It’s so rare that anyone in Hollywood apologizes for anything they’ve foisted on the public that we’re always bowled over when it happens. The latest such blue-moon apology comes from the makers of Fox’s new sitcom Do Not Disturb (starring Niecy Nash and Jerry O’Connell, pictured). The Sept. 10 debut episode (which was not the pilot) was not up to snuff, the producers acknowledged in a letter to TV critics. According to Variety, the DND-ers apologized in their letter "for being the perpetrators of such bad television."
Granted, the acknowledgment was a bit tongue in cheek, and was made in the hopes that TV critics will give the show another chance. Besides, to give the producers their due, DND isn’t unwatchable, just very mediocre and undistinguished, a comfort-food show in a genre (the workplace comedy) we’ve been spoiled to expect a lot more from nowadays, thanks to 30 Rock and The Office. (I’m not buying the excuse that we would have liked the episodes better if they’d been shown in order. Episode 2 last week wasn’t any better.) Still, I give them props for candor and humility. Now, go forth and sin no more.
Just wondering: Which of you have watched Do Not Disturb? What did you think? Was an apology necessary? If so, do you accept it? Will you give the Fox sitcom another shot when it airs tonight?
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I’m a Clean House fan so I’ll be patient with Niecy Nash but I agree so far I have not been impressed.
I hated it. I thought it was unfunny and incredibly offensive.
i don’t think its that bad to be honest. it isn’t the best, but i laugh now and then.
How embarassing that the producers have to come out and apologize for their stupid show…lets face it this show is beyond terrible. Was it not the pilot that was made available for viewing, the same pilot that everyone was saying how crappy this show is going to be. That is the real reason why they decided not to start with the pilot. I think the producers of this show just made themselves look foolish. I doubt this show will get any better it will only get worse!
I am very disappointed that they would even bring this kind of show to television it is in very bad taste. I do not plan on wasting my time watching it anymore.
I SO wanted this show to work. I mean, how often do you have a show with a Black female lead opposite a White male? And the Black woman wasn’t even extra Sassy and even got some tail?
But it no avail. It really didn’t prompt one laugh out of me, which is odd because Niecy is a very funny woman. Dang! I wish this show was good!
I actually think it’s funny. I like it. Comedy is pretty simple: I laughed when I watched it. so, i guess it’s funny. I’ll continue to watch.
I tried 5 minutes and turned it off cursing NBC once again for axeing Crossing Jordan.
I watched the first two episodes and decided that I disliked this show.
Then I remembered it’s on FOX. The network that canceled Arrested Development, Futurama, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, and Firefly.
Then I hated this show.
Seriously? Is this what Arrested Development was canceled for? Do Not Disturb? Cavemen? ’til Death? Back to You?
- Empty out FOX’s line up! We’ve got a winner in Do Not Disturb.
- But can’t we save this emmy winning show? It’ll only take up 1/2 hour a week!
- Nope! No room. We’re gonna adapt a Geico commercial into a sitcom instead.
Who manages this network?!
If I’m not mistaken Do Not Disturb is already doing worse in ratings than Arrested Development was. Brilliant move.
Sorry for this rant.
I’m a HUGE Niecy Nash fan. I hardly ever watch network TV, but I gave it a shot because of her. I don’t think I’ll be back for seconds. She deserves a better show.
I do indeed believe they should apologize for creating such mediocre mess for the incomparable Niecy Nash to perform in! That woman has worked too hard to finally get her own show and it suck balls…
By the way, last nights episode was much much better than the first, I do see that they are improving slowly but surely but they need to speed it up!
The show isn’t TERRIBLE (I’d rather watch this then be subjected to anymore 90210 2.0) it made me laugh. Some characters have the chops to be funny (the bellhop, the harsh but endearing gay guy they just need better material… I do wish this could have done better, poor Jerry, this is what the 4th show he’s tried? He needs a stable job people! He’s having twins for god sake!
BTW I totally agree with Matt… Fox has had some poor judgement with shows, oh how I miss Firefly!
I didn’t think it was that bad. Jerry O’Connel is rehashing his character from Carpoolers, and Niecy Nash is playing the converse of her character in Reno 911. Like others, I see the most potential in the bellhop and gay accountant characters.
