nerd — we’ve seen Jon Lovitz, Jackée Harry, Lesley Ann Warren (Clue reunion with Mull!), Charles Shaughnessy, Joanna Cassidy and more. The deep professional histories of the main cast and guests aren’t just handy in terms of the talent being talented — it’s fun (there’s that word again) to think of how these actors’ careers have intersected (or not) over the decades. Hm, did 227 and In Living Color air at the same time? (Nope, 227 ended in ’89, In Living Color premiered in 1990.) What percentage of the main cast has made an appearance on SVU? (Fifty percent.) I’m the least familiar with Leslie Jordan, but he’s a standout in terms of physical comedy and punchline delivery. Also, he’s a native Tennessean, and I’m always proud when One of Us achieves such success.
So this is a show for people who love the conventions, setups and uh-oh-here-it-comes punchlines. Not necessarily older viewers, but people like me — sincere admirers of the 20th-century sitcom as an art form, who are also kinda dumb. “Subverting” tropes at this point is just tackling them head on, no subversion necessary. Go on a date with the serial killer! You fall through that ceiling, buddy! The Cool Kids isn’t Cheers, it’s not Mary Tyler Moore, it’s certainly not Frasier. But if you wanna see David Alan Grier holler, “Do you mean to tell me ...!” followed by a ridiculous summary of the previous act’s absurdities and shenanigans, well, have I got a show for you.
