NewsRadio: "President" and "Review"

Welcome, summer! Your brilliant sunshine warms us. Your high humidity and UV index threaten us with heat stroke and melanoma, respectively. Best of all, you bring us back to TV Club Classic. I'll be revisiting NewsRadio's third season all summer long, two episodes at a time. Veterans of last summer's coverage already know my obsession with the situation comedy, that ubiquitous yet oddly finicky laugh-generating machine. Every week in this space, we can vivisect one of the very best sitcoms of our lifetime to find out what makes the dang thing tick. And if I can avoid killing our specimen with over-analysis, we ought to have a lot of laughs along the way.
Ready? Let's get started with an extended reminder of our main obsessions , as illustrated in the first two episodes:
"President"
Center/eccentric structure: You don't get much more eccentric than a rich guy running for president as a way to meet women. (Gary Hart … John Edwards … Come to think of it, maybe it's not that eccentric.) But the funny isn't in the crazy. It's in the reaction of the few characters with some sense of normalcy to the crazy, juxtaposed with the reactions of the varying degrees of the other eccentrics to the crazy. Beth jumps into her role as campaign manager/security by stabbing Dave with a J. James For President button (twice) and instantly recognizing Mr. James' choice for theme song ("'Life's Been Good To Me' Joe Walsh 1975 I'm on it!"). Bill curries favor by tossing softball questions at the press conference ("Aren't you perhaps overqualified for the position of president of the United States?" "Do you have a dog? … Sounds like a real champ!"). Lisa struggles to balance her need to prove her bulldog reporter instincts and her distaste for humiliating her boss. Joe suggests the slogan "Jimmy James: No More Lies About The Government Cover-Up Of Alien Bodies At Area 52." And Dave earnestly tries to fit what's going on into his prior understanding of the Jimmy James dynamic.
B-story randomness: There's no essential connection between the Jimmy-James-For-President storyline and Matthew's mustache. (Aside from the very funny sight gag where the mustachioed Jimmy James photo shows up at the press conference behind the podium, and has to be lowered to hide the facial hair until only half the head is visible.) Yet there they are together, the latter adding zing and zip with its utter insubstantiality to the former's relative plot-heaviness. It's as if the simple situation — ridiculous mustache — frees up the writers to imagine scenes that can be dropped in anywhere to pick up the pace or provide a surprise. Case in point: Intervention in the men's bathroom. "I'd like each person to say how Matthew's mustache has affected them," Bill intones. Later he wanders over the use the urinal in the middle of a sentence, heedless of the women's presence. The intervention doesn't accomplish anything and doesn't really move the story along. Its very uselessness, in the context of the half-hour, is what provides the delight.
Cold open: The Matthew pratfall had been established as a cold-open standard in season 2. Now the fun comes in providing that explosive burst of physical comedy without simply giving in to audience expectations. This week's open is one of the absolute bests of the series, from Dave's repeated monologue about his vacation activities delivered to a succession of uncaring listeners, to the reveal of the mustache as Matthew slumps guiltily out of the elevator ("I can't pretend that's not there!" Dave protests), to the rapid-fire reactions of the three women upon seeing it (Beth flees, Lisa does a spit-take, Catherine slaps Matthew's face).
Denouement: How does everything get back to normal? Jimmy James promotes his ace reporter for figuring out the presidential gimmick ("I didn't expect anyone to figure that out, but I underestimated Lisa Miller of WNYX!"), and Bill kisses Matthew to determine whether Matthew's assertion about its attractiveness is valid ("Actually, that wasn't entirely unpleasant!").
Verdict: A solid episode for a season-opener, but things will get even better as the crew starts to loosen up later on.
"Review"