Bob's Burgers, a first bad course?
Bob's Burgers premieres tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET on Fox. This new animated comedy comes from creator Loren Bouchard of Home Movies, Lucy, Daughter of the Devil fame. This is about a man, his family and their floundering burger joint which is the stage of the fun.
BOB BELCHER (H. Jon Benjamin, FAMILY GUY, "Archer"), a third-generation restaurateur, runs a burgers joint with the help of his wife and their three kids. Bob has big ideas about burgers, condiments and sides, but only a few thoughts on customer service and business management. Despite his greasy counters, lousy location and occasionally spotty service, Bob is convinced his burgers speak for themselves.
Bob and his lovable and quirky family are convinced their burgers are their ticket to success. I'm especially looking forward to the performance of H. Jon Benjamin, who kills on Archer, and Kristen Schaal, whose career has skyrocketed since she became a stalker on Flight of the Conchords. Both have distinct voices and know how to bring the comedy. Watch interviews with the cast during Comic-Con 2010 at the Fox website.
The pilot of Bob's Burgers has some other elements that also work (including a jealous health inspector who claims cannibalism at Bob's) and a few strands of family sentimentality, character-building and love, the elements that worked so well as the guiding force of "King of the Hill." The key, unsurprisingly, is using Benjamin's note-perfect ability to make Bob funny and likable. When "Bob's Burgers" gets rolling and hints at the smarts that made "Home Movies" and "Dr. Katz" so good, it only makes you long for a distancing on the inane, easy-joke riffs that try to be "edgy."
Some think, it's unwise and unnecessary to launch an animated sitcom such as Bob's Burgers that appears intent to ape the vulgarity quotient of "Family Guy." But it remains to be seen what the ultimate outcome is. The series revolves around Bob (Benjamin, who can pretty much make any dialogue funny).
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