The Crazy Ones 1x01: Pilot

I figured I'd add a new comedy to my viewing schedule to replace the two I dropped after last season. This one seemed to be one of the least offensive offerings of the year.

LewisRoberts+Roberts is an advertising agency run by Sydney Roberts and her father, Simon. They do big, national TV ads for companies like McDonald's. Executives for which have come into the LewisRoberts+Roberts office to fire them. If they lose the McDonald's account, the company would be in big trouble, so Sydney has to rally her father to get into the conference room and wow them with some of that good, old-fashioned Roberts charm. But he's lost his nerve, and he's busy fighting his giant Rock'em Sock'em Robot.

I'd get one myself if they were reasonably priced.

Sydney knocks the robot's block off, then spends a minute convincing her father that the pitch they have is good and that he's still the Simon Roberts. He doesn't quite believe it, but it's still enough to get him to agree to go into the room. Sydney recognizes that he'll still need a little help, so while she, Zach(a prettyboy copywriter), and Andre(a not-so-prettyboy art director) get things started, she has office assistant Lauren stay behind to make sure Simon actually follows them... and to inspire him by getting him to smell her hair, which can awaken a man's eternal whatever.

The pitch is based on authenticity: Real beef, real potatoes, real milk, etc. It doesn't go so well. They're still going to get fired until Simon starts getting nostalgic about the days when he used to take his young daughter to get a Happy Meal, and decides to switch things up a bit.

Everyone looks really nervous.

Simon's idea is to update an old McDonald's commercial from 1972 and let everyone know that 40 years later, they still deserve a break today. He's going to need someone famous to sing the jingle, though, and the McDonald's folks want her by tomorrow. I say "her" because every singer they go after is female. Unfortunately, JLo's demands are unreasonable, Mariah's out of the country, and Adele's British. But, daddy dearest comes through and gets a meeting with Kelly Clarkson.

With Zach along as eye candy, Simon makes the pitch to Kelly. She's not interested in doing a jingle, though. She wants to remake her image. She wants to sing about sex. Now, McDonald's is no stranger to sex, but that's not the pitch that Simon sold to them, so the next day as Zach and Kelly do a sexy duet, Simon needs to figure out a way to pivot her back to the original idea.

Before Kelly has an orgasm in the recording booth.

Kelly's been in the business far too long, though, and they can't fool her. She sees that she's being pivoted, which is not cool with her, so she storms out. Simon's despondent, and that means it's up to Sydney to salvage things. She tracks Kelly down and bothers her at a family lunch until she agrees to do the jingle... IF Sydney will sing it first. In the restaurant. Sydney's not a singer, but she sucks it up and does it anyway. Kelly does the jingle, LewisRoberts+Roberts keeps the account

What I Liked
-Robin Williams does some good riffing. He's been doing it for 40 years, so he'd better be good at it by now.
-Instead of Old Kelly, they call her Kelly Classic. Which is how I'm going to refer to myself from now on.
-"Nothing's too unsexy for the new Kelly." Hee-hee.

What I Hated
-Simon and Zach try to write a sex song for the McDonald's commercial. It went on just a tad too long, and was pretty awful.

Final Thoughts
At one point in the episode, Simon goes on a classic Robin Williams riff, and Sydney tells Lauren not to encourage him. That's really kind of a mixed message, since I'm sure they're constantly encouraging Robin to do his thing on set. While at the same time, I'm sure that David E. Kelley wants to rein him in just a little so that he doesn't go too far off script or spend too much time breaking up the other actors. It's a fine line.

The last time I can recall seeing Kelly Clarkson in any kind of acting capacity, it was in From Justin to Kelly. This is better.

The episode seemed to run a bit short, so they stuck an outtake of Robin Williams breaking Kelly Clarkson over the end credits. Something tells me that they're going to have a lot of those kinds of clips if the show lasts. And I hope it does last. This was a pretty funny first episode, and it's nice to see Mork back on TV again. It didn't break new ground or anything, but it delivered a solid number of laughs and it didn't make me want to punch anyone in the face, and really, that's all I need from a sitcom.