Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Feb 20, 2015 13:04:47 GMT -6
variety.com/2015/reviews/tv-review-the-jack-and-triumph-show-1201436486/
Brian Lowry
TV Columnist
@blowryontv
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog has unleashed plenty of explosively funny moments, but there’s probably a reason he hasn’t had his own show until now. Moreover, pairing him with Jack McBrayer, the relentlessly cheerful third banana from “30 Rock,” as Adult Swim has done in “The Jack and Triumph Show” risks turning a sporadic treat into an endurance test. Triumph (a.k.a. Robert Smigel) still yields a few belly laughs, but casting a dog puppet in a multi-camera sitcom, even with throwback references and meta jokes, proves just a bit too “ALF” for its own good.
Admittedly, Adult Swim (Cartoon Network’s latenight franchise for the munchies-and-beer brigade) has never shied away from excess, and Triumph’s penchant for outlandishness would appear to fit right in. Still, tossing Conan O’Brien’s occasional canine companion into a sitcom – complete with howling studio audience – and populating the show with exaggerated characters quickly wears as thin as the inevitable leg-humping gags.
The premise is that McBrayer’s Jack was a child star featured in a “Lassie”-like series called “Triumph’s Boy,” in which he played opposite an adorable mutt. But then the family ran through all Jack’s money, and Triumph led him into a life of drugs, decadence and eventually prostitution to make ends meet.
After that, Triumph disappeared, at least according to June (June Squibb, the 85-year-old Oscar nominee for “Nebraska,” who becomes a regular source of Betty White-type old-lady jokes), and years later, Jack has resumed something approaching a normal life. Naturally, the dog finally finds his way back home – along with, in one of the premiere’s many non-sequiturs, “Police Academy” alum Michael Winslow – and begins pulling Jack back into showbiz.
Around this point, with McBrayer’s wide-eyed man-child playing against Triumph’s dirty dog, one is tempted to hope that “Jack and Triumph” be taken to the vet and put out of its misery. But then the show makes a welcome detour into more familiar and much funnier territory, as Triumph drags Jack to an autograph-signing event populated by real celebrities. Mirroring the kind of shtick he’s done for Conan, Triumph proceeds to insult fading luminaries like Hulk Hogan, William Shatner and “Star Trek: The Next Generation’s” Brent Spiner (“You’ve clearly been aging at warp speed”).
It’s a taste of what Triumph fans have come to savor over the years, but also so much livelier and better than what came before that it’s hard not to wish they’d scrap the sitcom conceit and simply feature Triumph in these situations. Indeed, if ever a half-hour cried out for the 15-minute format that Adult Swim sometimes employs (and those programs run about 11 minutes sans commercials), this is it.
Given Smigel’s quick wit and ad-libbing skills, it’s too soon to write “Jack and Triumph” off completely. But unless the series can rebound from this very shaky start, it’s going to become less “Who’s a good dog?” than just another disappointing comedy, all together now, “for me to poop on.”
TV Review: 'The Jack and Triumph Show'
(Series; Adult Swim, Fri. Feb. 20, 11:30 p.m.)
Production
Produced by Poochie Doochie Prods. in association with Universal Television.
Crew
Executive producers, Michael Koman, Robert Smigel, Jack McBrayer, Conan O'Brien; director, Thomas Kail; writers, Koman, Smigel; created by Smigel, Koman, David Feldman. 30 MIN.
Cast
Jack McBrayer, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (Robert Smigel), June Squibb
Brian Lowry
TV Columnist
@blowryontv
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog has unleashed plenty of explosively funny moments, but there’s probably a reason he hasn’t had his own show until now. Moreover, pairing him with Jack McBrayer, the relentlessly cheerful third banana from “30 Rock,” as Adult Swim has done in “The Jack and Triumph Show” risks turning a sporadic treat into an endurance test. Triumph (a.k.a. Robert Smigel) still yields a few belly laughs, but casting a dog puppet in a multi-camera sitcom, even with throwback references and meta jokes, proves just a bit too “ALF” for its own good.
Admittedly, Adult Swim (Cartoon Network’s latenight franchise for the munchies-and-beer brigade) has never shied away from excess, and Triumph’s penchant for outlandishness would appear to fit right in. Still, tossing Conan O’Brien’s occasional canine companion into a sitcom – complete with howling studio audience – and populating the show with exaggerated characters quickly wears as thin as the inevitable leg-humping gags.
The premise is that McBrayer’s Jack was a child star featured in a “Lassie”-like series called “Triumph’s Boy,” in which he played opposite an adorable mutt. But then the family ran through all Jack’s money, and Triumph led him into a life of drugs, decadence and eventually prostitution to make ends meet.
After that, Triumph disappeared, at least according to June (June Squibb, the 85-year-old Oscar nominee for “Nebraska,” who becomes a regular source of Betty White-type old-lady jokes), and years later, Jack has resumed something approaching a normal life. Naturally, the dog finally finds his way back home – along with, in one of the premiere’s many non-sequiturs, “Police Academy” alum Michael Winslow – and begins pulling Jack back into showbiz.
Around this point, with McBrayer’s wide-eyed man-child playing against Triumph’s dirty dog, one is tempted to hope that “Jack and Triumph” be taken to the vet and put out of its misery. But then the show makes a welcome detour into more familiar and much funnier territory, as Triumph drags Jack to an autograph-signing event populated by real celebrities. Mirroring the kind of shtick he’s done for Conan, Triumph proceeds to insult fading luminaries like Hulk Hogan, William Shatner and “Star Trek: The Next Generation’s” Brent Spiner (“You’ve clearly been aging at warp speed”).
It’s a taste of what Triumph fans have come to savor over the years, but also so much livelier and better than what came before that it’s hard not to wish they’d scrap the sitcom conceit and simply feature Triumph in these situations. Indeed, if ever a half-hour cried out for the 15-minute format that Adult Swim sometimes employs (and those programs run about 11 minutes sans commercials), this is it.
Given Smigel’s quick wit and ad-libbing skills, it’s too soon to write “Jack and Triumph” off completely. But unless the series can rebound from this very shaky start, it’s going to become less “Who’s a good dog?” than just another disappointing comedy, all together now, “for me to poop on.”
TV Review: 'The Jack and Triumph Show'
(Series; Adult Swim, Fri. Feb. 20, 11:30 p.m.)
Production
Produced by Poochie Doochie Prods. in association with Universal Television.
Crew
Executive producers, Michael Koman, Robert Smigel, Jack McBrayer, Conan O'Brien; director, Thomas Kail; writers, Koman, Smigel; created by Smigel, Koman, David Feldman. 30 MIN.
Cast
Jack McBrayer, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (Robert Smigel), June Squibb