PASADENA, Calif. — If actors think it's so easy for TV critics to tell readers about their TV shows, maybe they ought to try it themselves.
Here's what Mimi Rogers has to say about "The Loop" (Wednesday, 8:30 p.m., Fox/Ch. 13), a new comedy about a a young man who, just out of college, gets a job as the youngest executive at a major airline but still lives and hangs out with his college buddies.
"I consider myself a harsh critic of what I watch and even what I'm in," said Rogers, who co-stars as the youngster's man-eating boss. "And this show makes me laugh out loud, because it is utterly lunatic, but in a really wonderful, sort of great-hearted, brilliant way. Kafka meets, you know, 'Training Day.' "
Um, what? I'd be happy to go along with her assessment that "The Loop" is laugh-out-loud funny in spots. And I sort of get her comparison to Franz Kafka, who wrote about some weird stuff.
But "The Loop" has nothing in common with the violent, 2001 action film "Training Day."
"Not 'Training Day.' That's the wrong reference," Rogers said. "Kafka meets 'Animal House.' It has a little 'Animal House' in it."
Yeah, OK. I'm still not quite buying the Kafka, but I can get on board with the "Animal House."
(See? It's not so easy to be a critic, is it?)
"The Loop" is a manic, over-the-top, frenetic half-hour that's designed to appeal to the younger viewers Fox (and advertisers) crave. If you don't like a joke, wait a minute, and there will be several others.
Our budding young executive, Sam (Bret Harrison), does sort of live in a bit of an "Animal House." His roommates include his rowdy, womanizing older brother, Sully (Eric Christian Olsen); medical student Piper (Amanda Loncar), Sam's college bud who he secretly carries a torch for; and Lizzy (Sarah Mason), is a bartender who doesn't realize just how hot she is.
Meanwhile, Sam's got a totally different set of people to deal with at work. The boss, Russ (Philip Baker Hall), is the demanding sort. Meryl (Rogers) is always hitting on him; and his secretary, Darcy (Joy Osmanski) is too smart for her own good.
It's sort of "Scrubs"-like in it's out-and-out goofiness, although in "The Loop" the goofy things aren't fantasy sequences. Like "Animal House," some of the humor is sophomoric at best. But Harrison manages to make Sam so likeable you can't help root for him.
Some of the funnier moments come from Meryl's not-even-vaguely-subtle come-ons to Sam. And Rogers is obviously having a lot of fun delivering her lines.
"What Meryl does to Sam in the show, I guess in real life I'd be sued for," Rogers said.
"Yeah, you'd be in jail," said executive producer Pam Brady.
"I'd be in big trouble," Rogers said. "The thing I like about Meryl is that, yes, she's a predator, but there's a real lunacy behind it. . . . There's kind of a real spirit of fun behind all the harassment as opposed to like a really heavy kind of lechery."
So . . . she's as loopy as the rest of "The Loop."
A second episode airs Thursday at 7:30 p.m. on Ch. 13 — the show's regular time slot.
QUOTABLE: "Late Night" host Conan O'Brien: "A new book is coming out about Barry Bonds' alleged steroid use and one of the steroids the book accuses Bonds of using is normally given to cattle. When reached for comment, Bonds said, 'Moo.' "
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com