Have I reached that point? It seems so. When it comes to reviewing, I tend to either find the worst in the best or vice versa or just shine some light on the more obscure flicks/shows. I never wanna be too obvious with what I pick, but unfortunately, this is a rather obscure program for all the right reasons. So without further interruptions.
The unsold pilot Heil Honey, I'm Ho- just kidding. For the uninformed this was a reference to an old video I commentated on years ago, they said the title but used the wrong title screen (people wouldn't get it, so I had to clarify). If you wanna see for yourself, along with get a good laugh, check out this video, it's ratio and the fact the comments are now closed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCER_L6GyH4
But anyway, it was through that video I was reminded of this show. I had seen an episode of it way back when online, forgot about it, tried coming back to it and, well, you know how a lot of sitcoms in the 80s/90s tend to hold up poorly? I wish I could subvert expectations here. Don't get me wrong, there are more obscure sitcoms from this era that held up okay, like The Charmings, Rags to Riches, Family Matters, The Wonder Years, Dinosaurs, Full House depending on who you ask, you see?
Since I'm one of the few who'd ever talk about this show, we have much to unpack here.
Background
Hi Honey, I'm Home was released as part of ABC's TGIF block in 1991. You'd be forgiven for not knowing about this show as it only lasted for a six episode season on ABC. But wait, here's where things get interesting. The show was taped at Nickelodeon Studios... in Orlando Florida (try saying the first half without the other the bump's so well engrained into most of our minds.)
I bring that up because of a tandem network deal between ABC and Nickelodeon. During the first season, ABC would air the show on Fridays and would be reran on Nick at Nite every Sunday. However, due to low ratings and Nick at Nite at the time being known as a block on a network not in direct competition with the big three, they opted to continue production for another season... of seven episodes.
Beyond a talk show revival relating to Green Acres (though to be fair I doubt it'd be any worse than Alf's talk show), this was Nick at Nite's first original production. Think of that what you will.
While this show was able to bring in popular actors from classic sitcoms such as Ann B. Davis as Alice (no seriously, she was brought in as a cameo), Al Lewis (take a guess who he plays with the cameo bit in mind), Gomer Pyle (Shazam!), Beaver's mom (Leave it to Beaver) and Alice without Jackie Gleason, and that was just the first season... I hardly recognize a bulk of the cast here.
The only ones I kinda recognize are Julie Benz, who would be better known for playing Darla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, among various other roles, as well as former Backstreet boy A.J. McLean, but he only appeared in the show's pilot. Was the idea to not overshadow classic sitcom stars? Or were they trying to preserve the Nickelodeon spirit with the hammiest actors they could find, spoilers.
Many of the main actors, while not notable, had gone on to do some small acting stints since this show. Stephen Bradbury had appeared in not one, but three renditions of Law and Order, where they take on anyone with a pulse apparently.
Charlotte Booker actually made the rounds in various comedy shows such as The Larry Sanders Show, NewsRadio, The Drew Carey Show and 3rd Rock from the Sun, and even appeared in the under appreciated horror anthology Monsters, but also dabbled in drama shows (and not just Law and Order, she appeared there too), such as Party of Five, Grace Under Fire, and her most recent consisting acting gig was in Power.
I'd end it here, but I feel like talking about the fate of the actor that would replace A.J. McLean in the full series, Eric Kushnick. This was his first acting gig, and to be fair he had something of a career since, appearing in The Adventures of Pete and Pete, Spin City, Judging Amy and Grounded for Life before dropping off in 2002, but to be fair I guess that was his choice.
The show was created by Rick Mitz and Penny Stallings. Mitz would go on to write for Remember WENN? A slightly more serious version of something like WKRP in Cincinnati, that aired on AMC of all places, and something called... The Spinoffs?
This was Stallings' only effort, beyond a self-appearance in an episode of The Mike Douglas Show back in 1979.
So show now
Hi Honey, I'm Home centers on a cancelled sitcom family (back when cancellation solely revolved around TV shows) who promptly move in to a real world neighborhood. I don't just mean the actors who played the sitcom family, I mean the characters, real life characters, move in to a neighborhood that's in reality.
