Quick week recap: the Rangers are still in first. They have a nice three game lead over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and an even bigger lead over the two droogs of the division: A’s and Mariners. Okay, hope the appetizer was fulfilling. Now for the main course.

Swing and a miss

Swing and a miss

In keeping with MLJ’s tradition of broad generalizations with tenuous-at-best comparisons, we present to you the AL West in sitcom form:

Sit Down Shut Up Award: Remember when Mitch Hurwitz burst onto the scene with Arrested Development? He turned the world of sitcoms on its head, crafting an engaging story that didn’t fit into a tidy 22 minute window. His use of throw-forwards, flashbacks, Easter eggs, and punny-in-a-non-contrived-way comedy was genius. He avoided the canned laugh track and even tore down the fourth wall in a hilarious attempt to save his show. By rejecting convention, he was able to develop one of the top five sitcoms of all time. So when it came time for his next project, expectations were not surprisingly very high. Hurwitz again went in a non-conventional direction, gathering the funniest minds of today (Will Arnett, Will Forte, Jason Bateman, Kenan Thompson, and Kristen Chenoweth)…and animating them! Fast forward to the pilot. His punny-ful cartoon fell flat (Miracle’s are real?), and viewers were left wondering if Hurwitz was a flash in the pan. Ladies and gentleman, Billy Beane (sure I’ll trade for one year of a superstar and throw five babies into my rotation!) and your 2009 Oakland Athletics!

Frasier Award: I really don’t care about how the following clause affects my cred in the blogosphere: I liked Frasier. The show was smart and funny, and I never missed it. It hit its stride in the late-90s and went on a tear of getting nominated for and winning a bunch of Emmy’s. Why did it hit its stride? Well, I think the reason is that Kelsey Grammar’s character finally grew into the Seattle character and was able to abandon his Boston stereotype. He didn’t need it. He grew above it. No more “I used to have a bar in Boston…” stories. It was all radio + quirky dad + cool dog + weird brother/live-in nanny relationship, and I dug it. Then, as most sitcoms do, they began to run out of ideas. At the end of its run, they started bringing back old characters from Frasier’s Boston life. Sam Malone (Ted Danson) made an appearance. Surprisingly, he was no longer funny and had no rapport with Frasier at all. The producers of the show stuck an aging, skill-less, near replacement level actor in the middle of a once great show and hoped mere nostalgia alone would be enough to get things back on track. They were wrong. Ladies and gentleman, Ken Griffey, Jr.’s farewell tour and your 2009 Seattle Mariners!

NewsRadio Award: This is one of my favorite shows of all-time. However, it didn’t get off to a very good start. Initially, the show centered on Dave Nelson, a Midwesterner placed into the middle of the big city and asked to run a big time AM radio station. The problem is that the actor portraying Dave Nelson (Dave Foley) wasn’t strong enough to carry a whole show by himself. He was clearly playing out of position. His past success (Kids in The Hall) was as a part of a great ensemble team, and going solo just didn’t suit his unique skill-set. Luckily, the writers realized this early on, and the show shifted into one of the greatest ensemble comedies of the last twenty years. Phil Hartman’s role was greatly expanded, Joe Rogan was added to the cast, and Andy Dick’s quirky character was given more airtime. By making a few trivial-at-first-glance changes,  NewsRadio went from also-ran to potential all-timer. Ladies and gentleman, the new third baseman of your 2009 Texas Rangers, Michael Young!

The Office (US) Award: I used to be a pretty big fan of The Office (US), but I admit this show didn’t hit the ground running. Season one was an almost shot-by-shot remake of the British version, and it was mediocre at best. I loved the British version of the show, but that type of humor just doesn’t translate well to the United States, and I was concerned the show might not even see a second or third season. However, the writers quickly righted the ship and learned to develop the US characters and steer the show away (to a degree) from its British influences. By the third season, the show was firing on all cylinders, to the point that it won an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. It seemed as if the run would never end…but it always does. Season five just finished, and it was a disaster. Rather than continue to craft understated story lines and develop relationships among an already strong cast, we get the injection of a new character (The Wire dude) who had no chemistry with the current cast and crazy outlandish story lines (Michael Scott Paper Company — really?). It’s like the writers threw up their hands and said, “I don’t have any original or good ideas. Let’s do something zany!” It flopped as you might expect. Ladies and gentleman, I present Mike Scioscia (World Series in year 3 — mediocrity now) and your 2009 Angels!

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