David Cassidy in the News
TELEVISION REVIEW; Hindsight Makes Actors The Butt of the Jokes
August 1, 2002
By Caryn James
New York Times
There are reasons lame old sitcoms thrive in reruns: we watch to laugh at them, not with them. That's the premise of ''The Rerun Show'' on NBC, in which actors recreate scenes from creaky old series, word for word, with wickedly comic intent. They add a subtext here (the foster father on ''Diff'rent Strokes'' likes his sons a little too much) or a layer from real life there (the photos on the walls are mug shots of Todd Bridges and Dana Plato, actors from that series who ran into trouble with the law). Creating satiric sketches in the style of ''Saturday Night Live'' or ''Mad TV,'' this new series is just as uneven as those shows and occasionally just as funny.
Each episode presents two sketches, which are less re-creations than parodies. The actors are not playing the fictional sitcom roles but making fun of the actors who played those roles in the first place. In tonight's ''Partridge Family'' episode, Keith Partridge asks his sister Laurie to pose as his girlfriend at a party to make another girl jealous. The incestuous possibilities are predictably brought to the surface as we see Keith and Laurie in a passionate embrace. (This is not a polite show, but satire never is.)
That easy joke is not nearly as funny as Brian Beacock's impersonation of David Cassidy as Keith, preening, posing, tossing his hair and constantly looking into the hand mirrors he has hidden all over the Partridge house. When the Partridges sing -- or rather lip-sync -- and Mom and Laurie play keyboards, their hands do not come close to hitting the keys.
If the series itself is wittier than it sounds, the stunt casting is less amusing than it should be. Danny Bonaduce plays his old role as Danny Partridge, now a boy with a red beard, but this seems like a warmed-over joke. He already declared himself a has-been by appearing on ''Celebrity Boxing.'' And there is a walk-on appearance by Alex Michel from ''The Bachelor'' milking his last few minutes of fame.
In the ''Diff'rent Strokes'' parody, Candy Ford walks on her knees to play Gary Coleman as Arnold. When she spouts his tag line, ''Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?,'' she nods at the camera and raises her hands over her head in a victory cheer as an audience applauds. ''The Rerun Show'' knowingly exploits those Pavlovian sitcom moments.
But neither of tonight's sketches is as funny as the ''Facts of Life'' parody coming next week (when the show moves to Tuesdays for the rest of its monthlong run).
Paul Vogt plays Mrs. Garrett, the housemother in a girls' boarding school, her eyes rolling and her voice warbling as her head wobbles around on her neck in a hilarious parody of Charlotte Rae in the original series. There is only a hint of that tonight when he appears as Mrs. Garrett in ''Diff'rent Stokes,'' the series from which ''Facts of Life'' was spun off. Future episodes include an installment of ''Married With Children,'' with Mr. Vogt as Ozzy Osbourne playing Al Bundy, a fantasy the creators apparently couldn't resist.
As Nick at Nite and TV Land suggest, old sitcoms never die; they just turn into camp. ''The Rerun Show'' has added the camp factor for us. That may be the ultimate in lazy television watching, but this barbed new show gives inane old series the disrespect they deserve.
THE RERUN SHOW
NBC, tonight at 9:30, Eastern and Pacific times; 8:30 Central time
David Salzman and John Davies, executive producers.
WITH: Danny Bonaduce, Alex Michel, Brian Beacock, Candy Ford, Don Reed, Daniele Gaither, Ashley Drane, Danielle Hoover, Mitch Silpa
