“DO NOT DISTURB was a workplace comedy set at one of New York City's hottest and hippest hotels: The Inn. Named one of the Big Apple's "10 Best Places to Stay," The Inn was just that - the "in" place to be, with its chic decor, stylish staff and celebrity clientele. Behind the scenes, however, the upstairs/downstairs dynamic told quite a different story.
The hotel's top-notch reputation and sophisticated look was due in large part to Neal (Jerry O'Connell, "Crossing Jordan") - at least in his opinion. Although The Inn's charismatic owner R.J. (guest star Robert Wagner) took all the credit, Neal was the egotistical, hyper-stylish, detail-oriented womanizing general manager who would do whatever it took to keep the hotel and its employees up to his standards.” Rhonda ( Niecy Nash)was the Head of Human Resources who also kept Neal's demands in check. She was brash, Fabulous and brutally honest and ran the HR Department from her bullpin downstairs with a set of rules that were all her own. Rhonda did her best to keep the back of the house in line and the front of the house out of trouble.
At the front desk handling check-in while wearing 6 inch manolos was Nicole ( Molly Stanton), an aging model who was svelte, cynical and slightly starving. The downstairs staff included Molly ( Jolene Purdy), a reservations clerkwho dreamed of being a pop-singer as much as she craved to be part of the action upstairs; Larry (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), the head of housekeeping who spent more time on the phone cleaning up his messes at home then he did cleaning up after the guests upstairs; and bellman Gus ( Dave Franco), a roadie for a rock band who was left behind when the band left town.
A Review from USA TODAY
'Do Not Disturb': The good ideas must have checked out
Updated 9/11/2008
ABOUT THE SHOW
Do Not Disturb
* 1/2 (out of four)
Fox, tonight, 9:30 ET/PT
By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY
Some shows try too hard, and some hardly seem to be trying.
Take the plot the writers have come up with for Do Not Disturb, Fox's latest — and dare we hope last? — sex-com. A tabloid story has come out about an oversexed staffer at The Inn, New York's hippest hotel. Though everyone suspects the randy general manager (Jerry O'Connell), the head of human resources (Niecy Nash) responds with a blanket ban on all office canoodling.
Need I tell you who canoodles next, or that the real culprit is the least likely suspect? If I do, you've never watched TV before. And if you waste your time watching this flat dreck, you may never watch TV again.
Fox, of course, made its sitcom mark by being edgy. But when it comes to bedroom romps, the big screen has pushed the edge way beyond broadcast TV's ability to keep up. The result is a show that tries to be adult and titillating but just comes across as juvenile and badly paced, as if the cast were waiting for laughs they must realize won't be arriving.
Apparently, whoever was hiring at The Inn was looking for one-note jokes. The receptionist (Molly Stanton) gets the starving-model jokes, with some lines that seem to have been lifted from Ugly Betty's Amanda. The reservations clerk (Jolene Purdy) is assigned the stories having to do with weight, and the head of housekeeping (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) gets the gay leftovers.
The shame is that many of these actors could garner laughs with better material. Nash was frequently hilarious in Reno 911!, and O'Connell was a bright spot in Carpoolers — a show that, for all its faults, did not make him bob his head and wag his finger in an uncomfortable appropriation of Nash's sass.
Even worse is what Disturb does to The Class' Ferguson, a promising young performer trapped in a humor-free, waspish gay cliché. For the premiere, that means humiliating himself multiple times in an attempt to prove he's still a player, despite being in a long-term relationship. The plot would make sense only if the writers were afraid his domestic status might make us like him and were for some reason determined to nip that in the bud.
Like too many sitcoms these days, every joke in Disturb seems telegraphed, and every plot twist might as well come with flash cards. A show doesn't have to shock us, and on the vulgarity front, it would be nice if Fox stopped trying. But a surprise here and there would be nice.
That, however, would take effort — and, apparently, there's no room for that at this Inn.
A Review from The San Francisco Chronicle
Don't bother with Fox's 'Do Not Disturb'
September 10, 2008|By Tim Goodman
* glory days
EMPTY CHAIR Do Not Disturb: Comedy. 9:30 p.m. Wednesdays on Fox.
The funniest thing about Fox's new fall sitcom, "Do Not Disturb" - which doesn't have one funny moment in the unbearable 22 minutes of its pilot - is the press release from the network.
See, the show was initially called "The Inn." Then it was changed to "Do Not Disturb" (although "Early Checkout" might have worked just as well). But long after the change, Fox sent out a press release with "The Inn" logo still at the top. The actual release calls it "Do Not Disturb" on first mention, then refers to it as "The Inn" at the bottom.
Apparently this is a series that neither makes a lasting impression nor is worth the cost of additional paper.
You have to really pay attention - or be awake to find out - that the "hottest and hippest" hotel in New York, as depicted here, is called The Inn. It's very confusing. There's not enough care in the world to care enough to remember that. Then again, it allowed Fox to keep the old logo. If that was a cost-saving measure, it was the only smart thing the network did with "Do Not Disturb." Whatever it cost to make this bomb - $1 million? $1.5 million? - was money that should be recouped directly from the pocket of whomever green-lit the show in the first place. How many layers of management does it take to see that something isn't merely unfunny, but rather painfully unfunny?
This can't be laid at the doorstep of any one person. Many people signed off on it. At some point, someone at Fox needs to start using actual judgment when it comes to sitcoms. "Do Not Disturb"? How about "Do Not Make in the First Place"?
Abraham Higginbotham, the creator and writer of this series, used to write for "Arrested Development," which is either unbearably sad or more proof of the "what have you done for us lately?" maxim.
