I've been watching this series every week (and yes that's been hard since they seem to change the time every week).

I think Stephen's Life is actually quite a funny show and if it evolves not into cutesy but more biting I think it could be a really good show--good enough to be one of the only network scripted shows I watch (in addition to Scrubs--and not including all the wonderful reality tv shows)

The Sperm Donor is terrible!!! I can't believe TVGasm is supporting it!! I dedicate quite a lot of time to checking this website everyday from my cube and I must say I'm very disappointed.

The Sperm Donor couldn't be more silly. It's a very bad rip off of the same idea you always see, plus it just isn't funny.

Anyway, I'm very surprised that a tv connoseuir such as yourself would endorse such crap. I strongly suggest that you reconsider this endorsement.

It was pretty telling that when they were announcing the losers, half the time the committee would say something like "this is really smart, but I don't think it will work." Nope, can’t have anything to intelligent on NBC.

sweet j --

Just to remind you, I thought both were incredibly unfunny, and i would never *ever* watch either one. But at least sperm donor made me laugh out loud once. very low standards we're dealing with here.

I watched both.

I didn't laugh once during Sperm Donor, and kept waiting for Maggie Wheeler to break into a nasal "oh my gaaaawd"

I laughed quite a few times during Stephen's Life.

But you're right, neither blew me away.

I voted for Stephen's life.

I watched two minutes of each. I laughed once at Sperm Donor (at the beat the show takes for you to figure out what the mother's profession is, though the immediately following line is lame beyond belief), and never at Stephen's Life.

So, though Sperm Donor is slightly better, I'm going to take inspiration from Stephen and indulge in that fine American tradition of not voting at all. And then eat a donut while watching five-year-old videos of Bill Clinton (?).

I couldn't finish watching either one of them out of sheer boredom.

Besides, I've developed a severe aversion to laugh tracks over the years. Especially when it's almost constant, like with these two shows.

I don' know the name of it, but I think that "The Sperm Donor" is the plot of some WB or UPN show this fall ... it has Daphne from Frasier. Is it the same show?

Could someone explain to me why Cheri Oteri can't seem to find work - she cracks me up. I loved her on SNL

Wow! It was so nice to find your blog with intelligent commentary. The stuff on the Bravo message boards was scary.
My opinions about those shows is pretty much the same as yours. I didn't get a chance to vote for the shows, the voting ended too early, but if I had to choose, it would be "The Sperm Donor", only so those others guys wouldn't win. Editing or not, I couldn't stand that Andrew guy.
Didn't you also think that Cheri Oteri's character was kind of icky? Drooling over a middle school kid? Stroking his leg? I love warped humor, but I just think that was completely tasteless and most of all, not funny.
Do you think any of those writers will actually work in TV after this?

I've seen all the eps and both pilots. One thing I found stunning was the utter joylessness of the entire process of producing these comedies.

I've worked as a writer on several sitcoms and animated shows... and regardless of our position in the Nielsen rating-- we laughed. A lot. Comedy writers are generally amusing people to be around.

Andrew strikes me as the type of guy who'd be singled out as the funniest attorney in the risk management dept.

Stan and Maxine seem like decent folk. But they both had that regretful pallor that industry pros get five minutes after they start teaching their Learning Annex class entitled "How to Break Into Television."

Given that all the characters in both pilots were sampled from other, better shows, I suppose both pilots were well acted. (That said, the kid who played Stephen needs a speech therapist and an endocrinologist, stat.)

The writing is, unfortunately, industry standard comedy writing.

The kindest thing I can say is that they are both familiar products. Like bags of Cheez Doodles whose expiration dates have long past.