Each week, I take a look back at a pilot from the 2010-11 season, first reviewed on my blog during that season. This week, I am looking at Fox's Raising Hope!
The Details:
Premiered: September 21, 2010 on Fox
Starring: Lucas Neff, Martha Plimpton, Garret Dillahunt, Shannon Woodward, Skyler Stone
Created by: Greg Garcia
What I Thought Then:
"Raising Hope is not for everyone. With its offbeat humor and grotesque sight gags, it will be an immediate turnoff for some."
"Despite all the weirdness, it actually showed some promise particularly as the episode went on and it moved past the strange introduction."
"Truly, the show isn't my cup of tea but I appreciate it making me chuckle a couple times."
"It needs a little nurturing but Raising Hope shows promise. I just won't be personally watching it."
What Others Said:
"Fall's best new sitcom has the manic zip of Malcolm in the Middle and the diabolical humor of Raising Arizona." - Tom Gliatto, People Magazine
"Raising Hope is deliciously demented and easily the funniest new show of fall." - Mark A. Perigard, Boston Herald
"Fox's best comedies are always off-center. Raising Hope forgets to stay there." - David Hinckley, New York Daily News
"Raising Hope is funny, sweet, occasionally provocative, and occasionally over-the-top in a regrettable way." - Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times
"Raising Hope is low in concept, lower in class and lowest of all in shame - but relatively high in laughs, so long as you keep your living room curtains closed so no one can see you watching." - Glenn Garvin, Miami Herald
What I Think Now:
I'm not sure I fully appreciated Raising Hope back in 2010. I think it fits much more into the type of humor I've grown to appreciate more over the years. I thought the entire first scene was so absurd but yet hilarious whereas I found it offputting in 2010. It also accomplished an awful lot. The prelude had to introduce the insane story about Hope's mother while also establishing the family dynamics and it did both with very strong execution. We got a real sense of the family (including the outrageous performance from the late, great Cloris Leachman) and the show also managed to sneak in some subversive humor (an electric chair bit that was the kind of thing you might see on an HBO comedy). It didn't need to keep up the pace of those first few minutes, it needed to settle into the type of show it was going to be long term and it did that with a real standout performance from Martha Plimpton. By the end of the episode, the show demonstrated it could have heart too. This might sound like a disjointed pilot but it didn't play that way. It got our attention with the white trash image of the family before chipping away at the façade to show us a genuinely sweet family unit. I think it was very impressive that this sitcom pilot effectively presented a lot of exposition and still showed us exactly what type of show it would be going forward. Many sitcom pilots are lucky if they can pull off one of those two things and many sitcoms, even ones that become good, struggle off the bat. This one didn't.
What Happened to the Show:
Fox has struggled for much of its existence with live action sitcoms. In the years leading up to the premiere of Raising Hope, Fox was pretty much only having success with animated sitcoms. By that measure, Raising Hope had an OK run for the network as it lasted four seasons and 88 episodes. It got to follow some big Fox hits (Glee in its first season and New Girl in its second) but it always struggled to get beyond a niche audience and it quickly dropped on the priority scale once New Girl broke out the following season. It was the lead-off show for an ill-fated four comedy block on Tuesdays in Fall 2012 but by its final season, it had been banished to Fridays. There was some buzz for the show in the early going (it was the best reviewed new comedy on the Fall 2010 crop) and Martha Plimpton and Cloris Leachman were both nominated for Emmys in the first season. But its buzz peaked in its first season and while it had its fans, it never really became a beloved sitcom of the 2010s and hasn't seemed to be a big player in the years since on streaming or anywhere else.
Final Episode: April 4, 2014
Episode Count: 88
Where to Watch: Hulu/Disney+, available for purchase on DVD
I'm excited to be contributing to The TV Ratings Guide! You can read my regular work in my weekly newsletter at Benjamonster's TV!
