TV review: ‘1600 Penn’

TV review: ‘1600 Penn’

“1600 Penn” was clearly designed to be good silly fun.

It nails one out of three. It’s silly. It’s not much fun, though. It’s also not much good.

NBC aired a “sneak preview” back on Dec. 17, and on Thursday the network bravely brings it back to launch its official run.

The premise is that an annoying family of sitcom stereotypes moves into the White House because Daddy (Dale Gilchrist, played by Bill Pullman) somehow got elected President.

The clan includes insecure stepmom Emily (Jenna Elfman) and smart-aleck daughter Becca (Martha MacIsaac).

Mostly it includes manic son Skip (Josh Gad). For long stretches “1600 Penn” plays like a one-man Skip show where not even the President has the authority to yell “Cut.”

Skip does or says something ridiculous. He compounds it with something even more ridiculous. Everyone rolls their eyes, things start to fall apart and then, wham, it all dissolves into a group hug.

Welcome to an unwritten rule of sitcoms. Whenever an obnoxious kid acts totally self-centered and oblivious, it means that underneath he has a true, good, smart, sweet and pure heart.

In the end, sitcoms like “1600 Penn” tell us, we have no choice except to say, “Aw, c’mere, ya big lug!”

In real life, though, we do have a choice. We can find him simply tiresome.

Now there’s nothing sacrilegious about imagining goofballs in the White House. Some old-timers will remember Billy Carter, who parlayed his brother Jimmy’s real-life presidency into marketing his own line of mediocre “Billy Beer.”

But “1600 Penn” mines none of the more subtle and satisfying possibilities of poking fun at a staid institution. It’s more like a drug-fueled “Saturday Night Live” sketch that won't end.

Fortunately, “1600 Penn” probably will.