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'How to Be a Gentleman' - 'Pilot': The not-so-original odd couple

What did everybody think of the new CBS sitcom?

By Alan Sepinwall Thursday, Sep 29, 2011 8:59 PM

<p>David Hornsby and Kevin Dillon in "How to Be a Gentleman."</p>

David Hornsby and Kevin Dillon in "How to Be a Gentleman."

Credit: CBS

I posted my review of "How to Be a Gentleman" earlier today. Now it's your turn. For those of you who watched - whether you're a Rickety Cricket fan, a Johnny Drama fan, a Murray Hewitt fan, Chloe O'Brien or Dave Nelson fan, or simply someone who left the TV on after "Big Bang Theory" - what did you think? Did you find it funny? Do you intend to come back for more? Did all the characters step out of a time machine from 1997?

Have at it.

Alan-sepinwall-sm
Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching
Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
Related Searches: How to Be a Gentleman, Fall TV 2011, David Hornsby, Kevin Dillon, Dave Foley, Nancy Lenehan, rhys darby, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Alan Sepinwall

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  • Default-avatar

    Marco

    I cannot believe, but I kind of liked it. Certainly better than that Shatner thing last year.

    September 29, 2011 at 9:39PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Scott Rosenberg

    I could tell from the "cigarette-putter-outers" line in the opening that this was not going to be a good show, because no person could fail to realize how bad that comment was going to be, and yet the team of writers chose to use it anyway.

    The great problem for me was the two leads. The show's namesake lacks any star quality or emotional believability in the role, and I instantly took to calling him Ken Jennings in my head. Which I'll admit isn't fair, because Ken Jennings has personality and a good sense of humor. Dillon owned his role much more, but every single thing he did was either the dumb thing I expected, or something even duller and less clever than the dumb thing I expected.

    Supporting cast was much better. Rajskub was good but given too one-sided a role, her husband was the best written and best acted character, mom was solid in her limited screen time, and Dave Foley was off, but can be a winner if the writers figure out that his sweet spot is in tone and awkwardness.

    I don't seeing it getting much traction with a weak lead, even if they manage to work the rest out. I won't be watching again.

    September 29, 2011 at 9:44PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Zach S

    How can you not like Johnny Drama? Bro

    September 29, 2011 at 9:45PM EST Reply to Comment
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    TMGLost

    Watched about the 1st 10 minutes with nary a grin nor a chuckle. Cannot imagine that the remaining 12 were going to offer any.

    Characters were annoying and much of the dialog was there purely to set someone up for a 'zinger' that fell flat.

    Too bad - I have liked Foley in the past and love Mary Lynn's stand up, but this was unbearable.

    September 29, 2011 at 10:06PM EST Reply to Comment
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    apearlma

    To me, what hit me immediately was how similar David Hornsby is to Dave Foley in Newsradio, even in tone of voice. I think it would have had a much more organic start if they almost stole from it - Hornsby gets a prestigious column, moves to NY, gets an apartment he can barely afford, landlord makes creepy joke about breaking some body part if he doesn't pay the rent, then go to the actual opening.

    Then there's a lot more room for the main character to show fear that makes sense.

    September 29, 2011 at 10:41PM EST Reply to Comment
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    71dude

    The milk-drinking gag was good, but otherwise, the show was nothing special. I've seen worse. It was surprisingly tame compared to the other CBS sitcoms.

    September 29, 2011 at 11:09PM EST Reply to Comment
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    chairthrower

    Was it you, Alan, during the "NewsRadio" days that said that Dave Foley in drag looks amazingly like Isabella Rosellini? Dave Foley with his hair dyed black also looks like Isabella Rosellini.

    The show itself? It didn't knock me over, but it might get better. I'm willing to stick it out for Dave.

    September 29, 2011 at 11:12PM EST Reply to Comment
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    derek

    I'll watch Rhys Darby in anything... I can see this getting a lot better.

    September 29, 2011 at 11:45PM EST Reply to Comment
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    DougMac

    wasnt very good but wasnt terrible either. I'll give it a few episodes based on the cast and Rickety Crickets history of off camera work on It's Always Sunny.

    September 30, 2011 at 1:50AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Dwayne Mendoza

    Best feature: It's orders of magnitude less annoying than NEW GIRL (during both episodes, I wished that zombie biker gangs would break into the apartment, beating and sodomizing every member of the cast until they became less annoyingly cute).

    If you really don't like SNL skits turned into sitcoms, it might work as a placeholder from THE BIG BANG THEORY to THE OFFICE.

    But unless NBC decided to move $HITNEY to 8:30, I can't imagine watching this. I absolutely wouldn't program my DVR for it.

    Yeah, I can smoke some crack and imagine a parallel universe where everyone dials down their performance from grotesque to caricature and the writers are replaced by people who possess talent.

    But you could imagine exactly the same thing about TWO BROKE GIRLS after the pilot and we all see which direction that stink nugget is heading.

    CBS just figures that if they have a hit, they can put anything after it and people will watch.

    September 30, 2011 at 8:30AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Phil

    I watched for a few minutes and thought it was supposed to be a drama. the lead actor is awful.

    September 30, 2011 at 9:19AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Phil

    I saw the first few minutes and thought it was a drama. The lead actor is terrible.

    September 30, 2011 at 9:20AM EST Reply to Comment
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    NJMark

    The lead character seems like they grafted Ted Mosby onto Barney Stinson, although he and the gym owner are like their own Ted & Barney.

    (Come to think of it, the "Mad Love" leads were somewhat of a Ted & Barney too.)

    September 30, 2011 at 11:38AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Dezbot

    I'll give it a few more eps because of Foley, Darby, Dillon, and Rajskub, but the lead is really grating and most of the jokes stunk (I did chuckle a few times, but never at the lead). Really bummed that Dave Foley isn't on HIMYM instead of this, though.

    September 30, 2011 at 11:46AM EST Reply to Comment
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    johnnymac

    i didn't hate it as much as i was lead to believe i was going to. i'll be back for a few more episodes because i have faith in David Hornsby.

    Loved him since he was "The Hutch" on The Joe Schmo Show. I also noticed that the actor that played Kip (gay character) from Schmo.

    September 30, 2011 at 3:58PM EST Reply to Comment
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    julia

    It was pretty bland, but the voice of the lead was driving me crazy!!! I couldn't get passed it. But I guess I won't have to now.

    October 17, 2011 at 1:46AM EST Reply to Comment

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