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Full-Groan Men 'Behaving Badly'
By Tom ShalesWashington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 18, 1996; Page B01
"Men Behaving Badly" is strictly for undiscriminating viewers, but then NBC seems to have cornered the market on them anyway. A crude comedy that thinks flaunting its crudeness will make it satirical, or something, the show was obviously inspired by the likes of "Dumb and Dumber" and "Beavis and Butt-head."
It pales in comparison to both of those. Indeed, it makes them look like recently discovered works of George Bernard Shaw. Even if it badly goes where no sitcom has ever quite gone before, it's still got the aroma of imitation and old-hattiness about it. NBC says it is "based on the hit British series of the same name," but surely something's been lost in the transatlantic translation.
Ron Eldard plays dumb Kevin and Rob Schneider plays dumber Jamie in the series, premiering at 9:30 tonight on Channel 4. They're two boobish roomies who cannot resist the appeal of their own worst instincts. Nor can the writers who threw this clammy stew together. Many jokes involve underpants, including an opening gag in which a pair, apparently unlaundered, is used to filter coffee that a young woman later drinks and calls tasty.
When a gorgeous blonde (Julia Campbell) moves in across the hall, the boys go through her things, including her underwear of course, and are thrilled to discover naked pictures of her as Outlaw Biker magazine's "bike bitch" of the month. Later, Kevin does a soliloquy comparing women to cats: "Moody, demanding, aloof, they act like they're doing you a favor when you want sex. Okay, I'm just talkin' about women now."
Schneider slimes into his role with glee, whereas Eldard has the decency to appear a little bit embarrassed. Justine Bateman, who's looking more and more like a young Suzanne Pleshette, brings some needed dignity, but you can't help wondering why the intelligent young woman she plays would hang around with these losers, unless she's got a masochistic streak wider than Lake Titicaca.
At one point, laughs are wrought at the expense of a lonely woman's tears. One of the punch lines later is, "How would you feel if your perineum tore in half?" Meanwhile, producer Matthew Carlson has the nerve to interject clips from old movies (most in the public domain, it appears), as was done weekly on that old HBO turkey "Dream On." Several times, for instance, we see Fredric March and Carole Lombard doing their famous bedroom battle from "Nothing Sacred."
Perhaps Carlson is saying nothing is sacred to him, either. The irreverence and political incorrectness are not really the problem here, though. The problem is, the show reeks.
© Copyright 1996 The Washington Post Company
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