NBC Comedy Twenty Good Years Needs a Good Rewrite

On paper it looked like a can't-miss combination: "Twenty Good Years," a new NBC comedy that was supposed to showcase the talent and exquisite comic timing of veteran actors John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambour, from the producers of "Roseanne" and the producers and writers of "The Cosby Show."

But in reality, the show fell flatter than the dialogue, the jokes, and the oddly-placed laugh track.

I so wanted to like "Twenty Good Years," because I am a big fan of these two icons of entertainment (see their bios below) and had looked forward to seeing them back on television. Together. For the first time. But even Lithgow and Tambour couldn't transcend the weak material that seemed like it could use a few more rewrites.

The impetus of the show came after some clumsy setting-up of the relationship between the main characters. John Mason (played by John Lithgow), a thrice-divorced, self-absorbed surgeon, pompous as only Lithgow can play pompous, is given a sixtieth birthday party by his colleagues. During which he is summarily retired. And coming home late and drunk to his family party, he woefully relates his revelation that he has wasted his life and probably only has twenty good years left. So he calls on his best friend, Jeffrey Pyne (played by Tambour), a timid, commitment-phobic judge, and together (with much convincing from Lithgow) they make a pact to live each day as if it were their last.

And I hope that this episode won't be the last. In this new era of wandering eyeballs, networks are less willing to give shows that begin weak but have good potential the time they need to polish out the rough spots and find an audience. Because this show does have potential - it's just a little hard to find right now. The writing and dialogue need shoring up and the plot twists can be seen coming a mile down the road. For example, in a nice performance by Judith Light as Tambour's long-suffering girlfriend Gina, she takes him aside at Lithgow's party (after Lithgow had given Tambour a firebrand speech about making the most of their lives) and pushes him to propose to her. When they come out, a trembling Tambour - egged on by Gina - says he has an announcement to make. Of course the announcement is that he wants to break it off with her. Like someone on Saturn couldn't see that coming. Also, Lithgow needs to tone down his over-the-top performance just enough for us to be sympathetic. Tambour comes off so weak and wishy-washy that I wondered how he became a judge. The supporting characters - Heather Burns as Lithgow's very-pregnant daughter Stella, Jake Sandvig as Tambour's son Hugh - need development. And having Stella give birth in the first episode completely took my focus off the initial setup. That should have been held for a later episode. But there were some good comic moments toward the end of the episode, as it seemed that finally the writers were coming down to the nub of what this show is supposed to be: a modern-day "Odd Couple," picking up on the cultural zeitgeist that the oldest of the baby boomers are now turning - gasp - sixty and coming to terms with what they've done with their lives and how to make the most of the time they have left.

Let's hope that NBC will give this show enough time to develop into what could be a funny and very human comedy.

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Actor Bios

Jeffrey Tambour

Tambour signed on for the "Twenty Good Years" role fresh from a brilliant tour as George, the patriarch of the doomed Bluth family in the recently cancelled "Arrested Development." So fresh, in fact, that according to Tambour, in a Today Show interview, he agreed to do "Twenty Good Years" only days after learning that "Arrested Development" wouldn't be picked up.

He began playing character actors on a variety of television shows in the '70s and '80s, including "Three's Company," its spinoff, "The Ropers," and the Dabney Coleman character in the sitcom version of "9 to 5." After a few small movie parts, Tambour got his big break as Gary Shandling's sidekick in HBO's "The Larry Sanders Show."

John Lithgow

John Lithgow, a true Renaissance man, has been touted by the Wall Street Journal as "the film character actor of his generation." He was only six when he first stepped on stage, and never got off. A Fulbright scholar, he worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company until the early '70s. Then he returned to Broadway and became one of its most respected stars, garnering a Tony and a Drama Desk Award.

In his film career, he excelled in portraying over-the-top characters and got his first "big" break playing transsexual Roberta Muldoon in "The World According to Garp." He was in several other films including "Terms of Endearment" and "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai." Best known for his multiple Emmy and Golden Globe award winning alien captain in "3rd Rock from the Sun," Lithgow is also an artist, musician and tenured college professor at UCLA.