Original: Raising Hope (FOX, 2010-present)
This screwball comedy centers on Jimmy Chance (Lucas Neff), a scatterbrained 25-year-old who, after a one night stand with a serial killer, finds himself a father. With the mother sent to the electric chair, Jimmy must rely on his kooky family for help with providing a nurturing environment for his unexpected new daughter. The show is every bit as nuts as that summary makes it sound, and that’s in large part thanks to the twisted sense of humor of showrunner Greg Garcia. A terrific cast, including Martha Plimpton as Jimmy’s eccentric mother, elevates Raising Hope above typical sitcom fare, but of course also led to the arrival of…
Rip-Off: Baby Daddy (ABC Family, 2012-present)
In this sitcom, a hopeless schlub in his mid-twenties (Jean-Luc Bilodeau) must suddenly take on the responsibilities of fatherhood after his ex-girlfriend swings by one day and drops off a baby while on her way out of town. Luckily for him, he has a host of zany friends and family members, including his overbearing mother Bonnie (Melissa Peterman), to help him raise his new baby daughter. As half-hour comedies come, Baby Daddy is pretty vanilla, with a cast of generic pretty faces and dull romantic side-plots up the wazoo. Still, it attracted enough viewers that ABC Family has so far ordered three seasons.
Just How Bad Is It? 6.5/10
“Think Raising Hope, only dumber.” Or at least, that’s how I imagine the conversation went at the pitch meeting for ABC Family sitcom Baby Daddy. The sitcom shamelessly steals the central idea of Raising Hope, but lacks all trace of intelligence or wackiness. It’s the lowest-common denominator version of an entertaining comedy, alternately painful and just plain boring to watch. Chalk that missing component up to the fact that Baby Daddy creator Dan Berendsen simply lacks the same loopy humor and energy that Garcia always brings to Raising Hope and also lacks the confidence to contribute any original ideas to his take on the bringing-up-baby sitcom.