THERE are midseason replace ments that work. Think “Grey’s Anatomy,” “American Idol,” “The Office,” “House” and “Dancing With the Stars.”
Then there are the ones that stink up the joint like “Cashmere Mafia,” “The Return of Jezebel James” and the horrible “Unhitched.”
Into pile two, I now sadly toss “In the Motherhood,” ABC’s new sit-not-much-com, adapted from a much better Web series.
“Motherhood” revolves around three “average” moms. There’s Rosemary (Megan Mullally), a divorced, horny housewife with a teenage son who takes up with her friend Jane’s manny (male nanny). Jane, too, is a divorced horny mom, with a preteen daughter and a baby. Jane has sex on her office desk with a co-worker because she doesn’t have any other free time. Then, there’s Jane’s sister Emily, the perfect (horny) stay-at-home, well-off WASP mom married to a perfect Yuppie black executive (RonReaco Lee). They have two biracial children, a boy and a girl, who are so perfectly behaved they spend much time folding the family’s laundry. It is very disconcerting to see them used like this.
While Mullally is the least annoying, it takes a real man to make these moms funny. That man would be Horatio Sanz as the manny.
But with jokes so bad, they make Carrot Top look funny, it’s a tough haul for all — all around.
Like? Like: “I was just texting some of the other stay-at-home moms about your ‘me time’ fantasy.” And: “Give a nanny a bottle and she’ll work for a day, but teach a nanny to breast feed and she’ll work forever.”
Worse: “On Mother’s Day, I’m going to a movie by myself — then go have my tubes tied!”
Better yet, get your mouth wired shut. Now that’s funny.