There is one thing I'd like to question. Their presence is meant to be kept under wraps to prevent their chances of getting back on the air from getting slighted. I gotta ask, is this cancellation just an indefinite hiatus? Are they trying to get onto syndication? I don't get the stakes they're trying to throw here. If this is to keep fans and the paparazzi off their backs, that'd be pretty cliche.
So it's a 50s sitcom family living in early-90s suburbia, their secret known by a teenaged boy who goes nuts over that kind of stuff. Think Pleasentville but without a condescending and artificial conflict caused by a bitch of a sister who proceeds to ruin her brother's fun just cuz. I'd have no right to mock the boy given my interest in logos, and crappy movies.
When you hear the term 50s family, you automatically gravitate toward stereotypes, housemaker and lack of much else mom (Honey, yes that's what she is called as a pun on the title), goofball dad (Lloyd), airhead (Babs- wait, were airheads a thing in the 50s?), the well meaning and loyal youngest son (Chucky), all we need is the sporty middle child son and we'd have a full deck. But onto the surname... Nielsen, based off of the Nielsen ratings, get it, because this is about a cancelled sitcom family. The name Nielsen had become synonymous with two very specific things, and it'd be a hard sell to make the name stand on its own. Only other direction the show could take with that surname is if it were a vanity project starring Leslie Nielsen.
I'll say this, they do attempt to get the 50s family into more modern conventions, but most of the time they just go for the bare minimum. If a premise presents itself to me, I'd be compelled to give the episode a chance. There was one that caught my interest, one where Lloyd falls into depression after an identity crisis following his inability to find a job and maintain his title as pants wearer. Unfortunately, due to the lack of available episodes, I'm stuck with an episode that's probably gonna feel artificial. But I feel like revisiting the first episode I ever watched of the show, which is ironically the first.
Now, there's no better place to start than the first episode, and this is a redo of an older pilot, so as far as I know this is up to the standards they had set.
Now I Watch an Episode
After an elaborate theme song where the people's expressions are the only annoying things about it, along with the occasionally clunky lyricism, though for a theme song that describes what the plot is is a mixed bag, save it for episodes after the first so newcomers could be caught up to speed.
We start off with the sitcom nut, Mike, watching the in-show Hi Honey, I'm Home with the kind of enthusiasm that asks "Is this real? Does this look convincing enough?" Okay this was his first acting gig, with his latest being a brief stint in the Joker. That is the tits. But he is basically me when I check out bad movies while not talking over them like an idiot appealing to other idiots.
Just to be fair, Charlotte Booker plays the 50s wife schtick pretty well when she isn't asked to go over the top, and any bad acting would be due to either poor direction or writing. Stephen Bradbury is the most hammy of the two in terms of first impressions, but I need to be fair, this is like his, what, his fourth acting gig? One of the previous four being a presidential drama film which he apparently had top billing in?
Most of the jokes are all about 50s sitcoms, but unlike shows like The Critic, outsiders can be eased into them. Kid watches old sitcom, they associate June Cleaver with a 50s sitcom. At least it attempts to ease people in.
You know you're in the early 90s when you catch a character with a mullet. When it comes to how they break the news on the cancellation, just mentioning something new will be in its time-slot, that's actually the best approach they could take. However, part of me feels like they're implying the show had been running new episodes, but maybe they could've just meant reruns no longer being done.
Mike is interesting in concept, a 90s teen who enjoys more nostalgic programs, but then they bring up the daughter on the show within a show, spoiler, he becomes smitten with her (not that she's smart enough to know). Two minutes and I'm already seeing red. I wish they would've had more characters who merely had an odd interest, nothing else to it. All else I can say about Mike is that he kinda reminds me of a young Michael J. Fox. It was a year after the last Back to the Future movie... but I wonder if he was any better than Eric Stolz?
We get nothing but bickering between Mike and his mother until we meet our bigger leads, spoiler, they focus on their relationship in one episode where Mike is revealed to be the man of the house. Only other thing I saw similar was Out There, based on the durotagonist's relationship with his mother, but I just felt like namedropping an underrated show.