I say give these four a little character development, and let Niecy get it a little improv (what she does best), and this show might be worth checking out again.
I thought it was pretty bad. I like O’Connell and Nash & was hoping for the best, but they both seem to have the worst taste in projects. Maybe they aren’t offered better stuff? I like sitcoms–from Arrested Development to Two and a Half Men to the Simpsons–but I couldn’t make it past 15 minutes on this. Yeah, they should apologize. I want my 15 minutes back.
The only reason anyone watched this show last night was because there was nothing else to watch at 9:30pm. I was definitely not going to watch crappy 90210 so I caved in and stuck with Do not disturb. Here is a thought why dont they show more of the hotel guests being treated badly by the staff since the show is called: DO NOT DISTURB.
I was at the Paley/TV Guide Preview parties (all except for the CW – for obvious reasons) and saw the first to air episode. The Exec producer was pretty sure they were headed to cancellation even before it aired. I thought there was an “exciting regime chenge” at FOX. Turns out it more of the same: bad notes, from creative execs who are not even remotely creative, given to talented writers (this guy wrote for Arrested Development!) to make shows as craptastic as possible. The show was really bad, but no worse than the stinker called “Til Death,” and that poorly written, overacted garbage is still on the air. How about fostering well written comedies and keeping them on the air long enough to gather speed? How about airing the shows in the order the producers intended? There is nothing new or different about FOX, the names of the execs have changed, but they are still carbon copies of each other.
The sad thing about this show was not how cliche it was, but how it underused the brilliant Niecy Nash and the clever Jerry O’Connell.
I watch A LOT of TV, and I had a crush on Jerry O’Conell when he was on Crossing Jordan as Woody, but even that was not enough to make me watch this dreck! I did watch “Welcome to the Captain” (or something like that), which was pretty bad, and I knew this would be worse.
well, the show was not great, but I guess I liked that a lot of the cast was from other shows that also got cancelled within the past few seasons —guess I’m just happy to see them again:) (though was Reno911 cancelled or on hiatus?) So with this gone…wish they would bring Back To You on to fill its place…
I feel your pain, but Cavemen wasn’t a Fox show…it was on the network that aired O’Connell’s other cancelled show…
It was a truly terrible show. I wanted to like it just because I really liked the gay guy, Charity from Passions (an even worse show), Jerry O’Connell and Neicy Nash, but it was completely unwatchable. It actually had potential. No big shock they cancelled it now.
Yeah… it was bad. I love so many people in the cast– in particular I loved that red-haired guy from the Class (which actually was a funny show) but this just was not good.
Very bad TV…how did it get on in the first place?
I worked in hotels for years and let me tell you we had GREAT FUN…but this show doesn’t mirror that at all…you’d be better off to watch the security cameras from my hotel…with no sound…you’d laugh more. I wish Jerry and Niecy the best of luck…becuase Jerry is getting no where – last years carpoolers and now DND. I hope Neicy didn’t leave Clean House for this.
I thought it was good – not realistic – but good.
It entertained me. Well, That frees up 30 more minutes per week.
I think it was a decent show, but when i consider the fact that about 75% of tv shows seem like crap to me, DnD is/was a good show and considering the fact the networks have canceled so many really good shows the past few years i’m happy to find something even mildly entertaining. Thank god i didn’t love this show though.
This show made me laugh several times, and i’m saddened to see it go. It may have never become a classic, but it is now destined to be just another comedy that network television has given up on too early, after barely promoting it and probably ruining with their notes in the first place.
I went to two livce tapings on the Fox lot over the last few weeks. The writing has slow gotten better, especially with the episode taped last week…but it was just the one liners that came up on re-writes that were hilarious. The episodes that won’t be seen now were the better of them all.
WORST show I’d seen in a long time. How did it even go through to production?? I downloaded it free off of iTunes and literally turned it off after the first 3 minutes–it was that heinous. Sorry, with the advent of such incredible writing and acting on TV these days, I expect a LOT more than DND’s tepid, early-90’s era writing and stereotyped characters.
Biggest piece of crap, My wife was like “Let’s give it a try” and 10 mins in, *click*, over to Ghost Hunters rerun.