Andy Barker, P.I.: Pilot (series premiere)

(S01E01) I can't help but be afraid for this new series. I think it's great. I think people who enjoy the subtle comedy of The Office and My Name is Earl will also think it's pretty great. ("subtle", by the way, compared to a sitcom where we're told when to laugh) But it's going to take a while for this one to catch on. I can only hope that NBC will give Andy Barker, P.I. a fighting chance the same way it held on to The Office while it found an audience.
I've seen the pilot twice now since NBC made it and five other episodes available online. There are really two levels of comedy happening throughout the episode. There's the obvious one: an accountant takes a private investigator's case and solves it through tax records. The scene where Andy is doing work for one of his clients during a high-speed chase with the Russian mafia was hilarious! Barker is a straight-laced guy with a perfect, yet boring, life who decides to step out on a limb and take on the dangerous profession of private investigator. Clea Lewis, who plays his wife, is cast perfectly as the ultimate homemaker.
The second level of humor is a little less obvious. This is where I see Conan O'Brien's stamp all over the show (he's executive producer and writer). There were a heap of jokes about pop culture-- Sandra Bullock takes an especially hard beating in the pilot-- and Americana in general. Tony Hale, who plays video store guy Simon, is a total weirdo with a lot of great lines. He's one of those indignant nerds... the type many of us in this little online world are familiar with. And Marshall Manesh plays a great Afghani who "traveled here in the wheel well of a jumbo jet" and has American spirit spilling out of his ears. Sure, it's been nearly six years since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, but a patriotic Afghani is still a funny joke, right?
My fear for this show is that not enough people will get it. They will only see the Andy Barker character and not all the other, hilarious stuff. Maybe, after all these years of watching brilliant television shows get canceled, I have lost faith in American television viewers. I dunno. I just hope the crowd that likes The Office and NBC's other Thursday night shows gives Andy Barker a chance because it really does fit in well with that comedy line-up.
This episode is full of so many great one-liners. Here's a sampling:
"Don't park in front of the Christian Bookstore unless you want to get towed." - Simon, the video guy
"MSG NO! USA YES!" - sign at Wally's Afghani restaurant
"Hakim! One Ronald Reagan, extra hummus!" - Wally, the Afghani restaurant owner
"I gotta go. There's a beefy goth chick in Horror." - Simon
What did you think?

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