The Trouble with Larry
{{Short description|American sitcom television series}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox television
| image =
| caption =
| genre = Sitcom
| creator = {{Plain list|
}}
| starring = {{Plain list|
}}
| narrated =
| composer = Stephen Graziano
| country = United States
| language = English
| num_seasons = 1
| num_episodes = 7 (4 Unaired)
| list_episodes =
| executive_producer =
| producer = {{Plain list|
}}
| camera = Multi-camera
| runtime = 30 minutes
| company = {{Plain list|
- Highest Common Denominator Productions
- Meleager Productions
- Warner Bros. Television
}}
| network = CBS
| first_aired = {{Start date|1993|08|25}}
| last_aired = {{End date|1993|09|08}}
}}
The Trouble with Larry is an American sitcom television series that aired from August 25, 1993 to September 8, 1993 on CBS. It starred Bronson Pinchot as Larry Burton, a man returning home to Syracuse after being presumed dead for many years. CBS gave the series an early start by premiering it in late August, three weeks after Pinchot's previous series, Perfect Strangers, finished its run on ABC. However, after poor reviews and three weeks of bad ratings, the series was canceled before the official TV season it was to have been a part of had even begun.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w8KztFy6QYwC&dq=%22Trouble+with+Larry+The+Situation+Comedy%22&pg=PA1426 |first1=Tim |last1=Brooks |author-link1=Tim Brooks (historian) |first2=Earle |last2=Marsh |year=2007 |edition=9 |title=The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946–Present |page=1426 |publisher=Random House Publishing |location=New York |isbn=978-0-345-49773-4 |access-date=2024-06-05 }}
Premise
Larry returns home a decade after he was dragged off by baboons on his honeymoon. His wife, Sally, has now married another man and has a nine-year-old daughter. Larry falls in love with his former sister-in-law, Gabriella, who hates him.{{cite web|author=IMDb |url= https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106162/plotsummary|title=The Trouble with Larry - Plot summary |publisher=IMDb |accessdate=2012-10-21}}
Cast
- Bronson Pinchot as Larry Burton
- Courteney Cox as Gabriella Easden
- Alex McKenna as Lindsay Flatt
- Perry King as Boyd Flatt
- Shanna Reed as Sally Easden
Episodes
{{Episode table |background=#3399ff |overall= |title= |director= |writer= |airdate= |viewers= |episodes=
{{Episode list
|Title=The Homecoming
|OriginalAirDate={{Start date|1993|08|25}}
|EpisodeNumber=1
|DirectedBy= Joel Zwick
|WrittenBy= Andrew Nicholls and Darrell Vickers
|Viewers= 9.4{{cite news|title=NBC's 'Now' jumps right into top 10|department=Life|work=USA Today|page=3D|date=September 1, 1993|author=Gable, Donna}}
|ShortSummary= Larry returns after being presumed dead for ten years and tries to resume his role as head of the family.
|LineColor=3399ff
}}
{{Episode list
|Title=The Vigilantes
|OriginalAirDate={{Start date|1993|09|01}}
|EpisodeNumber=2
|DirectedBy= Robert Berlinger
|WrittenBy= Tom Finnigan
|Viewers= 9.9{{cite news|title='John Larroquette Show' off to high-flying start|department=Life|work=USA Today|page=3D|date=September 8, 1993|author=Gable, Donna}}
|ShortSummary= Lindsay's bike is stolen and Larry hits the streets trying to find the bike.
|LineColor=3399ff
}}
{{Episode list
|Title=My Science Fair Lady
|OriginalAirDate={{Start date|1993|09|08}}
|EpisodeNumber=3
|DirectedBy= John Fortenberry
|WrittenBy= Lisa Rosenthal
|Viewers= 9.1{{cite news|title=Smooth start for 'seaQuest DSV'|department=Life|work=USA Today|page=3D|date=September 15, 1993|author=Gable, Donna}}
|ShortSummary= Larry is exposed when he tries to be a robot for Lindsay's science project, but his knowledge of the jungle helps expose the science fair winner as another fake.