If mullets don't scare you, wait till you see Mike's younger brother's hair, the kind that makes you question if he's trying to scare bullies away through self-awareness. But wait, he kinda is a bully. Add some eyeliner and an interest in new wave and arts and hope he goes on to start a band pioneering a subgenre in metal. Oh and he calls his mother by name, (It's Elaine for the record, gotta work on getting the names out.) If you have no confidence to continue, check out God, The Devil and Bob, Sammy and Golan the Insatiable as examples of other shows where we have troubled youths refer to their parents by their names.
But first, neighbors. And this time it's important.
And just like that, no build-up or fanfare, we suddenly see 50s mother, Honey, and her acting takes a dive. Any good lines, whether it be obligatory stabs at cliches (which ironically have become cliched in recent years) are ruined by poor delivery. But don't get me wrong, we do get some bad lines and jokes too, such as a correction on whom the bully (Skunk) wishes to be referred to, right after saying his real name. I can't mention every poor joke in this because it's better heard than mentioned, but I'll be damned if I honor a promise to not bring it up.
Sight gags too. Can mace cause wall-hung decorations to fall? Also that bottle looks more like breath spray or hairspray if you wanna be really creative. Was it any better to not have her spray herself in the eyes? Lest they got legitimate mace and wanted to avoid a lawsuit, or maybe they were trying to get this in one shot and it was an unfortunate accident for the thing to fall. Pretty commendable, but the last show I know of that tried to carry on with a continuous take was one of the worst Canadian shows until the Canadian Ellen helped change our minds.
But now, feminism. Out of nowhere Elaine brings up a petition, lest I missed a hint implying this would happen, but hey, I know who she's voting for. And the women's right to choose? I was close to criticizing Honey asking what women would choose, but thinking about it, this makes it seem like Elaine had been living under a rock. Take that tidbit out, we have an obvious but clever joke that pins 50s housewife conventions against a pretty solid prediction of borderline militant feminism. All we need is an undercut.
I wish Elaine held onto the mace, where she would spray Honey in the eyes out of sheer rage and help to establish plots that would be rectified in other episodes.
To further go on the poor joke delivery, Skunk asks Chucky for a high five, Chucky give him five dollars. It would've been better if Skunk said give me five, I know they go for obvious jokes, that was the climate for family sitcoms at the time, I get it, but they have to be done right. Even Full House was able to do this.
Out of the gate, at least Honey is able to pick up on the secret that has to be kept, not even getting curb-stomped by the fact that a teenaged boy would recognize her. Would've been funny if his interest in 50s sitcoms came up overtime and she'd assume he's eying her as some kind of model. If Barb was the first person he saw, I think things would've gone ham sandwich with a side of bacon.
But anyway, secret trust is established, and one thing I realized is that they alluded to the plot of this episode through the in-show episode of the in-show. Interesting idea, seeing if lightning can strike in the same place twice when it comes to people of different times and beliefs, let's see how they handle it, who's cameoing in this episode? Gale Gordon as Theodore J. Mooney from I Love Lucy? I mean sure he was a boss in some capacity. I have seen a few episodes of I Love Lucy, but never caught this character.
Right now, I think Elaine is trying to out ham Honey. She never landed another role until 1999, dare I say this made a huge dent in her career. Also she appeared in Law and Order, and apparently she's also a stage actor, which may account for the gaps in her resume. But as of now, she begs to be played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Either she didn't have a chance to finish or forgot that Massachusetts also has a Springfield.
I should be writing my discussion posts for school, yet I'm killing braincells keeping up with hammy jokes. Thank god assignments are due a minute before midnight on the day.
I see Babs for the first time, and something tells me Mike likes his women the way he likes his style. Old fashioned. At least she isn't just some vixen, this indirectly helped give Mike an edge, though this just coincides with his odd interest in 50s shows. Okay I defended the odd interest, but it's how they go about it here.
