TVSquad

In the behind-the-scenes interviews the network sent along with the pilot, the entire cast and the creator described Do Not Disturb, premiering tonight at 9:30/8:30 Central, as an "upstairs-downstairs" workplace comedy. Creator Abraham Higginbotham (Arrested Development) based the show on his time at the Paramount Hotel in the '90s. "It's Freaks and Geeks in a hotel," he said. "You've got your upstairs crowd where you have to basically turn in a photo to be approved to work where you come into face contact with guests. And then downstairs, anybody can work there because they're the people doing all the real work."

Unfortunately, if this is going to be the major thrust of the series going forward, they picked a pretty poor episode to establish that for the pilot. "Work Sex" tackled sex and promiscuity, which are such powerful subjects in this country they tend to overwhelm everything. And since the show is trying to introduce its premise, characters, relationships and the dynamics of its ensemble at the same time, it may have been better to launch with a subject a little less dominating. In fact, I didn't really get the struggle between the two groups at all.

Fox has made the call, and it's a big "see ya later" for Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton. But their loss is someone else's gain. The pilot for the Jason Bateman directed comedy series The Inn has been picked up for a 13-week commitment, while Back to You has been axed. The Brad Garrett-Joely Fisher sitcom, Til Death, meanwhile, has been given another year.

Bateman, who starred in Arrested Development -- the Emmy-award winning comedy that the network dumped unceremoniously because of low ratings -- was behind the camera for The Inn pilot. The show, which is about the haves and have-nots in a fancy, five-star New York City hotel, has a promising cast of funny folks including Niecy Nash (Reno 911!), Jerry O'Connell (who looks like Jason's twin), and the really hilarious Jesse Tyler Ferguson (remember him on The Class -- he was so funny!).

Despite mediocre ratings and equally mediocre reviews (including mine), CBS has been happy enough with The Class to order more episodes of the "half-hour comic-sudser," as Variety so adroitly called it.

But the show is not getting the entire "back nine" just yet. According to that Variety article, CBS is hoping the mid-season show Rules of Engagement, starring David Spade and Patrick Warburton, will work well in the Monday comedy block where The Class currently resides.

Another article, on USAToday.com, says that newer episodes of the show will concentrate on fewer characers.

(S01E07) Maybe the writers of The Class are getting the hint and following what seems to be a pretty obvious suggestion: take out storylines! Let the characters breathe! Get rid of the high-strung socialite and the husband she doesn't realize is gay! This episode managed to do all of that; we don't see Holly and Kyle (and Holly's Paul Lynde sound-alike husband) at all, and Duncan and Nicole get some time to interact without Yonk in the way, and take Lina and Richie along for the ride. And, of course, Kat and Ethan do their goofy stuff, this time in a bar (notice most of the episodes have been named for the Kat/Ethan story of the week? I just figured that out tonight... I'm slow, I guess).

So, now that things are a bit smoother and less cluttered, there'd be more room for the funny right? Well, that's what you might think, but you'd be wrong.

(S01E06) For a fleeting second, I thought The Class was just going to concentrate on two stories this week. For the first act, it looked like all we'd see was Richie, Duncan and Yonk in Atlantic City and Holly's adventures at the petting zoo. Yes, one of the storylines would be a Holly storyline, but I was glad that the writers decided to smarten up and rotate out one storyline per week, leaving more room for silly things like effective jokes and character development.

But then I saw Lina in an FDR costume and Kat being Kat, and I just went, "oh crap."

(S01E05) This review is not going to be pretty, boys and girls, because I'm starting to lose my patience with The Class. There's too many stories and not enough laughs. Right now, the only storyline that has any redeeming qualities, the constant efforts of Kat to bring Ethan out of his nice guy shell, really is just being used as a goofy side-story to all of the other, more emotional stories. But the problem is, those stories are becoming less entertaining by the week, and the "complications" that the writers are throwing in are just distractions.

(S01E02) For those of you who were trying to figure out how eight relative strangers, thrown together in a kind of a convoluted fashion, was going to constitute a sitcom, this episode shows you what the formula is going to be.

And what is that formula? Three parallel storylines that are not designed to intersect for some time in the future. You've got sappy Ethan's brewing friendship with the cynical Kat and Richie's accident-prone flirtation with Kat's twin Lina (how convenient is it that Kat and Lina are twins? That ensures that two of the pairs of strangers will stay connected); you have Nicole and Duncan's affair; and you have Kyle and Holly, who are still rebuilding their friendship after he came out of the closet at their prom ten years ago.