Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper is Three’s Company revisited. That’s not good. There is one similarity, however, that’s not bad.
During Three’s Company’s inexplicably long run, a common description of the series from those whose brains are not on support systems was, “The show is for morons, but John Ritter is terrific.”
Likewise for Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper and Mark Curry.
Curry has the John Ritter role in Hangin’ (which should be the fate of everyone responsible for scheduling this half-hour of sophomoric leering after Full House, the most popular prime-time show among the 2-to-11 set).
The explanation for this aberration is that Jeff Franklin, who created Hang- in’, also created Full House.
Such paybacks have become commonplace as the networks strive to retain their hitmakers. This is how the Bill Cosby-produced A Different World wound up after Cosby; how the creators of Evening Shade and Murphy Brown each got plum positions with new series this season behind their established hits; and why Tom Arnold, Roseanne’s no-talent husband, has been promised the Tuesday night at 9:30 slot for his new show later this season.
ABC is hoping lightning could strike twice with Hangin’. Last season, a format was tailored expressly for standup comic Tim Allen. Home Improvement, with the aid of the gilded slot between Full House and Roseanne, became the season’s breakout hit.
The same has been done for Curry, a former college basketball player who became a stand-up comedian because he understood the NBA was beyond his skills. This infectuously likeable comic plays Mark Cooper, a former college basketball player who has turned to teaching after realizing he was not talented enough for pro ball.
“Coop” is terrific with the kids, once he learns that having his students’ respect is more important than having their friendship.
It’s Coop’s living arrangement that makes the show insulting to anyone past puberty and its scheduling is objectionable.
To make ends meet, he shares a pad with two attractive women. Actually, it’s one attractive women and one absolute sensation.
Dawnn Lewis, who bailed out of A Different World for this, is the merely pretty Robin. She has known Mark for as long as either can remember. Still, she drops hints that she wouldn’t mind their relationship evolving beyond the platonic.
Mark hardly notices. He’s too busy salivating and making a fool of himself whenever his other housemate, the voluptuous Vanessa, a college pal of Robin’s, is around.
But Vanessa, played by Holly Robinson, can barely stand the idea of having Mark under the same roof, let alone the same sheets. She doesn’t even bother to be tactful in brushing him off. “I want a stud, not a spud.”
Given her druthers, she’d invite her grandmother to share the rent. “At least she won’t leave the seat up.” Vanessa even suggests that she and Robin take night jobs so that they won’t need Mark’s contribution to the rent.
It’s somewhat surprising that Lewis and Robinson, both intelligent worldly women, would agree to participate in a series that is an anachronism. They have a lot more to offer television than supple bodies.
Lewis, a product of the University of Miami, is a gifted musician. Her entree to A Different World was composing the theme.
Robinson attended the Sorbonne for a year, later graduated from ritzy Sarah Lawrence and is fluent in Spanish, Italian and French.
These are not the type of women you expect to find in a wet T-shirt contest. Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper isn’t that, but it’s right on the cusp. All you need do is add water.
HANGIN’ WITH MR. COOPER
Premiere: Tonight at 8:30 p.m. on WPLG-Ch. 10 and WPBF-Ch. 25
Airs: Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m.
Starring: Mark Curry, Dawnn Lewis and Holly Robinson.
Jicha says: Three talented people are being wasted in a reworking of the Three’s Company formula.
