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Likability vs. Originality
by steve
Tracy Morgan is one of my all time favorites ever to be part of the cast of Saturday Night Live. He was never afraid to make Tracy Morgan the punchline of a skit, in a way that would most likely make him appear to be either a little dumb, self-centered, mysoginistic, or just bizarre. This always really impressed me, because I like the idea of blurring character and actor especially in a weekly sketch comedy show. Sometimes it seemed like he was appearing more as Tracy Morgan than as a character he was playing. He has always had a really offbeat energy as well which has pumped me up.
I have now seen three full episodes of his mid-season replacement NBC sitcom, The Tracy Morgan Show, and a lot of Tracy's energy and likability does transfer over to the sitcom format, but the show is not very original and often times becomes mired down in sitcom convention. There is really nothing original about The Tracy Morgan Show, he plays a working class guy with a really beautiful wife and they have two kids together, most of the comedy is supposed to come from Tracy's overexuberance in wanting to be a good father or husband. The younger son is a real Gary Coleman style kid, meaning he sorta looks like a shrunk down adult, and his character acts older than his age as well, this sometimes works and sometimes fails pretty miserably. Heavy D, John Witherspoon, and Katt Williams aren't very funny as the funny dudes at Tracy's car repair shop (even though in the episode entitled "Christmas" they did come through with a very charming original Christmas carol). The show succeeds when Tracy is allowed to use dialogue that is sometimes out of nowhere and shows the very cute insecurity in his character. The best moment of the three episodes I have seen was the first scene in the Christmas episode when he was talking to his youngest son about hanging out with Santa Claus and Captain Crunch on the Capt's boat and then his son was lying to him about how his Planet of the Apes (the original movies) DVDs got ruined and his son told him that he left them on the radiator and Tracy said "Why would I leave them on the radiator?" and the son replied "Because you just don't think! You have to think!" and so much shame and embarrasment washed over Tracy's face. So funny. The show fails when it becomes trapped in predicatable sitcom situations and physical humor (like getting in a fight with Santa, and leaving the ring he bought for his wife at home and being locked out and stuff). I will most likely continue to watch the show because Tracy is just so dang cute, but I hope they focus on the good, otherwise it could be in trouble.