|LineColor=3399ff
}}
{{Episode list
|Title=The Angel of Death and Taxes
|OriginalAirDate=Unaired
|EpisodeNumber=4
|DirectedBy=Linda Day
|WrittenBy=Steve Billnitzer
|Viewers=
|ShortSummary=
|LineColor=3399ff
}}
{{Episode list
|Title=Witless for the Prosecution
|OriginalAirDate=Unaired
|EpisodeNumber=5
|DirectedBy= David Trainer
|WrittenBy= Art Everett
|Viewers=
|ShortSummary=
|LineColor=3399ff
}}
{{Episode list
|Title=Rhinestone Cowboy
|OriginalAirDate=Unaired
|EpisodeNumber=6
|DirectedBy= Mark Linn-Baker
|WrittenBy= Julie Thacker
|Viewers=
|ShortSummary= Sally kisses Larry and thinks she's about to fall in love with him again.
|LineColor=3399ff
}}
{{Episode list
|Title=Piñata Full of Bones
|OriginalAirDate=Unaired
|EpisodeNumber=7
|DirectedBy= Robert Berlinger
|WrittenBy= Charlie Kaufman
|Viewers=
|ShortSummary=
|LineColor=3399ff
}}
}}
Reception
Reviews for The Trouble with Larry were generally unfavorable, occasionally bordering on hostile. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly gave the show a grade of D+ and called the show "not just not-funny, but actively depressing".{{cite web|author=Ken Tucker |url= http://www.ew.com/article/1993/09/10/trouble-larry|title=The Trouble with Larry Review |publisher=Entertainment Weekly |access-date=2013-01-29}} Hal Boedeker, writing for the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain, opined that "the moronic sitcom was beyond bad, a disaster that raises doubts about the judgement of CBS executives."Boedeker, Hal, "Tall Hopes misses goal", Toronto Star, August 25, 1993, page C4. David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun called the show juvenile, and wondered "How did this sitcom (using the word in its most expansive sense) ever make it on the CBS fall schedule?"{{cite web|author=David Zurawick |url= https://www.baltimoresun.com/1993/08/25/theres-no-cure-for-the-trouble-with-larry/|title=There's no cure for The Trouble with Larry|work=The Baltimore Sun |date= 25 August 1993|access-date=2013-05-28}} Frazier Moore of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote that "The Trouble with Larry is a sitcom so feeble yet brazen in its humormongering that it nearly takes the viewer's breath away."Moore, Frazier. "'Trouble With Larry' Sitcom So Ridiculous It Leaves You Breathless." Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 25, 1993, page D6. The Orlando Sentinel's Greg Dawson praised the show's "first-rate" cast, but attacked the pilot's "dead-in-the-water writing" and "nonstop witlesscisms", and called the finished product "sophomoric dreck ... which tests the self-control of anyone with an IQ over 50 and a sledgehammer or handgun in the house."{{cite web|author=Greg Dawson |url= https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1993/08/25/unfunny-larry-sinks-despite-first-rate-cast/|title=Unfunny Larry Sinks Despite First-Rate Cast |date= 25 August 1993|publisher=The Orlando Sentinel |access-date=2013-01-29}} David Hiltbrand of People, in a review that ran shortly after the show's cancellation, gave the series a C grade. Hiltbrand had mild praise for the "anarchic" pilot, characterizing the humor as "flip" and "batty", but wrote that subsequent episodes of The Trouble With Larry were mired in "dreary domesticity".{{cite web|author=David Hiltbrand |url= http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20106262,00.html|title=Pick and Pans Review: The trouble with Larry |publisher=People |accessdate=2013-01-29}}
The show ran three episodes before being cancelled following the September 8 broadcast. Eleven days later, another series co-created by Andrew Nicholls and Darrell Vickers premiered: It Had to Be You, starring Faye Dunaway and Robert Urich. It lasted four episodes, giving Nicholls and Vickers the unusual distinction of overseeing two of the earliest-to-be-cancelled new shows of the same TV season.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|tt0106162}}
- [http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/the-trouble-with-larry/205168 TV Guide]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trouble With Larry, The}}
Category:1993 American television series debuts
Category:1993 American television series endings
Category:1990s American multi-camera sitcoms
Category:American English-language television shows
Category:Television shows set in New York (state)
Category:Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios