Ever since I saw the episode "Condomania", I wanted to give this show another chance. I thought that episode was terrible, and this show was the worst thing to appear on McLean Stevenson's resume. So, after viewing this, the very first episode of Condo, I feel exactly the same. This one is even worse, and this was the pilot episode. This is what got it on television! How? This show is horrible, and this episode was just poorly written, poorly directed, and poorly acted!
We begin with a helicopter news report about traffic and a heat wave, which has no baring on the plot. Then we meet the Kirkridges consisting of uptight bigot James, his kooky wife Kiki, space cadet son Billy, and bland older son Scott. It seems James' life insurance firm bit the dust because people are too poor to buy it... no, I think it's because he just sucked at selling it. They talk about some Hindu family buying their old house. "They have goats." "They paid cash!" Not funny! Then, next door, we have the Rodriguezes: patriarch Jesse, who is essentially a Hispanic George Jefferson, but much less funny and even less personality. His wife Wheez... er, Maria, her father, Jose, and their smokin' hot daughter Linda. Well, things get off to a bad start when James becomes stuck on his back patio and mistakes Jesse for the gardener. He demands plants on his patio and acts like a real stuck-up jerk. Even when Jesse tells him he's their neighbor, not the gardener, James doesn't apologize for his racist, xenophobic attitude. Kiki and Maria meet, and they get along much better. But then, Scott and Linda meet and it's love at first sight. No joke! They go from one minute to snide comments to a date on Sunday. Then we cut to three months later. Again, no joke. Really? We're just skipping ahead? Yeah, screw character development, let's just jump ahead to see nothing has changed.
It's Christmas, and the families are having dinner together, mostly due to Kiki and Maria's friendship. But, of course, James and Jesse are completely at odds, and as for Scott and Linda... they're in love. They want to get married. Geez, slow down, you two! This is what Romeo and Juliet would've been like if it was written by a crackhead. So, the two lovebirds are predictably caught by their fathers, and Jesse forbids Linda from seeing the boy again... and instead of drama, we get a ton of stupid jokes. Anyway, we cut to an additional three months later... good lord, maybe this show IS on crack. Slow down! So we cut to a sauna where an actual funny lady is sitting: Florence Halop. But sadly, even she can't make this enjoyable. We find out that Scott and Linda have eloped, and... get this: she's pregnant. Oh no, why would you do that to the human race? These two families have no business procreating. What are their fathers gonna say? Tune in next time. Yeah, it ends here, and we get a preview of "next week's show" where the families find out and Jesse spews a bunch of Santa names. The End.
This is a horrible show! It's not so-bad-it's-good, it's just BAD! The writing is just awful, the jokes are so terrible and unfunny they make Full House look like Seinfeld. The acting is terrible also, as nobody in this thing can give a decent performance, and it stars some otherwise talented people. Despite this, I do have a favorite character: Jose, Jesse's father in-law. He's amusing in every scene he's in because his indifferent attitude perfectly reflects how I feel as a viewer. James Victor is another actor too good to be in this crap. Condo was such an unbelieveably bad and unfunny show. How it ever got on TV is beyond me, and I really think McLean Stevenson should've retired after Hello, Larry. He should've taken a hint after that, and I like McLean! He deserved better! Condo is so bad, and this episode? I hated it! I hated this offensive, unfunny trash. It's funny how many shows tried to be All in the Family, but FAILED. You know, at the same time this godawful abomination aired, on the same network, there was a show called Amanda's By the Sea, which was an American version of Fawlty Towers. Yeah, didn't you always want to see an American Fawlty Towers with Bea Arthur in place of John Cleese? Geez, maybe Disney really did save ABC, because how that network stayed alive with garbage shows like those is beyond me.
We begin with a helicopter news report about traffic and a heat wave, which has no baring on the plot. Then we meet the Kirkridges consisting of uptight bigot James, his kooky wife Kiki, space cadet son Billy, and bland older son Scott. It seems James' life insurance firm bit the dust because people are too poor to buy it... no, I think it's because he just sucked at selling it. They talk about some Hindu family buying their old house. "They have goats." "They paid cash!" Not funny! Then, next door, we have the Rodriguezes: patriarch Jesse, who is essentially a Hispanic George Jefferson, but much less funny and even less personality. His wife Wheez... er, Maria, her father, Jose, and their smokin' hot daughter Linda. Well, things get off to a bad start when James becomes stuck on his back patio and mistakes Jesse for the gardener. He demands plants on his patio and acts like a real stuck-up jerk. Even when Jesse tells him he's their neighbor, not the gardener, James doesn't apologize for his racist, xenophobic attitude. Kiki and Maria meet, and they get along much better. But then, Scott and Linda meet and it's love at first sight. No joke! They go from one minute to snide comments to a date on Sunday. Then we cut to three months later. Again, no joke. Really? We're just skipping ahead? Yeah, screw character development, let's just jump ahead to see nothing has changed.
It's Christmas, and the families are having dinner together, mostly due to Kiki and Maria's friendship. But, of course, James and Jesse are completely at odds, and as for Scott and Linda... they're in love. They want to get married. Geez, slow down, you two! This is what Romeo and Juliet would've been like if it was written by a crackhead. So, the two lovebirds are predictably caught by their fathers, and Jesse forbids Linda from seeing the boy again... and instead of drama, we get a ton of stupid jokes. Anyway, we cut to an additional three months later... good lord, maybe this show IS on crack. Slow down! So we cut to a sauna where an actual funny lady is sitting: Florence Halop. But sadly, even she can't make this enjoyable. We find out that Scott and Linda have eloped, and... get this: she's pregnant. Oh no, why would you do that to the human race? These two families have no business procreating. What are their fathers gonna say? Tune in next time. Yeah, it ends here, and we get a preview of "next week's show" where the families find out and Jesse spews a bunch of Santa names. The End.
This is a horrible show! It's not so-bad-it's-good, it's just BAD! The writing is just awful, the jokes are so terrible and unfunny they make Full House look like Seinfeld. The acting is terrible also, as nobody in this thing can give a decent performance, and it stars some otherwise talented people. Despite this, I do have a favorite character: Jose, Jesse's father in-law. He's amusing in every scene he's in because his indifferent attitude perfectly reflects how I feel as a viewer. James Victor is another actor too good to be in this crap. Condo was such an unbelieveably bad and unfunny show. How it ever got on TV is beyond me, and I really think McLean Stevenson should've retired after Hello, Larry. He should've taken a hint after that, and I like McLean! He deserved better! Condo is so bad, and this episode? I hated it! I hated this offensive, unfunny trash. It's funny how many shows tried to be All in the Family, but FAILED. You know, at the same time this godawful abomination aired, on the same network, there was a show called Amanda's By the Sea, which was an American version of Fawlty Towers. Yeah, didn't you always want to see an American Fawlty Towers with Bea Arthur in place of John Cleese? Geez, maybe Disney really did save ABC, because how that network stayed alive with garbage shows like those is beyond me.