And to think that conventional wisdom suggested nothing at Fox could be more asinine than "Til Death," the series that precedes "Do Not Disturb" by 30 now shockingly-more-tolerable minutes? If there's a dumber hour on network television, it must be left over from the glory days of UPN.
"Do Not Disturb" centers on an allegedly high-end hotel run by a woman named Rhonda (Niecy Nash) and managed by a guy named Neal (Jerry O'Connell). Their names and the specifics of their relationship are unimportant, since you'll be spending this half hour doing something more productive and enjoyable - like setting yourself on fire or watching a documentary on the making of "Deal Or No Deal."
The pilot - or what the hopeful among us would like to call "the last episode" - is titled "Work Sex," and consists of poorly timed, ill-conceived sex jokes that are shamelessly (and pointlessly) propped up by a laugh track. Neal sleeps with all the employees (who are either dumb or drab or both). And Rhonda wants that to stop because a magazine has - wait, is this really necessary? Are you really going to watch this show? Did you not read the paragraph that essentially states "Do Not Disturb" makes "Til Death" look like "Seinfeld"? It makes O'Connell's last sitcom - "Carpoolers" on ABC - look like the British version of "The Office." Hell, it makes "Cavemen" look like "Cheers."
Doesn't that halt you in your tracks? Doesn't that make your soul shudder? What part of "if there's a dumber hour on network television ..." was unclear?
If you're thinking, "This sounds so bad it's got to be good," let me disabuse you of that notion by declaring that previous cheap jokes about "According to Jim" have now been rescinded and a letter of apology sent to the creators of that show. Here's part of said letter: "Who knew it could get worse? Forgive us our harshness."
How bad is a series where the hot women are forced to wear dresses so short they can't sit down - and yet they still sit down? Answer: A series so bad that it's daring you to watch.
Don't.
An Article from The Pittsburgh Tribune
O'Connell returns to comedy in new Fox sitcom 'Do Not Disturb'
By Rick Bentley, McCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
LOS ANGELES -- Jerry O'Connell plays the general manager of one of the hippest hotels in New York in the new Fox comedy "Do Not Disturb."
Jerry O'Connell? On a television comedy? Really?
Until he starred in last year's ABC comedy "Carpoolers," a series that crashed and burned after one season, O'Connell was better known for his work in television dramas like "Crossing Jordan" and "Sliders."
O'Connell jokes about returning to comedy after last year's failed funny attempt.
"I had a wonderful experience with 'Carpoolers.' I know it was not successful. It didn't get picked up but I had a wonderful experience working in comedy," O'Connell says during an interview with TV critics in July. "It's funny in life. Shows end. I'm depressed. I don't leave my house. I'm in my underwear for two or three months. I'm joking, of course."
There were times while he was working on "Crossing Jordan," a series where he spent a lot of time in a morgue, where he felt like people in his own neighborhood were being killed. So, comedy is more uplifting.
Actually, "Carpoolers" was not O'Connell's first attempt at situation comedy. There were comedic elements of his "My Secret Identity." And he has a little story about being on another comedy.
"Here's a little bit of TV trivia for all of you folks out there. I did a short-lived sitcom with Hilary Swank. Believe it or not. I'm telling you. It was called 'Camp Wilder.' In 1992. I dropped out of college for a semester and went to go do it," O'Connell says. "I think I had a lot to do with Hilary Swank winning all those Oscars."
O'Connell will have to be on his comedy toes in the new series. His co-star, Niecy Nash, has been starring in the heavily improvised comedy series "Reno 911!"
Nash has had to take a different approach on "Do Not Disturb."
"I have really been fortunate," Nash says. "I've been able to taste a lot of different disciplines in this business. 'Reno 911!' is unscripted. 'Reno' is so raw and over the top.
"Receiving the script, I'm like, 'Oh, Lord. I'm not used to that. I got to memorize all of this?' Where I'm used to making it up on the fly. But I'm having a good time nonetheless."
This means "Do Not Disturb" will try to find an audience, at a time when the situation comedy format is considered by many of those those in TV to be dying, with an actor not known for comedy and an actress better known for improv.
The show's executive producer, Abraham Higginbotham, could not attract viewers last year with his "Back to You." And that series aired Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton.
"I was very surprised that didn't work just because of the pedigree of the people that were associated with it from the cast to the directors to the writing staff," Higginbotham says. "That show was a pretty traditional, straight-up sitcom that we were trying to just embrace what it was.
"And with this, we're trying to have some fun with a younger cast, fresher
An article from Variety
Posted: Mon., Sep. 22, 2008, 8:00pm PT
Sitcom asks for second chance
‘Disturb’ wants TV critics to check back in
By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER
'
The producers behind the widely panned Fox sitcom "Do Not Disturb" are taking a new approach with critics: Kill ’em with self-deprecation.
The show’s production team has sent a letter to a handful of TV crix, admitting that their first episode wasn’t, well, all that good. Attached was a DVD of another episode they thought better represented the comedy.
The "Do Not Disturb" crew blamed the show’s bad buzz on the fact that Fox opted to postpone airing the pilot and instead bow with a different episode.
"We here at ‘Do Not Disturb’ agree that by airing the ‘Work Sex’ episode — before airing the actual pilot — we created much confusion and we deserve all the criticism, the bad puns (i.e. ‘an early checkout from the fall season,’ ‘Do Not Make in the First Place,’ etc.) and, yes, even the accusation that it very well could be the final nail in the multicamera sitcom’s coffin," the scribes wrote.
"Disturb’s" producers then go on to argue that their show wasn’t quite as bad as the critics claimed — but nonetheless apologize "for being the perpetrators of such bad television."
Give the producers points for attempting to drum up interest in "Do Not Disturb" — even if it meant giving critics the go-ahead to "hate away" should they still find themselves racing toward the checkout desk.
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