''The Trouble with Larry'' is an American

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

television series that aired from August 25, 1993 to September 8, 1993 on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

. It starred

Bronson Pinchot Bronson Alcott Pinchot (; born May 20, 1959) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Balki Bartokomous on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC sitcom ''Perfect Strangers (TV series), Perfect Strangers'' (1986–1993). He also perform ...

as Larry Burton, a man returning home to

Syracuse Syracuse most commonly refers to: * Syracuse, Sicily, Italy; in the province of Syracuse * Syracuse, New York, USA; in the Syracuse metropolitan area Syracuse may also refer to: Places * Syracuse railway station (disambiguation) Italy * Provi ...

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.

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.

Cast

as Larry Burton *

Courteney Cox Courteney Bass Cox (born June 15, 1964) is an American actress and producer. She rose to international prominence by playing Monica Geller in the NBC sitcom ''Friends'' (1994–2004) and Gale Weathers in the horror film franchise '' Scream'' ...

as Gabriella Easden *

Alex McKenna Alex McKenna is an American actress and voice-over artist. She gained fame by playing Petunia Stupid in ''The Stupids'' (1996) and Mickey Apple in '' You Wish'' (1997). She resumed her acting career with guest appearances in The CW hit teen dram ...

as Lindsay Flatt *

Perry King Perry Firestone King (born April 30, 1948) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles on television and in films. King received a Golden Globe nomination for his role in the television film ''The Hasty Heart'' (1983), which is a rema ...

as Boyd Flatt * Shanna Reed as Sally Easden

Episodes

Reception

Reviews for ''The Trouble with Larry'' were generally unfavorable, occasionally bordering on hostile. Ken Tucker of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' gave the show a grade of D+ and called the show "not just not-funny, but actively depressing". Hal Boedeker, writing for the

Knight-Ridder Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. It was bought by McClatchy on June 27, 2006, allowing the latter to become the second largest newspaper publisher in the United States at the time ...

newspaper chain, opined that "the moronic sitcom was beyond bad, a disaster that raises doubts about the judgement of CBS executives."

David Zurawik David Lee Zurawik (born October 26, 1949) is an American journalist, writer, and professor. He has been the TV and media critic at ''The Baltimore Sun'' since 1989 and is a professor of communications and media studies at Goucher College. Before t ...

of the ''

Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publish ...

'' 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?" Frazier Moore of The ''

Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. Th ...

'' 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." The ''

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region, in the United States. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by pare ...

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." David Hiltbrand of ''

People The term "the people" refers to the public or Common people, common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. I ...

'', 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". 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 Dorothy Faye Dunaway (born January 14, 1941) is an American actress. She is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Faye Dunaway, many accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, ...

and

Robert Urich Robert Michael Urich (December 19, 1946 – April 16, 2002) was an American film, television, and stage actor and television producer. Over the course of his 30-year career, he starred in a record 15 television series. Urich began his car ...

. 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

External links

*
TV Guide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trouble With Larry, The 1993 American television series debuts 1993 American television series endings 1990s American multi-camera sitcoms American English-language television shows Television shows set in New York (state) Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios CBS sitcoms