Before Simon Templeman was visiting Earth from another planet on The Neighbors, he was visiting Detroit from England. He looks the same now as he did in 1998.
Tonight at 8:30p on ABC’s The Neighbors the Aliens learn about our Earthling holiday of Thanksgiving. A few weeks ago they learned about Halloween-ween and now it is time for them to understand the holiday that comes between that one and Christmas. Oh and yes there is going to be a Christmas episode coming up for the recently picked up ABC comedy.
We all know that Thanksgiving started when the Pilgrims and the Native Americans shared a feast together, so in a way this is the perfect holiday for the characters to celebrate together. Aliens welcoming in the human family, like the Indians welcomed in the Pilgrims.
And just like the Pilgrims, the show’s lead Aliens Simon Templeman & Toks Olagundoye can understand what it is like coming to America and learning about American holidays and such. Templeman who plays Larry Bird the leader, came over for England almost 20 years ago and he told me it took him a long time to understand the subtleties of American popular culture. Since he has been here a while, he understands the holiday they are celebrating tonight. He said, “The potential horror of that holiday, everyone is determined to gives thanks and have a good time, and that puts such a pressure on things.” Then he added, “There is a corresponding treburdation whenever Thanksgiving comes up. Which to somebody who doesn’t understand all of this, outside of American culture, don’t fully get it.” While that person might not get it, by the end of tonight’s episode the Aliens will comprehend it a lot better when they meet The Weavers parents played by Stacy Keach and Debra Mooney who come for a visit.
They are not the only relatives making an appearance on the show, Jackie Joyner-Kersee’s sisters will also learn about Turkey Day. Toks Olagundoye, who plays Larry’s wife Jackie has experienced the holiday like her character will tonight. She explained what she has seen of this holiday in the short time that she has been here in The States, “There is always a grudge that someone held over. There’s always the weird uncle or grandfather. There’s always the one thing that everybody knows about and there is one thing that they are expecting to go wrong. That is definitely in this episode.” Since we have all been there and done that, it will make this episode even more relatable and fun to watch.
Toks relates to her character because she was born in Nigeria and has lived in England and Switzerland before moving to America, so she knows what it is like to be the stranger in a new land. Unlike her character who has a community doing it with her, she did it by herself. She explained what that is like, “That whole idea of things happening. And you really thinking you know what is going on but you absolutely have no idea of what it going on. In that moment you realize you have no idea what is going on. It is an interesting moment, because there is a little bit of oh gosh, am I doing this wrong? And then a little bit of I am going to learn something new. Maybe I will learn something great out of it? That is something that Jackie really has.” Each week Jackie learns something new and tries to adapt to our world, Larry on the other hand not so much.
Another part of Thanksgiving is giving thanks. At the end of my conversation, Templeman made sure to get a sentiment across about working on The Neighbors. He praised the writers and what a great job they are doing writing for the characters on the show. He then had this to say about the people playing those characters, “We are blessed to have a really wonderful actors on the show. Lenny is just brilliant. Jami Gertz steers the ship. It is a pleasure to watch them act.” Then he added, “I have to say how thrilling it is to watch our younger actors, Clara (Mamet who plays Amber Weaver), Ian (Patrick who plays his younger son Dick Butkus), Max (Charles who plays Max Weaver), Isabella (Cramp who plays Abby Weaver) and Tim (Jo who plays his older son Reggie Jackson). They are just so talented and busting out with great ideas and things. It is a joy to watch them at this stage in their career. They are all going to go on to be big old stars. It will be nice to say ‘I knew them when…'” And some day they will all be saying that about him. And I will be saying “I interviewed him when..”
And since Thanksgiving is a holiday that we gives thanks; I am thankful that ABC not only picked up The Neighbors for the Fall Season, but that they saw the potential of the show and gave it a full season. While The Neighbors is not a show you can describe and give it justice. What I will say to get you to watch, is that is a show that will make you laugh and teach you a little something that you probably forgot you knew. There is kindness in accepting and learning about others and better yet it is funny to watch them try to get the lesson down which they never do the first few times.
ABC is the last network to either pick up or cancel a new show and today they finally made a decision on the fate for one of them. The network has picked up The Neighbors for a full season. The sitcom about humans that move into a private community full of aliens gets funnier and funnier each week as they teach their neighbors about our ways. Like last week when they learned about Halloween-ween. I can’t wait until The Weavers teach them about Thanksgiving and Christmas. That should be interesting and even better it should be a laugh riot. I will be clapping so loud that they will lose their human skin and turn into aliens.
So if you haven’t seen this original sitcom yet, why not start now because The Neighbors aren’t moving anywhere anytime soon.
BTW ABC also picked up Scandal for a full season.
Even though Halloween is a week a way, ABC is celebrating it tonight with their spooktacular sitcoms!
At 8p The Middle gets real scary because Sue is learning how to drive. Let’s just say someone will the pay the price for being too close to the car. And then there is Brick who becomes a lot less scary when he downs a bag of sugar ie Halloween candy. Have the Hecks finally found a way to make their youngest son normal?
Then at 8:30p it’s the Aliens first Halloween-ween on The Neighbors and The Weavers can’t wait to teach them all about it. Up until now Larry Bird thought the strangely dressed short people trying to get in to their community were trying to attack them and The Weavers tell him that is not so. He doesn’t believe them, but Jackie Joyner-Kersee is more willing to do so. She gets the others on her side and they get a crash course on the holiday. Are they ready for the Trick or Treaters or is it too much for them? You have to tune into the show’s funniest episode to date and they have all been a hilarious. In fact I enjoyed tonight’s episode so much, I really hope ABC picks up the show ASAP so we can get more holiday specials. I would love to see April Fool’s Day through their eyes.
Then at 9:30p on Suburgatory someone is going to lose their hair for Halloween. Let’s just says a razor will be shaving off a lot and I do mean a lot of hair and that person will look completely different. If it wasn’t their voice, you never would recognize the hairless person. Know who it is?
Finally at 10p Nashville gets scary but not in the Halloween way. Juliette Barnes’ mom finds her and she begs her daughter to let her back in her life. Juliette is still begging Deacon to join her on the tour, and he has yet to make a decision. Meanwhile Reyna and her husband are having financial difficulties and all her people want her to do is go on tour with Juliette. She still refuses to do it and her father gives her some money to help her out but it comes with conditions. She finds out from her sister why her dad is so against her being a singer and it will change a lot of things for her. Finally Scarlett O’Connor is ready to record her first tracks and something will happen to put that all in jeopardy. Nashville gets better every week and tonight won’t disappoint!
ABC is loving The Neighbors almost as much as I do because they have asked the show for 3 more scripts per a network rep. The family sitcom is fitting in perfectly after The Middle and before Modern Family on Wednesdays, so I have a feeling that the script order will turn in to them ordering the back 9 episodes. At least I hope they do because this is my favorite new show of the fall season. It is so quirky that it actually works and more importantly it is laugh out loud funny. This is the first show that ABC has shown some interest in while the others (Last Resort, 666 Park Avenue) that have debuted are waiting for word what is next for them.
And over at Fox they ordered nine more episodes of the overrated The Mindy Project and 6 more for Ben & Kate that has the potential of being a good comedy once it finds it way. These two shows join NBC’s Revolution, Go On and The New Normal that were picked up for a full season last week.
So if you are keeping a score card that is 5 pick ups, 1 script order and 0 cancellations. Hopefully a show will get the axe very soon.
