TVSquad

There are three types of sitcoms. One type includes the shows that are recognized to be at the very top: Seinfeld, The Simpsons, The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Cheers, and others. Then there are the shows universally recognized to be pretty bad: your Single Guys, your Suddenly Susans, your whatever NBC put on Thursday nights in the 90s after Friends.

And then there are the shows that not many people talk about. The shows that are the hidden gems. Shows that if people do talk about them, they shrug them off as short-lived or unmemorable (they must be unmemorable, because they didn't last long, right?). Something So Right, which ran on NBC in the mid 90s, is an example of a very underrated sitcom that everyone ignores for some reason. Not sure why, because it was a damn good comedy.

On the surface it seemed like some sort of modern take on The Brady Bunch, as we had two divorced families being blended, and most of the humor coming out of that domestic situation. And if that was all there was to it, it would have been lame. But as we all know the secret to great sitcoms is in the writing and the timing. And this show had both.

Jere Burns and Mel Harris played the new married couple, living with three of their kids (a brother and sister from one marriage and another daughter from another marriage). But it wasn't just about how this family got along, it was also about the continued interruptions of the new family by the exes of both Burns and Harris. These weren't the typical exes you see on TV, drawn so badly that you just dislike them and root for the new couple. These were basically good people who had character flaws (one was a businessman who never had time for his daughter; one was a vain, blonde, superficial type; and the other was kind of a nut). But they added color to the show. You never knew which ex was going to come by and drive Burns crazy and why.

Great cast, funny situations, very sharp writing. Isn't that what makes a sitcom great? I remember one of the cable stations (it might have been USA) was running this show in reruns in the late 90s, but I haven't seen it in years.  And it probably won't come out on DVD unless they start releasing EVERYTHING on DVD. And that would be a shame.