Also Elaine eyes a young girl's chest. Not even I looked there until someone brought it up. Wait, is that why Mike is eying her? Am I really going to get mad about how an obscure show no one cares about handles a character? Can anger just be mutually exclusive to exclamation points and repetition?
Back to the givens, since the Nielsens are meant to be caricatures of 50s sitcom characters, it's hard to expect much from them, but it comes around the other way too if you have this unique premise and do nothing with it. Anyhow, they don't reveal the truth to him just yet, and for whatever flack I may give Stephen Bradbury, I'll admit, his first introduction in the real world was grinworthy, and it gave me something to think about, whether he confused a mugger with an old woman (less the latter pickpockets) or he confuses a valet with a carjacker.
They do have this remote where they change the environment to black and white and restore older personalities. I think this is like Wandavision, but I haven't seen that show enough to make a solid comparison, and fuck, I'm not giving Disney any more money.
I need a break, fortunately the copy I'm watching has commercials, even if none are very interesting, though do they still make Milky Way ice cream bars? Also did you know MTV hosted a TV special related to racism, hosted by Queen Latifah? By the way it isn't lost media, it's on YouTube.
Back to the show, Lloyd assumes The Flintstones makes more sense than a 50s sitcom family within a color changing environment (and it was around here that I got to the moment in the episode I was first introduced to the show.) There's funny idiocy, then there's desperate idiocy, but the cat's out of the bag and the realization had been implied in my plot summary, beyond the SRP detail, "Sitcom Relocation Program."
Honestly, the idea of various sitcoms being moved to a neighborhood seems like an interesting idea. ABC had plenty of sitcoms at their disposal, and they already were able to book cameos from stars in them, sounds like wasted potential, but at least they kinda tried to incorporate the idea, I guess. I don't like how they imply they're stuck here until they can go back on the air. A 50s sitcom wouldn't fly beyond reruns, so them being here is darker than you think, a sitcom family being put out to pasture unaware of the reason behind it and the broader implications. Think Captain Star, but that had much more to go off of with ageism and commercialism.
The references to other sitcoms and where they live seem iffy to me. Why would My Mother, The Car('s characters) be sent to Cleveland? Was Michigan too obvious? Hello, Larry (or just Larry) is said to be in Buffalo... what's the relation? Interestingly, both of these sitcoms have become infamous for their low quality, so maybe the twist is that Hi Honey, I'm Home was cancelled unceremoniously because people hated it, and the SRP wanted to send them off without letting their own cat out of the bag. I wish they touched more on the quality of their original sitcom, but they come close to getting their own show back.
Side-note, for those who may bring it up, this predated Pleasentville, and this is hardly anything like that.
Also, Honey say "One of us even got elected president.", before you think it, this was made in the George H.W. Bush administration. Before you think this took a stab at Bush, this was very likely a joke about Ronald Regan, even though Regan mainly appeared in anthology programs and westerns, not sitcoms.
Back to the conflict, I'm questioning why people knowing of their true identities would compromise them getting back on the air. If this is a new show airing in the modern era it wouldn't fly. People would view them as either celebrities or method actors, apparently Mike was the only one who recognizes them, as they're comfortable enough to go out in public. What am I missing here? It's nothing curtains and locks can't fix if they want to simulate black and white. If I keep thinking this I'm gonna lose a lot more braincells.
Did someone say Turner reference? Because Technicolor was too obvious?
Also she's keeping up with modern dialog, which is ironically more dated than her own dialog. Hearing more of it, hey, so that's what a vessel burst feels like. I dunno, maybe I got it thinking how much worse this could be if the neighbors were black, then things would turn more uncomfortable. They were around before the Johnson administration.
But now let's take a break and whine about one of the characters.
Break
Going into this, I assumed I'd hate Honey by the end of it, but looking back now, she was actually pretty bearable, beyond some gaffs. Ten minutes to the end, and I can say with the utmost confidence that Elaine is the worst character in the show, bar none. The Nielsens are archetypical, but I can forgive that, culture clash scenarios, but Elaine? Obnoxious, irritable, preachy, condescending, dare I say misandristic? Just a reminder that at one point during their introduction she whips out a petition relating to feminist causes.
