Rondi Reed Returns to Sitcoms in FX Comedy Rude Barb

Written Baking a Pie by Bridger Cunningham

Rondi Reed became Mike and Molly's sour scene stealer as cantankerous monster-in-law Peggy Biggs.  Now, she gets to resurrect her salty comic relief as FX has ordered straight to pilot Rude Barb, a sendup of the Rubarb Lady video meme.  It may sound like a trite gimmic, a la ABC's 2007 Caveman disaster playing off the Geico Commercial.  Give it a chance, as this horrid gig and meme depicting the decay of western society holds an entertaining premise.

Unemployed Texas resident Barb Spitz (Reed) gets caught picking through her neighbor Hilda Green's (Martha Plimpton) overgrown rhubarb garden.  After a tasteless exchange with Hilda and her weak husband Thornton (Thomas Lennon), Barb spits the insults out, even telling Thornton "Mind ya business ya fucking lezzie!" as both look on confused.  After witnessing this exchange, The Green's rambunctious children, Madison, Cavanaugh and Braxton all decide she is the perfect harbinger for pranks.  After catching the youngsters TP'ing her house, Barb whips out a garden house out her living room window and sprays the Green children and their friends.

Parents in the neighborhood decide to bring the authorities in until Thornton points out no one ever disciplines the kid, and they actually responded to someone calling them out.  Lacking childcare during Spring Break, Hilda and Thornton approach Barb with an offer -- watch their kids with pay, or they would go to the police regarding hosing down the kids.  To which Barb crassly spits out "Go fuck yourself and the bisexual horse you rode in on!"  Hilda unveils knowledge of being behind in utilities and foreclosure threats.  In exchange for pay, turning on her utilities and being "neighborly" with a rhubarb helping, Barb will babysit, despite declaring "Don't expect me to fall in love with your spawn of Satan, and tell those little shits this ain't a party and to keep their fellow trolls off my property!"

After a week of mayhem including flying shoes, getting smacked with a wooden spoon and making the kids spruce up her home, bootcamp style, both parties are at their wits end.  However, the Greens are delighted their children are picking up after themselves, running the vacuum cleaner and taking their attitudes down a few pegs.  As they fear when they go back to the gingerbread house, the witch will shove them in the oven.  Word spreads of Barb's effective tactics, with several parents on the block requesting her services.  Seeing a golden opportunity, Barb decides her home shall now house a daycare center.

Tune in for the crass antics starting June 31, 2018.

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