The Hudsonian Sees THE NEIGHBORS

Don’t Invite The Neighbors Over

by Josh Hudson

This ABC show originally aired on September 26, 2012 at 9:30 EST. It has since been moved to 8:30 EST, in between “The Middle” and “Modern Family”. Pretty sure that’s not going to matter.

It’s only fair that one would go to a Disney-owned company for news about athletes. I mean, ESPN is the worldwide leader in sports. The last place I’d look is a gated community in New Jersey, which is the basis of ABC’s new Wednesday night comedy, The Neighbors. Allow me to explain this atrocity.

The inhabitants of this community are extra-terrestrials. To fit in, they named themselves after great figures in the sports world: Larry Bird, Reggie Jackson, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Dick Butkus to name a few. Then a human family moves in and the green goo comes out of the woodwork.

I can’t say one good thing about this show. The only reasonably funny joke was that the aliens were named after athletes. But ABC spoiled that in the teasers leading up to the show. This isn’t Mork & Mindy and it CERTAINLY isn’t 3^rd Rock From the Sun. Those shows had great actors, hilarious situations, and made people laugh. Neighbors doesn’t have any well known actors, the situations are mundane and salty, and is stale on the humor.

Turn away. Run for your life. Find something else to do from 8:30-9:00 before Modern Family begins. Even NBC’s grotesque Wednesday lineup is better than this. (And if you’ve seen those shows, you’d know that’s the equivalent of high praise for the peacock.)

Author: LB

A legendary figure in the television writing and production world with a career going back to the late ’60s, Larry Brody has written and produced hundreds of hours of American and worldwide television and is a consultant to production companies and networks in the U.S. and abroad . Shows written or produced by Brody have won several awards including - yes, it's true - Emmys, Writers Guild Awards, and the Humanitas Award. View all posts by LB