Feminists get a bad rep, I understand that discrimination is still a thing, but she represents the kind of feminist who would ruin the concept for anybody. Think Lois (from Malcolm in the Middle) crossbred with Lisa Simpson, she's just as preachy and annoying. Hell, she causes a crisis that would occur later on. Thanks to the secret BS, Honey is forced to contend with pre-made food, a concept foreign to her. I'm not getting on her for bringing premade food (in spite of what I said) since the timeframe would've been unreasonable as Lloyd's boss was coming, either this is more about how the secret business is more trouble than it's worth, or how maybe Elaine's pride would've yielded the same results.
I get why people go on about comeuppance, because just the fact that someone knowingly sabotages someone because of their own ego and getting away with it... it's unsatisfying, and this is the first time I ever encountered her so I have no intent of getting to know her further. By the way she doesn't get any better as this episode goes on.
Preserve the cause, get rid of the promoters that run the cause into the ground.
Now back to the show
Getting to the scene which I assumed was where Honey was at her hammiest... it's better than I remembered. I guess since I've seen a lot of cheesy stuff since then I've become numb to it. Does a mixer cause pre-made pudding to rise like yeast?
The food is burnt and Mike calls KFC to save the day (actually, Chicken Lickin, a name that makes me yearn for Chokey Chicken, even Chewy Chicken.) Also Mike's interest in the old show comes from him clamoring for a proper family. Seeing the kind of mother he has and a hellraiser for a brother, I can accept that.
Anyway, Mr. Mooney comes in, and no, that's not in reference to his better known character, that is actually Mr. Mooney, the character Gale Gordon is playing. I mentioned this before. I think this was the draw for viewers, seeing old familiar characters, and I'll admit, had I not known about the schtick behind the series it would've caught me off... had I known about the character in the show he originally appeared on.
Also, side note, this was Gale Gordon's second to last role. He would die four years later.
We're four minutes to the end, end credits included, so it's an appropriate time to put in commercials. At least now I'm clued in to a series of commercial shorts Nick at Nite did involving a milk man (I never saw it.... yet it looks so familiar. Similar thing happened when I saw the sixth episode of Sammy, it was an episode that aired on television, yet I never heard of the show till recently, and one scene was familiar.)
So, I guess to contrast with the ending to the 50s show where a good dinner with the boss leads to a promotion, they have it where Lloyd's place of work is shut down. Was this part of Mr. Mooney's schtick? That's another downside, the only chance you can really enjoy the show is if you know about the cameo characters. Otherwise, this is an oddly dark piece of subversion.
He came to dinner just to break that news to him, guy must've had a wicked sense of humor, sorta like the creators, who have a bizarre techno mix play during the end credits. It's the 90s, techno's where it was at, oh thank god I didn't have a developed conscious until at least the year 2000.
I like how the Nickelodeon Studios bump was shot while it was cloudy outside, it's symbolic really, a sign of certain disaster. Or maybe I'm just being too dramatic.
Final Thoughts
This show was fine for the period, but is among the few 90s shows that held up poorly, only being ahead of the curve in the worst possible ways. Is this the worst sitcom I've ever seen? No, not really. I'm bound to find something worse, but for a fish out of water type show, it just wasn't good.
Want to watch a show that did this right? Check out The Charmings, featuring Snow White and Prince Charming in a modern setting, but somehow they aren't annoying about their lack of connection to the modern world, are willing to try and be better about it, they don't have a secret to keep, not even the neighbors are that bad, and that was released in 1987. It was by the same people who made The Nanny, but it was possible to make a sitcom that can hold up, a more obscure one that is.
The pilot containing A.J. McLean is up on YouTube, but I really don't wanna go back to- wait, Elaine is different too? I won't do a direct review of that, but I will (hopefully remember) to tell you my thoughts in my next review. Either I'll be looking at an obscure Christian horror film from 2003 produced by the same company behind Left Behind... the 2000 version, the good version, or a 1995 horror film starring Johnny Storm... from the 1994 Roger Corman Fantastic Four movie. Ironically he's a Christian too.
