As the 25-minute sneak peak at NBC's new Jerry Seinfeld-produced reality show/talk show fusion "The Marriage Ref" started to load on Hulu, I found myself thanking the network for not making me sit through the full hour that the show will occupy once it officially airs its pilot this Thursday. I was not impressed by the previews, which depicted a celebrity panel debating whether or not Mrs. Smith should be allowed to keep her pet iguana even though Mr. Smith hates reptiles. I had low expectations for the show, despite NBC's obvious attempts to lure me in with frequent previews flashing Seinfeld's name during the Olympics' commercial breaks.
The long, animated opening a miserable failure of a metaphor relating an argument between spouses to baseball was even worse than I had expected. The cheesy dialogue ("My wife made a pitch but I swung and gave it a ride!" the animated husband says) was a far from promising start.
Fortunately the dreadful animations disappeared after a few minutes. Real people and the celebrities that I had been promised took their place. At least this week, the live-action was a large improvement over the cartoons.
The premise of the show is simple. Host and stand-up comic Tom Papa rolls a video of a married couple failing to resolve a problem in their home. The panel which changes each episode but this time featured Kelly Ripa, Alec Baldwin and Seinfeld himself "referees" the spat, designating either Team Husband or Team Wife as the victor. Papa then calls the couple via videophone to inform them of the panel's decision. The process then begins again with a new couple. While the sneak preview presented only two scenarios, I expect the full-length episodes will feature three or more.
The fact that the show keeps the time we spend with each couple to a minimum is indicative of the problems involved these are not serious marital issues, but petty arguments about stripper poles and extending the practice of taxidermy to a beloved dog.
Dianah Hunter's stony responses to her sleazy husband Greg's requests that they install a stripper pole in the master bedroom are hilarious. When he declares that he is the man of the house and a stripper pole is what he wants, she remarks, "Guess what. People in Hell want ice water but they don't get it." Touche.
Defying my expectations yet again, Seinfeld did not dominate the panel's discussions. Baldwin shone with his signature sense of timing and famous deadpan deliveries. But Papa's hosting which tries for laughs even harder than the cartoon may turn out to be the one factor that drags the rest of the show down.
The sneak preview of "The Marriage Ref" had a small task convincing enough people that this show wasn't as terrible an idea as it first seemed, but there is still a long way to go The network has promoted this show heavily, making sure we all know that Seinfeld is back after his 12-year absence. While NBC declined to release its official ratings predictions, network executive Paul Telegdy told The New York Times last week that Seinfeld "has a talismanic quality at NBC." I guess that explains the excessive advertisements.
It remains to be seen whether the premise is strong enough to sustain an hour-long format. But at the very least, the show has no nefarious intentions in wanting to settle small marital spatsbefore they evolve into something serious. This pro-marriage objective contributes to the overall lighthearted vibe and, with NBC down significantly in the ratings, the network can benefit from anything positive.
