1%-5% of your purchase will help support the PTC.

Worst TV Show of the Week

Allen Gregory on Fox 

Allen Gregory (Sundays, 8:30 p.m. ET) is in trouble. And not just because it has been named Worst TV Show of the Week after only the October 30^th series premiere, due to its bizarre, age-inappropriate sexual content. Critics have panned it, and viewers have ignored it.

Mike Hale of The New York Times wrote in his review:

“A fundamental problem with the new Fox cartoon Allen Gregory — though not the biggest one — is that it’s never clear what the show is satirizing. But…conceptual fuzziness isn’t the main problem. That would be the writing.”

Ouch.

And despite being sandwiched in between Fox stalwarts The Simpsons  and Family Guy, the program debuted weakly, posting a 2.4 Nielsen share (4.77 million viewers) – a whopping 50% drop off from its lead-in.

Double ouch.

Allen Gregory feels like the sort of show only Hollywood executives would love, and they mistakenly presumed the average viewers would as well. The title character is a pushy, egotistical seven-year-old boy who speaks, as Hale noted, like Hollywood talent agent Ari Gold from Entourage. Allen Gregory’s dialogue is peppered with references to wine, PBS shows, and posh restaurants. One suspects the writers hoped that such urbane references uttered by a seven-year old would come off as precocious, but instead it’s merely annoying.

Had the show stopped at annoying, it wouldn’t have drawn the PTC’s attention. Unfortunately, the show went from unimpressive to unwatchable when it took a decidedly revolting turn by depicting Allen Gregory’s sexual fantasies of his elderly principal.

After sipping Pinot grigio during lunch, Allen Gregory is sent to the principal’s office, where he takes one look at her ample behind and immediately drifts into erotic reverie. He daydreams about cruising in a convertible with the top down with his grey-haired vixen riding shotgun in a low-cut dress. He ogles her hairy cleavage; on the beach, he rubs suntan lotion on her back as she sunbathes topless; on a roller coaster ride, he places his hand on her varicose-etched thighs. For the coup de grace, Allen Gregory and the principal retreat to a motel room.

Allen: “Let me ask you something. Is it just like a complete mess down there?”

Principal: “I'm gonna level with you. It's like post-Katrina.”

Allen: “Damn it, you're perfect.”

Allen Gregory reclines on the bed. The lights go out. In the darkness…

Principal (moaning): “Allen Gregory, Allen Gregory...”

We at the PTC weren’t the only ones with our eyebrows raised after this scene. Brian Lowry of Variety wrote:

“It's still surprising to see a second-grader presented as being infatuated with his sixtysomething teacher, and the eager-to-please school board urging her to indulge those fantasies. (Don't look now, but your boycott campaign from the Parents Television Council is doubtless already in the mail.)”

Actually, Mr. Lowry, we technically don’t call them boycotts, but rather “campaigns.” And for now we’re willing to wait to see how frequently the show dips into this putrid well. But, if the ratings are any indication, viewers might already be one step ahead of us.