'Glory Daze' flunks College Humor 101
THE SHOW "Glory Daze"
WHEN | WHERE Tuesday night at 10 on TBS
REASON TO WATCH None. Whatsoever. At all. Ever.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT 1986. College. Five guys. Bongs. Fraternity rush. Enough said? You want more details? Fine, but consider yourself warned.
Joel (Kelly Blatz) is shepherded to a leafy unnamed campus by Mom and Dad - Cheri Oteri and Brad Garrett, in brief cameos - where he has every intention of focusing on pre-med. But intentions are cast aside when he and four dorm pals head out to seek future friends and cold beer at one of the college's fraternities.
Alex (Tim Jo) is Asian, and is worried about the lack of Asian fraternities. Eli (Matt Bush) wants to meet libidinous ladies. Jason (Drew Seeley) wants to meet like-minded Reagan conservatives. Brian (Hartley Sawyer) is a reluctant baseball star. Alex does find an interesting Asian fraternity, and the other guys end up at Zeta, where they are eager indoctrinates for reasons that largely have to do with beer and pot. Tim Meadows, by the way, also stars as an embittered college prof.
MY SAY "Glory Daze" is a show desperately lost in a deep, dark jungle of college-humor movie cliches. The appealing cast valiantly tries to hack its way through the dense underbrush of jokes about frats and testicles and cannabis. But the harder they hack, the hackier it all becomes. Before long, the jungle has won. The show, and viewer, have lost. Here's - maybe - what happened to a reasonably promising idea. The writers studied perhaps a little too reverently movies like "Slackers" or "Van Wilder" and decided that in the passage of time - both are nearly 10 years old already - the guys they appealed to so deeply would be ready for a TV series with roughly the same vibe. But the 1986 setting suggests the target viewer is in his mid-40s, married, with kids. Hence, "Glory Daze" opted for something blander, and infinitely duller.
BOTTOM LINE Take "Legally Blonde," "Van Wilder," "Animal House," "Slackers" . . . we forgetting anyone? Oh right, "Revenge of the Nerds" . . . and put in blender. Hit high-speed button. Pour. Serve at room temperature.
GRADE D
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