When I first got a look at the pilot for the new Fox comedy "Raising Hope" this past spring, I was pleasantly surprised. It was funny stuff.
It's kind of an, um, unusual premise. Jimmy Chance (Lucas Neff), is a young man going nowhere fast. After a chance encounter with a woman who turns out to be a felon, Jimmy is suddenly a single father with no clue.
And his family is not supportive. His mother (Martha Plimpton) and father (Garret Dillahunt) want him to give up the baby for adoption. And his great-grandmother (Cloris Leachman) isn't right in the head.
But clueless Jimmy is determined. And, in the first episode at least, the results are darn funny.
So was the letter I got a few days ago accompanying a (slightly) revised version of the pilot. A letter from executive producer Greg Garcia:
Dear My Favorite Member of the Press,
You'll be delighted to know that I have selected you and only you (well, maybe a few others) to receive a copy of the "Raising Hope" pilot for review as well as some other items you can re-gift during the holidays.
(I already re-gifted those items — the hilarious book "Safe Baby Handling Tips" and a T-shirt emblazoned "Baby daddy," to a co-worker. A very pregnant co-worker.)
I hope you enjoy the episode. Most of the other well-respected members of the press have already given it rave reviews, so I'm sure you'll want to jump on the bandwagon early.
And remember, the more you pump up the show now, the easier it will be to poke fun at it in years to come. Around Season Three, when I'm running out of ideas and I decide to put the baby in a coma and do several episodes of dream sequences, you can have the pleasure of writing, "What was I thinking when I called this show the best thing on TV since 'Yes, Dear'?"
(Garcia put Earl in a coma in the third season of "My Name Is Earl." And he was also the creator/executive producer of the much-maligned "Yes, Dear.")
As for Season One, I think it's going to pretty good since we're not out of ideas quite yet, and the cast tells me they're amazing.
The best part? I'm (involved) with Cloris Leachman! Can you believe it? I told her I was Errol Flynn. She has no idea ...
I hope you have as much fun watching our little TV show as we are making it.
Your pal,
Greg Garcia
Most of the sitcom pilots that cross my desk don't have as many laughs as that letter.
BABY TALK: Obviously, there are a lot of scenes in "Raising Hope" in which the actors work with an infant. Which can be both good and bad.
"They don't ever break character," Neff joked.
"They certainly make things interesting for us," Garcia added. "What we think is an easy scene can all of a sudden turn into a couple hours while the baby decides if it's in a good mood or not. But that's what you get working with babies."
There are, of course, a few times when the baby isn't actually a baby. Don't forget, Jimmy doesn't have a clue about what to do with a baby. Like, maybe, he, um, might not quite understand how a car seat is supposed to work. And that car might go around the corner or something.
"For the most part, we use a real baby as much as we could," Garcia said. "If occasionally we just saw the back of the baby's head, it would be a doll with a hat on."
A STEP UP: There are similarities between "My Name Is Earl" and "Raising Hope," both in style and in the, um, socioeconomic level of the characters.
"But this is a lower-middle income family, whereas 'Earl' was thieves and criminals and such," Garcia said. "So it's slightly elevated from that."
Except for that felonious birth mother.
"Yes, but she's gone," Garcia said. "You guys don't have to worry about her anymore."
e-mail: pierce@desnews.com