Jane Curtin stands out in ‘Crumbs’
A new sitcom with a veteran cast, “Crumbs” (9:30 p.m., ABC) is smart enough to challenge viewers with a mix of easy yucks, genuine pathos and some insight and character self-discovery.
It also provides Jane Curtin with a venue for a standout performance, a tour de force balancing act of rage, self-pity and comic zaniness that is a sight to behold.
Fred Savage stars as Mitch Crumb, a Hollywood scriptwriter with a paralyzing case of writer’s block. He’s also gay, a fact he thinks he has kept from his family. While this could be the whole subject of a lesser comedy, Mitch’s life in the closet is but a minor theme in the “Crumbs” symphony of dysfunction and denial.
In the show’s well-crafted pilot, Mitch returns home to escort his mother, Suzanne (Curtin), home from the psychiatric facility where she was held after trying to run down her philandering husband, Billy (William Devane), and his new girlfriend. Eddie McClintock rounds out the cast as Jody, Mitch’s brother, who took over the family restaurant after Billy’s departure.
Jody resents his father for deserting the family and the business, and he dismisses Mitch as a rich Hollywood jerk who turned their private tragedy – the drowning death of their brother – into a screenplay.
Unbeknownst to everybody, Mitch is broke and washed up. And, in the logic of television, his return to set things right with his family becomes a prolonged stay in which he tries to work out his own repressed emotions.
This is all pretty heavy stuff for a sitcom, but “Crumbs” leavens the talk of medication, repression, hospitalization, grief and abandonment with standard sitcom one-liners. And that’s where “Crumbs” runs into trouble.
The complex story and the characters’ emotional depth continually run into the limitation of the format.
Jody’s character is so underdeveloped and reduced to dumb one-liners that he often seems like he’s in an entirely different show.
The loud laugh track, annoying under any circumstance, is particularly dreadful and distracting here. And when we’re not told when to laugh, we’re told how to feel by the inevitable use of maudlin pop music.
“Crumbs” doesn’t need these shopworn sitcom crutches.
But back to Curtin. She steals this show right from under her experienced co-stars.
Hell, it is said, hath no fury like a woman scorned. And as the dumped Suzanne Crumb, Curtin gives one hell of a performance.
A child psychologist examines the special challenges of raising and educating young boys in the two-hour documentary “Raising Cain” (9 p.m., KSPS).
“Flight Attendant School” (9 p.m., Travel) follows 40 trainees chosen from more than 600 applicants. A second episode (9:30 p.m.) follows.
Other highlights
Tom Bergeron hosts “Dancing with the Stars” (8 p.m., ABC).
Karen throws a party on an episode of “Will & Grace” (8 p.m., NBC), performed before a live audience.
A casino owner’s mysterious demise on “CSI” (9 p.m., CBS).
An act of karmic penance demands that our hero work at a fast-food joint on “My Name is Earl” (9 p.m., NBC).
Marissa on their minds on “The O.C.” (9 p.m., Fox).
“Beauty and the Geek” (9 p.m., WB) returns for a second season.
Rookie mistakes on “Without a Trace” (10 p.m., CBS).
Dubenko pinch-hits for Clemente on “ER” (10 p.m., NBC).
Scheduled on “Primetime” (10 p.m., ABC): a husband’s deadly secret; conformity and the herd mentality.
Cult choice
The voices of Alison Lohman, Patrick Stewart, Uma Thurman, Shia LaBeouf, Chris Sarandon, Edward James Olmos and Mark Hamill are heard in the feature-length 1984 anime fantasy “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind” (5 p.m., TCM), part of a monthlong Thursday-night salute to animator and director Hayao Miyazaki (“Princess Mononoke”).
Series notes
Mixed news for Horatio on “CSI: Miami” (8 p.m., CBS) … On back-to-back episodes of “That ‘70s Show” (Fox), shampoo shenanigans (8 p.m.) and opportunity (8:30 p.m.) … Jonathan threatened on “Smallville” (8 p.m., WB) … Swingers on “Four Kings” (8:30 p.m., NBC) … Accidents will happen on “The Office” (9:30 p.m., NBC).