Premiere Date: Special Preview on Wednesday, March 1, 2006 (20th
Century Fox Television)
Network: FOX
Time: Sundays at 9:30 p.m.
Cast: Starring Josh Dean, Erin Cahill, Dave Sheridan,
Loretta Fox, Allan Havey
Introduction:
College: you go through it for four years (maybe
more), and then once you are done, you realize you
really aren't interested in your area of study and the
only place you can go is back home to live with your
parents in Missouri. The only problem is that even
though you can PHYSICALLY go home, you can't MENTALLY
go home because things have changed... and that's the
story of one of FOX's newest sitcoms, Free Ride.
Cast Details:
Free Ride stars Josh Dean as Nate Stallings, a recent
college business major that has decided that his next
step in life is to move back home with his parents,
Margo (Loretta Fox) and Bob (Allan Havey), and
freeload for as long as humanly possible. Upon
returning home, and trying to go back to his
pre-college life, he meets up with an old high school
friend Dove (Dave Sheridan), who has climbed all the
way up to a department store auto department assistant
manager (but he is still waiting for his employee
badge to be made), and the girl he has always wanted
(except she is now engaged), Amber (Erin Cahill).
The bottom line is that the stars of the show are all
unknowns--every single one of them. In fact, the
biggest star on the show is Erin Cahill, and her claim
to fame was that she (don't laugh) played the Pink
Power Ranger. But then again, it isn't necessarily who
the stars are or what they have done that make a show
good or bad, what matters is whether or not they can
do the role and how the work with the other
characters.
Pilot Plot:
In the pilot episode, Nate returns home after spending
all of those years in college, only to find that
things aren't the same at home. His bedroom has been
turned into an exercise room, his parents have been
going to therapy to improve their marriage (and
exercise their
own therapy at home), the girl that he has always
wanted seems to be in reach (but isn't), and the
person that he can most closely relate to is stuck way
back in his high school days. Is he going to be able
to survive at home for the two weeks that he is going
to be there? Or will two weeks even be enough time for
him to move on?
The timeslot premiere episode (airing Sunday 9:30
p.m.), "Up the Aunty," has Nate getting his first job
out of college--and he gets the job that anybody that
has a business degree would get, a job working at an
Australian themed restaurant. Meanwhile, Dove has a
new girlfriend: Nate's aunt. And Nate is forced into a
double date with Dove and Nate's aunt (how awkward is
that?), and an unusual situation occurs when another
close family relative is waiting for her when she
returns home.
Analysis:
The show really isn't a GREAT show in my opinion,
although I have seen many shows that are much worse
succeed. While it has a general plot that really
hasn't been done in any sitcoms, the plot isn't really
very well executed. Maybe it'll get a little better as
it goes on, I don't know. I do, however, like the idea
that show is partially improvised. It is interesting
to see a sitcom that is not COMPLETELY scripted for a
change. I think some of the improvised parts of the
episodes (although it is hard to tell exactly what was
improvised and what wasn't, because it was that
natural) were probably some of the better parts of the
episodes. I do think that this could be a better show
if the episode plots were a little better.
Conclusion:
I'm not so sure about this show. I've been wrong
before, but I don't believe this show will become
FOX's next big hit. In fact, it seems that FOX must
feel the same way, because they are airing the show in
the timeslot currently occupied by American Dad, which
is scheduled to return to that timeslot by late April.
If it sounds interesting, then watch it, but you
probably won't regret missing it if you don't watch.
