'$#*! My Dad Says' Moment: Ed Really Doesn't Want the Internet in His House (VIDEO)

No matter how atrocious a sitcom's pilot is, I always tend to give it a couple of weeks for it to find its comic footing. After all, how many people tuned out after 'The Big Bang Theory''s pilot only to return later that season when the show improved?

Granted, the pilot for '$#*! My Dad Says' was much worse than 'Big Bang''s. But I'm keeping an eye on it to see if the KoMut guys and Justin Halpern can make it into something.

Based on the second episode, though, I'm not holding out much hope. There were a couple of moments that were chuckle-worthy, but most of it was as big a mess as the pilot. And a scene where William Shatner's character Ed holds a shotgun to the cable guy is indicative of why the show needs help.

First of all, it's far too long. Ed doesn't want Henry to install "the internet" in his house (not DSL or a cable modem with wi-fi, the whole entire internet! Silly comedy writers... audiences aren't that stupid. Really.), but Henry needs it to find work, so he calls in the cable (or phone... they say both) guy to install it. When Ed sees the installation guy crouching under a desk to install the modem, he rousts him out with his shotgun.

That should be the end of the scene, right? Installation dude runs out of the house, Henry finds out what happens, and an argument ensues. Nope, not on this show. Henry confronts Ed while installation dude is still standing there, with talk of testicles being blown off and everything. Then, Henry tries to call his dad on his bluff. "You know what? Shoot him!" Henry says.

Whaaat? On what planet would anyone do that to an innocent bystander? We've suddenly gone from a comedy about a gruff father reconnecting with his wayward son to a suburban San Diego version of 'Deliverance.' It just made no sense. But to service the argument between Ed and Henry, and to give us the age-old "It's not even loaded!" sight gag at the end of it, the poor cable guy had to be in the middle of this stand-off. And the cable guy obliged the sight gag by staying around long enough to see the gun go off; if I were him, I would have run out of there as soon as Henry grabbed the gun from his dad.

It's an indication of a writing staff reaching for the laughs. Yes, there are absurd situations in sitcoms. But when you start throwing third parties in disputes, and they just stand there watching while the other two parties argue about their issues, you're either practicing lazy or desperate writing. The laughter should come out of the characters, not situations like this.

But that may be the problem this show is going to have for a while. The characters are all pretty much blank slates, and Halpern, Kohan and Mutchnick haven't yet figured out who they are. Henry is especially lacking in any sort of personality, which is why Jonathan Sadowski seems to be yelling his lines, figuring yelling confers character. But we still don't see much out of Ed, either; the writers are just relying on Shatner to be his Shatner-like self, and it's not working.

Despite all that's wrong, though, I'm still giving the show a chance to improve. There's a lot of talent there, and hopefully it'll come out. But more episodes like this are going to make me go running for the hills pretty quickly.