Wednesdays At 7:30 On Fox
by Jonathan Anderson
The success of “The War At Home” has had one very
positive effect. Fox is talking about bringing back
the short lived Andy Richter series “Quintuplets”. The
series was picked up for a season, but due to the fact
that Fox had so many other series in the winter of
last year, and was trying to draw the largest
potential audience, it continually kept trying to
replace shows with other shows. Because of this
“Quintuplets” was pushed to the back burner and then
completely off the Fox roster. Even though Fox hadn’t
showed all its episodes. So towards the end of
December of this year Fox is planning on bringing
“Quintuplets” back for a few weeks to see how it would
do if they placed in on Sunday nights. This move would
most likely cause “The War At Home” to be moved next
to “Malcolm In The Middle”, which, in turn, would make
it so that series would have to stand alone, and it
would give Quintuplets to get a chance to gain an
audience.
Why review a show that is on the verge of
cancellation you may ask? Quite simply because it’s
probably the best of its entire genre. The reason I
say this is because the casting is absolutely
terrific, and I’m not talking about Andy Richter, he
does an O.K. job as the father, and provides some name
reconciliation behind the series. But, mind you, I’m
no “Late Night Conan” enthusiast, and because of this,
I don’t have the same cult following attitude that
sometimes follows Richter around. Rather the
quintuplets themselves, all provide a unique and funny
point of view to their lives, and do so in a charming
very watch able manner.
The shows set up is simple, Richter and his wife plan
to have one child, but instead end up having five all
at once, and Richter being his quirky self makes their
lives humorous by his actions and the actions of his
kids. The kids themselves are essentially stereotypes
of regular teenage groups. There’s the dorky one, the
popular jock, the comedic one, the preppy cheerleader,
and the outcast. The interesting and somewhat
intriguing part is they are all brothers and sister,
and thus are forced to live with and get along with
each other, which means their friends also cross
paths, which set up for some hilarious happenings. It
also makes for an overall interesting story,
especially if you like any of those old teen movies of
the early 90s, or even the spin-off movies making fun
of them.
While the show doesn’t focus strictly on the kids,
and at its heart it is a family based comedy, which
means the general idea behind the series centers
around Richter and his wife, raising their
quintuplets, dealing with every new age nearly
simultaneously. However, the series is at its best
when it’s focusing on the children and their
interaction with each other.
Basically Quintuplets is a good comedy that is set in
a genre that is for the most part over used, but
because the creators put an interesting spin on the
concept, they made it into an above average if not
great (depending on if you like teen based story
lines) that is better then all the other shows in its
genre, and it deserves the chance this coming January
to prove itself, and gain an audience.
