“Love & Money” Tonight at 8:30 on Ch.2
THE good news is that Swoosie Kurtz is back in prime time and knocking every line (and look) out of the (Central) park as a soused funny lady living the lush life.
The bad news is that she is surrounded by people whose batting average is not nearly so high in “Love & Money,” an upstairs-downstairs comedy that hasn’t quite figured out how to do high low-brow farce.
But it’s good for a few laughs, most of them attributable to Kurtz, who effortlessly steals every moment of every scene as Effie Conklin, who makes her stuffy billionaire husband Nicholas (David Ogden Stiers) the baronial butt of most of her jokes.
It’s a sport in which her youngest son (the vaguely Matthew Perry-ish John Livingston) and her younger daughter (Judy Greer) participate.
The intended stars of this comedy are supposed to be Paget Brewster as the Conklins’ elder daughter, Allison, and Brian Van Holt as Eamon Roach, a poor boy with whom Allison once had a summer fling.
He blew his hockey career and a marriage and is starting over as the super of the building in which his father (Brian Doyle-Murray) opens the door for the Conklins, who are not the most egalitarian clan.
But then, who wouldn’t be horrified to find their daughter, her Vera Wang gown in a heap near the toilet, steaming up the bathroom with a man who is not the rich twit she’s supposed to marry in a mere half hour?
Now Allison’s really unsure about whether to go through with the wedding.
“You had a little fling,” says Mom, between swigs of champagne. “These things happen. Not as often as one would like, but ….”
“It could be about ‘bag the rich girl,'” Mom continues. “These things happen. Not as often as one would like, but ….”
She could be talking about this sitcom, which could do with less “Class-Conscious … With Children” crassness and more of the nutty brittleness that succeeds in making us laugh out loud.
Not as often as one would like, but … every time Kurtz does anything.