This was the pilot. Pilots are weird. There’s usually a lot
of time between when the first episode is shot and when it gets picked up for a
full season, giving writers and producers time to think, change and adjust
between that first episode and the rest of the season. Sometimes we’re
introduced to characters we never see again. Sometimes writers decide to go a
completely different direction with a character. And more often than not, the
set gets a makeover. So don’t judge a show by its pilot.
That said, this show has some great potential. “The Crazy Ones” was advertised as the grand TV return of Robin Williams as marketing legend Simon Roberts. Add in Sarah Michelle Gellar as his type-A daughter-turned-business partner, several highly attractive employees, and McDonald’s as a client. The number of genuine father-daughter moments leads me to think we’re going to get a good dose of drama. Although with Williams’ characteristic style of spastic impersonations, it’s safe to label the show a comedy.
The three supporting characters are played by familiar faces from short TV stints in the past year: James Wolk from AMC’s “Mad Men” and USA’s “Political Animals”; Hamish Linklater from HBO’s “The Newsroom”; and Amanda Setton from Fox’s “The Mindy Project.” Hopefully these characters will stick around longer than Douglas Hammond, Jerry Dantana, and Shauna Dicanio did on their shows.
So where does the name come from? Gellar’s character sheds some light on the inspiration: the 1997 Apple commercial called, “Here’s to the Crazy Ones [1].” (Interestingly, there was an unaired version [2] with Steve Jobs as narrator.)
Aside from the unnecessary innuendos involved in trying to help Kelly Clarkson dirty her “America’s sweetheart” image, the humor was fairly clean. Again, don’t judge a show by its pilot. The next few weeks will prove whether or not the writers decided to go clean or as Clarkson says “sing about sex.” On that note, here’s hoping that Kelly Clarkson sticks to music.