I hope this TV series dies a quick death...

GRID · Post by **GRID** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 11:39 am

ABC: Married to the Kellys
Published October 2, 2003

America is a nation divided, according to the thinking of those who make TV. There are the sharp, hip, sophisticated people who live in the major markets. Then there are the simple-minded hicks and rubes -- anyone who doesn't live in a major urban center. A really major urban center. Illustrative of how TV thinks, a network executive once referred to Atlanta-based Matlock as "a rural show." People who don't live in New York or Los Angeles are disparagingly called "the flyovers," because the closest network executives come to them is when they jet over their heads en route from one coast to the other.

The latest example of this snobbish thinking, Married to the Kellys, is one of the most flagrant. The new ABC comedy focuses on a young couple, Tom and Susan, who relocate from Manhattan (Tom's hometown) to a suburb of Kansas City (where Susan's family lives). You've probably never thought of Kansas City as Bug Tussle -- unless you work in TV -- but Susan's people are portrayed as a bunch of yokels.

TV likes to refer to such characters as quirky, which is really a euphemism for bumpkins. The family's penchant for doing things together is painted as if it is some kind of weird cult ritual. Some of their hobbies are depicted as if they suggest mental instability, and their spiritual beliefs are an excuse to amp up the laugh track. Goodness and decency are traits to be regarded warily.

There's a scene in which each of them enters a room and exchanges greetings with those already there. The result is a medley of first names being repeated over and over. This was funny the first time it was done, maybe 20 years ago, as a parody of The Waltons saying individual goodnights.

Tom, a writer, promised Susan that when he sold his first novel, they could move anywhere she wanted. In his mind this meant perhaps leaving Greenwich Village for the West Side. Susan took a broader interpretation: As soon as a publisher bought Tom's manuscript, she began planning a return to the heartland to be near her family.

Tom's body might be in Kansas, but he can't shake his New York state of mind. He's suspicious without cause of their neighbors. He shops for New York pizza, New York cheesecake and rents the movie Manhattan. He doesn't get to enjoy them, however, because Susan has a night with the family planned.

They are an offbeat bunch. Susan's mom maintains a magnetic doghouse on the wall. Everyone has a pooch with his or her name on it for occasions when they step out of line. Susan's sister Mary is trying to be an academic snob but isn't smart enough. An aspiring college professor, she's resentful that Tom might be her intellectual equal or, worse, her superior. Simple word games become blood sports. Mary's husband, Chris, is her cheerleader but otherwise doesn't open his mouth much, because she says enough for both of them. Mary's brother Lewis is a beat or two slow on the uptake but having been raised in a house full of women, he attaches himself to Tom like a leech. Mary's father Bill is another who doesn't say much. However, he does offer Tom the sage advice to just go with the flow and, in a year or 20, he'll learn to fit in.

Breckin Meyer, last seen in the deservedly short-lived Inside Schwartz, has landed in another loser as Tom. Kiele Sanchez is an appealing Susan, who keeps Tom on "a need to know basis" when it comes to her family's eccentricities. Apparently they have been married a few years but they come across as virtual strangers, much like The Bachelor and the would-be partners he met last week.

Nancy Lenehan plays Sandy, Emily Rutherfurd is Mary, Josh Braaten is Chris, Derek Waters is Lewis and Sam Anderson is Bill.

Anderson and Braaten, who come from the Midwest, said they are teaching the others small-town colloquialisms. "For example," Anderson said, "something you don't like but you don't really want to say you don't like, [you say], 'Well, that's different.'"

Braaten chimed in his own version: "That sure is interesting."

Only in this context could Married to the Kellys be described as "interesting." And by the same token, it is "different."

Tom Jicha can be reached at tjicha@sun-sentinel.com.

QueSi2Opie · Post by **QueSi2Opie** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 12:49 pm

Maybe the Kellys series did some filming around KC during NASCAR weekend, they'd have a lot of people to fit their hickish mold.

KC0KEK · Post by **KC0KEK** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 12:53 pm

GRID wrote:America is a nation divided, according to the thinking of those who make TV. There are the sharp, hip, sophisticated people who live in the major markets. Then there are the simple-minded hicks and rubes -- anyone who doesn't live in a major urban center. A really major urban center. Illustrative of how TV thinks, a network executive once referred to Atlanta-based Matlock as "a rural show." People who don't live in New York or Los Angeles are disparagingly called "the flyovers," because the closest network executives come to them is when they jet over their heads en route from one coast to the other.

Isn't there a new cable channel launching that's supposed to be targeting flyover country? I think it's called America's Channel, and it's supposed to launch in early 2004.

Post by **chrizow** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 1:31 pm

that's unfortunate. i remember an article in the Star talking to the creator (or something like that) of the show, who is either from KC or whose wife is, and the show was supposed to be more or less based on their traditional, but not backwards family. if i remember, the person with the KC family lived in Prairie Village or something.

sounds like some network exec preferred to paint a stereotypical view of KC. too bad.

does anyone remember Malcolm and Eddie? the show on WB (right?) with malcolm jamal-warner and eddie griffin. that show took place in KC and i thought they did a good job.

KC0KEK · Post by **KC0KEK** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 2:26 pm

So besides this one, Malcom and Eddie and Mama's Family, what other TV shows were/are set in KC?

QueSi2Opie · Post by **QueSi2Opie** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 7:53 pm

The next episode of Married To The Kellys, which airs on Friday at 7:30pm, is suppose to be about that dude from NYC, Tom, tryin' to grill/barbeque to impress his neighbors.

Electric_Cactus · Post by **Electric_Cactus** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 9:35 am

~shakes his head~

Before I moved here from Ohio, I actually had someone ask me if cows roamed the streets in Kansas City.

The other most common response was, "Won't it be boring in Kansas?"

No matter that I live in Missouri. But...here's my feeling. Let "those people" have and keep their stereotypes. We don't want their kind here anyway. Theirs is the kind of thinking that would have Kansas City be the next New York. And if it became that, I'd move to Omaha or someplace in Northern Iowa, in a flash.

GuyInLenexa · Post by **GuyInLenexa** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 11:51 am

Sorry, Grid, I did not see your post before I posted mine.

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