Critically Unacclaimed Despite Excellent Ratings, ‘Single Guy’ And ‘Caroline’ Often Snubbed By Critics

Rodney Dangerfield can relate.

So far this season, rookie NBC sitcoms “The Single Guy” and “Caroline in the City” rank as the fourth and fifth most popular series on television.

Clearly, the audience is watching.

But, like Dangerfield, the two shows don’t get no respect from most critics and industry insiders. The unanimous refrain: The season has produced no true breakaway hits; these newcomers got lackluster reviews and have garnered great ratings only because of their time slots.

“Single Guy,” with Jonathan Silverman as the bachelor everybody sets up, and “Caroline,” starring Lea Thompson as a quirky, single cartoonist, are sandwiched on Thursday nights between the critical and popular hits “Friends,” “Seinfeld” and “ER” the three highest-rated series of the season. That has left the critics underwhelmed.

“At this point,” Daily Variety’s Brian Lowry wrote recently, “roughly two-thirds of the 42 new series that premiered in the fall have had their initial 13-episode order extended, despite the absence of a single bona fide hit.”

“The only new shows you could call hits, ‘Caroline in the City’ and ‘The Single Guy,’ just happen to be on NBC’s powerhouse Thursday night,” wrote Newsweek’s Rick Marin. “You could put Shari Lewis and Lambchop on after ‘Seinfeld’ and they’d get huge numbers.”

Warren Littlefield, president of NBC Entertainment, doesn’t deny that the freshman sitcoms’ enviable positioning has helped.

“If you put those shows out there on another night,” he said, “would they have those same numbers? No, they wouldn’t.”

But, he added in so many polite words, the media can take a long, vigorous walk.

“While we’re always interested in what the critics have to say, really, there’s no comparison when it comes to listening to the audience vs. listening to the critics. We’ll pick the audience every time.”

And the vote there, he insisted, is unambiguous: “The shows are absolutely runaway, breakaway hits.”

NBC executives are hoping the two new sitcoms enjoy “Frasier’s” fate. They launched the Kelsey Grammer vehicle after “Seinfeld” on Thursdays in 1993, it became a hit, then was moved to Tuesday night to build network strength there.

“We introduce new shows (on Thursdays) and we allow them to become favorites with the audience,” Littlefield said, then move them to other nights.

One big difference between “Frasier” and this season’s Thursday night newcomers, however, is that “Frasier” premiered to excellent reviews. But not every show is hot from the get-go, Littlefield argued, and all “creative entities” should be allowed time to mature.

“The shows are growing and finding their strengths and moving away from their weaknesses,” he said, just as did “Seinfeld” and “Friends,” which also were not enthusiastically praised at the start.