TV Review: 'Do Not Disturb'

FOX's new comedy Do Not Disturb premieres on Wednesday (Sept. 10) with an entirely different and noticeably better pilot than the one sent to critics over the summer. It still isn't funny.

Do Not Disturb is, alas, a bit of a mystery.

The series is created by Abraham Higginbotham, a young writer whose credits include Arrested Development and who comes across as clever and amusing in person. The premise -- the staff at a ritzy New York City hotel have wacky lives -- is as simple and potentially fertile as they come (albeit roughly the same premise as sunk Whoopi several seasons back). To those elements you can add a cast that really ought to generate laughs, including Niecy Nash and Jesse Tyler Ferguson, as well as Jerry O'Connell (who I'm told some people find amusing) and Do Not Disturb ought to work.

Instead, not even the studio audience seems to have found any mirth. The first pilot FOX sent out was almost entirely unsweetened and critics were treated to the nearly silent crowd reaction. Painfully silent. "Oh God, that joke bombed," silent. The new pilot has the occasional chuckle or laugh, but let me assure you that if the episode that airs Wednesday contains cheering, whooping or roars of approval, it was all added after the fact.

Though the new pilot looks subtle when compared to the original, every character is initially sketched in broad and leaden terms. O'Connell's Neal is the hotel general manager and he likes getting laid. Nash's Rhonda is the head of HR and she's sassy. Nobody in a million years would be able to tell you what Ferguson's Larry does, but he's gay. Molly Stanton's Nicole is beautiful, dumb and a bit mean. The actors, in turn, don't even bother to turn on their auto-pilot, though I have enough confidence in Nash and Ferguson that I may give the show one additional episode just to see if they find something to grab hold of, a quirky character trait or a good line of dialogue. I think I laughed once at the new pilot and that laugh came from Dave Franco -- James' brother -- as a sarcastic bellhop.

None of the characters seem original and the plot of the first episode -- Lothario Neal tries to prove he has control over his libido -- is beyond worn out. The episode also contains stale punchlines about premature ejaculation and security video cassettes. Yes, VHS tapes play a major role on a 2008 network sitcom and nobody comments on the absurdity. The action in Do Not Disturb all takes place in two or three claustrophobic, bland sets, a poor design decision that only makes things more unpleasant.

That FOX once was the home of Malcolm in the Middle and Arrested Development and Kitchen Confidential and even the underrated The Loop -- a string of subversive and low-rated single-camera shows -- shouldn't take away from the fact that it's also been the home of Happy Hour and The War at Home and that, for reasons that still perplex me, it remains the home of 'Til Death. Do Not Disturb belongs in the latter group and suggests, once again, that multi-camera comedy just isn't what FOX does best.

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