Sperm Donor Leaves a Good Taste for Situation: Comedy

[by Erica]

I sat down to watch the premiere episode of Situation:Comedy (in which amateur writers vie for a chance at an NBC pilot) tonight, and it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Although no contestant reached Gulager-like proportions of oddity or hilarity, they were all likeable enough. The premises of some of the shows selected for the finals included: a fish out of water story about a diner in Maine, a fish out of water story about a lodge in Alaska, a fish out of water story about a white pastor at a black church (are you sensing a pattern?), a show that sounded like Clerks in a clothing store, and a show that sounded just like Rushmore, only with an 11-year-old and not as quirky (this show, “Stephen’s Life,” will be one of the two pilots produced. No word yet on if Kevin Arnold will direct or if the honor will fall to Marcy D’Arcy.)

Sadly, the shows not chosen include a show about a lamp, a show about talking lasagna, and a show about a woman who stores things in her ass.

The other show chosen for the finals, called “The Sperm Donor,” involved the story of a woman who tracks down the father of her 13-year-old daughter after the girl expresses a desire to meet the man who donated his sperm. To me, it sounds like a terrible, and unfunny, premise for a show.

Apparently, the WB didn’t agree. According to The Futon Critic, the network has a midseason replacement scheduled called “Misconceptions” that sounds suspiciously like “The Sperm Donor.” The WB show stars Jane Leeves (Frasier) and French Stewart (3rd Rock From the Sun), and The Futon Critic said it’s “in the running to be the worst comedy pilot this season” and that it “feels like a bad early-1990s FOX sitcom magically transported to present day – all of its crappiness fully intact.” Yup, that sounds about right.