Mr Sunshine - season 1 (Matthew Perry, Allison Janney) (1 Viewer)

I didn't see a thread for this show (even after 3-4 different search attempts), so I thought that I'd start one...


Perry plays the sports arena manager for the Sunshine Center in San Diego, Ben Donovan. He's just hit his 40th birthday and is going through a mid-life crisis while trying to deal with his unpredictable boss and the job itself.


This airs Monday nights at 8pm on CTV in Canada, and appears to be airing Wednesday nights on ABC at 9:30pm, starting this week (as in, the pilot airs on ABC tonight...).


It's a pretty clever show, similar in style to the Sorkin comedy shows (Thomas Schlamme directed the pilot, so that may have something to do with it...). No laugh track either (yay!), but the incidental music seems to be stuff that I've heard a thousand times on other shows (including the dreadful "Men With Brooms" sitcom on CBC this fall).


Overall, decent, but not hit it out of the park brilliant.

Please don't let Andrea Anders be the kiss of death for this show.

Is Anders planning on eventually starring in cancelled shows with every cast member of Friends?


Well, at least it's not called "Chandler".

Or simply, "Bing!"

I was prepared to be one and done with this show, but I was really pleasantly surprised by the laugh out loud count. With all of the "West Wing" and "Studio 60" episodes, it's easy to forget that before those Thomas Schlamme directed lots of episodes of "Sports Night" and So I Married An Axe Murderer. His signature style fits the sitcom format really well.


Allison Janney's chewing through some serious scenery here, and the writing's there to match it. Matthew Perry does affable straight man really well, while Nate Torrence makes a good lovable idiot.

I laughed out loud when Allison Janney freaked out over the axe-wielding clowns. This show gets a season pass on the TiVo.

The scene was funny, but the setup was a stretch and then some. It did not appear that a gaggle of axe-wielding clowns was capable of busting up all the ice in the time allotted since they were making little progress in the small scene that was shown. Furthermore, what would the Clown union have to say about the additional semi-hazardous labor involved? And aren't these arena rinks perma frozen with the floor laid on top for non-ice events? Where is this chopped ice going anyway?


Oh yeah, and I have no idea how anyone can "lose" an elephant in an arena. And the circus left without it? Huh?

I did like the rest of the show and the cast and will stick around, but I hope there aren't multiple "this makes damn no sense" moments every week.

This show was all kinds of terrible (and I've liked all the Sorkin/Schlamme projects). FAR inferior to the show of the other former 'Friends' cast member that just started.

Originally Posted by ScottH

This show was all kinds of terrible (and I've liked all the Sorkin/Schlamme projects). FAR inferior to the show of the other former 'Friends' cast member that just started.

Click to expand...

Is Sorkin at all involved in this? I didn't think so..

Originally Posted by mattCR

Is Sorkin at all involved in this? I didn't think so..

Click to expand...

Yeah I don't think so. I just mentioned him because he was brought up earlier in the thread and he and Schlamme have collaborated on a few projects in the past.

No Sorkin involvement at all. I brought him up noting that the first show had the general feel of a Sorkin show, and that was likely due to Schlamme's directing (and I, for whatever reason, associate him with Sorkin now...).


CTV in Canada aired episode 2 last night. Seems to be going for a "laugh in sympathy" kinda vibe in this episode.

No one mentions that this show has one of the funniest opening jingles I've ever heard..."Mr. Sunshine...yay." I swear I laughed for ten minutes straight.


As for the show itself it has potential, they need to make Perry a little more likable, though.

Originally Posted by Inspector Hammer!

Click to expand...

I laughed pretty good myself. I was just able to watch the first episode last night and wondered what kind of opening jingle it would have. I hope they keep it and don't change a thing.

So far so good. I'll wait to commit until I see another episode or two. It has promise though.

The jingle matches the Anhedonia Productions bumper.

This show is a bit weird -- it's too subtle and too broad at the same time. It reaches for offbeat but relies too much on old tropes.


That said, I always welcome a chance to watch Lindsey Sloane. I don't know why she and Liz Vassey never hit it big. They both seemed destined for bigger things than failed sitcoms and guest star roles.

I like the show so far. Was great to see Jorge Garcia in the first ep - was hoping they'd make him recurring but haven't seen him since...

The latest episode was the first truly funny episode we've gotten with the girl simply repeating everything Perry said lol.

Well, the 9th episode aired last night, the season finale. Apparently 13 episodes were ordered and produced, but only 9 were planned to air as the first season. Due to scheduling issues, CTV stopped airing the show after episode 7 ("Celebrity Tennis"). The first episode had huge ratings, while 2-7 had dropped by about 40%. Oddly, the last two episodes dropped even further, but the season finale finished a good chunk higher than the second last episode. I don't really expect to see this return. It was good, but not good enough really.

Originally Posted by AlexF

It was good, but not good enough really.

Click to expand...

That sums the show up in a nutshell.