"Jesse," NBC's newest Thursday-night comedy, does not exactly live up to the Thursday-night tradition.
Which is a good thing. It's not "The Single Guy." Or "Man of the People." Or even "Caroline in the City."In other words, "Jesse" is not one of those really awful sitcoms that NBC has foisted on us in the guise of "must-see TV" on Thursday nights.
On the other hand, "Jesse" isn't "Cheers" or "Seinfeld" or "Frasier" or "Friends," either. It's an OK sitcom with a fabulous time slot, hammocked between "Friends" and "Frasier."
Christina Applegate ("Married . . . With Children") stars as Jesse, a 26-year-old single mother with a 9-year-old son. (They don't talk about it in the pilot, but the back story is that Jesse got pregnant when she was a senior in high school and married the baby's father - but the marriage didn't work out.)
Jesse is the one who holds her strange family together. Her father, John Sr. (George Dzundza), is an obnoxious bigot. Her older brother, John Jr., refuses to speak. (And her son - played by Eric Lloyd - is named Little John.)
Her younger brother, Darren (David DeLouise), is sort of an idiot who fancies himself an entrepreneur. (In the premiere, his latest failed scheme leaves him saddled with 8,000 garden gnomes.)
Jesse works as a barmaid at her father's German-themed bar/-res-tau-rant, which allows the producers to dress her in ethnic garb. And allows for a wisecracking best friend/fellow barmaid, Carrie (Jennifer Milmore).
Having been burned by love, Jesse refuses to date. At least until a hunky Chilean (Bruno Campos) moves in next door.
"Jesse" is likable without being really engaging. And it has the rhythm and look of a lot of other sitcoms on the air.
(The "Friends" and "Veronica's Closet" team of David Crane, Marta Kauffman and David S. Bright are executive producers, but the show was created by executive producer Ira Ungerleider, a veteran of Bright/Kauffman/
Crane's other Thursday-night shows.)
The show is not completely without surprises, the biggest being the performance of Christina Applegate. After 11 years as the "Married . . . With Children" sexpot, it's nice to see that she can actually act. And her charm and charisma go a long way toward making "Jesse" relatively pleasant viewing.
Not great viewing, but an OK way to waste a half-hour in front of the TV set.
This is not the sort of show that you're likely to go out of your way to find. The sort that NBC is so fond of calling "appointment tele-vi-sion."
You're not going to schedule your week around "Jesse" on Thursday nights at 7:30 p.m. But, if you've already made appointments to watch "Friends" at 7 p.m. and "Frasier" at 8 p.m., you probably won't mind spending a half-hour with "Jesse" in between.