DiResta review

What do you get when you cross a comedian who's getting his own TV show with a network that has become infamous for various low-quality sitcoms? You'd probably be asking who John DiResta is before you answer the other question.

UPN will go down in history as the biggest supplier of some of the worst sitcoms ever made. As UPN wasn't as big as, say, NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, even The WB when they're at their best, the network didn't uphold the same standards you'd expect. For the sake of finding a hit, they'd let people pitch just about anything. Did you know it was on UPN Dan Schneider created his first show? Seriously.

Aside from that we have various other sitcoms you had no idea existed. Let's see, Homeboys from Outer Space? Enough said. The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer? I couldn't even make it through one episode. Shasta McNasty? Well if you have the stomach for nu metal and live action cartoons you could make it through like I did. The Twilight Zone? Well it's no longer the worst adaptation, thanks a lot Jordan Peele.

At large, the only good thing about UPN was Dilbert, too bad at one point it was sandwiched between Shasta and today's subject. Between this and Shasta, at least the latter tried to be unique.

This was the television debut of comedian John DiResta, never heard of him? Neither did I. Beyond roles in Rules of Engagement and the two Miss Congeniality films, DiResta never really used much of his acting chops. He had mostly appeared in some reality shows alongside his brother Jimmy. He had the worst luck out of many celebrities who appear in sitcoms.

For perspective, Tom Papa had a sitcom that bombed after four episodes, and he's due for a movie this year. Hell, even though Emeril sucked, at least the eponymous star had a good fallback, though it seems to have killed its producer.

It seemed UPN had fair hopes for this show, it bled into promos with Dilbert and was even referenced through Guys Like Us (that Schneider-com), and true to their hopes, it was the lowest rated show of 1998. Not one of, THE lowest rated shows of 1998. The only things lower on that list were stuff from PAX's schedule (PAX was the predecessor to Ion Television), for perspective, PAX was more of an alternative to the raunchier side of primetime, and chances are those programs were reruns more than anything else. As something competing for primetime, DiResta is the bottom.

Here're the ratings for that year to give you an idea: https://nielsen_ratings.tripod.com/nielsen1.htm

As of now a bulk of the series (a 15 episode season) is lost. Hell, I wrote the show's page on the LostMediaWiki, save for one which was put up by YouTuber Panama Mike. Seeing it, no wonder it didn't catch on.

The Show

It's funny how Pauly Shore had the most realistic portrayal of himself in a sitcom about himself.

John DiResta is a transit cop in, take a wild guess? No seriously. New York. He's one of those atypical lawless schmoes who hurl one-liners and has to put up with his wife, annoying daughter and transexual baby boy.

Wow, this show wouldn't make it nowadays. They have a son named Dakota who dresses like a girl. They play it as an unfortunate gag for the record. This day and age it wouldn't fly, just saying.

Tell me if you heard these before, dad tries to pay for an expensive school membership fee, dad has to work late leading to problems, hard-ass boss, basically a chunk of the alphabet soup we call common. But any common premise could work with the right execution.

For a lack of a better word, this show is as by the numbers as you could imagine. It feels like King of Queens without any bite to it, and that show came out a month before DiResta.

Overall, already?

There isn't much that could be said about this show, which is why I tend to steer clear of sitcoms unless they're infamous enough to inspire interest.

This is a basic sitcom premise stripped down to its framework. It does little with the transit cop edge (feels like any other workplace comedy), I couldn't care less about the characters, and frankly I took nothing much away from this show. 

You know, it's telling how a show that rates so lowly could kill anyone's aspirations, especially since DiResta lacks a true identity. If you squint hard enough he can be passed off as Emeril.

Emeril supposedly got better as it went on, Come to Papa was better than what the one clip led people to believe, Shasta McNasty was wild and could be fun for people in the mood for that kind of stuff, The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer was apparently good enough to be referenced in Clerks: The Animated Series, Homeboys from Outer Space, I dunno, Baby Bob, a good concept with execution good enough to help me make it through the one episode I saw, Pauly, surprisingly managed to make it through the two episodes that are still available.

Either make do with a gimmick or give it your all with what you have. Otherwise you're left with nothing. UPN was a hive for garbage sitcoms, and I didn't need RowdyCMoore to tell me that.

All else I can say is that several years from now... John will kill himself.