ReallyIsaac

On February 9th, ABC premiered  Mr. Sunshine starring Matthew Perry, Allison Janney, Andrea Anders and Nate Torrence. Let me just say, I really enjoyed. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t expecting something a little more. As you know, I’m a huge Aaron Sorkin fan. Because so much of Aaron’s crew was working on this show, I was expecting his style of writing. But there is only one Aaron Sorkin. Don’t get me wrong, I love this show! Its really funny, smart and Matthew Perry does an outstanding job of playing himself. 

Not to sound condescending, but in an interview with Matthew Perry on the Daily Show with John Steward, he clearly stated that he did the most self-serving thing a person could do: create a TV Show for themselves. Courteney Cox did it for Cougar Town. Matt Leblanc on the show Episodes - which he is actually playing himself - and I’m sure there are others doing the same.

Funny thought: Actors from Friends feel they should have shows about themselves. Also: I watch every single one of them! 

But I digress. Even though I was expecting Sorkin style of writing, I wasn’t really that disappointed with what I saw. The show was really funny. Matthew’s facial expression are really on point. He has a way about delivering dialogue without having to say really anything. Half of what makes great dialogue is reaction. Matthew must know this very well. 

The Pilot episode was pretty standard as far as pilots go. They had the “kind of” love interest, there was the best friend the lead secretly envies, the person who gets everyone in trouble and the one that needs looking out for and a lead that’s discovering something about themselves.  Granted, those aren’t set in stone staples for a TV sitcom, but for Mr. Sunshine it seems to work.

One thing for sure is they have a fan right here! I’ve already set my DVR to record all future episodes. You can watch it live on ABC Wednesday 9:30/8:30p C. If you missed the Pilot episode, you can downloaded it from iTunes for free.

I’ve been watching a lot of Aaron Sorkin’s work. He has this way of picking a cast that seems to work extremely well with each other from the get go. For example, Matthew Perry is well known for his role on Friends. But watching Matthew on The West Wing really brought his talent into a new light for me. Then when he was casted for the role of Matt Albie on a show called Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, another show created by Aaron Sorkin, I knew after watching Matthew Perry on Studio 60 that he was an actor I would follow wherever he went.

Now something you need to know about Sorkin is that he seems to have a partner in crime, Thomas Schlamme. Though he isn’t a write like Sorkin, but I would like to believe Schlamme has the same eye for talent and creativity. With that said, There’s a new show coming to ABC called Mr. Sunshine with Thomas Schlamme Executive Producing, along with Matthew Perry.

Mr. Sunshine is about a self-involved manager of a second-rate San Diego sports arena who begins to re-evaluate his life on his 40th birthday. The primes seems simple enough. To make things better, Matthew Perry, playing the lead-role of Ben Donovan and is joined by Allison Janney, best known for her role in The West Wing and Juno. 

It also has Andrea Anders, known for her role in Better Off Ted, The Class & Joey. James Lesure who guested on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Nate Torrence who was a regular on the aforementioned show and who was also on Get Smart and She’s Out of My League. 

Everything about this show looks promising. The Pilot episode was written by Matthew Perry, Alex Barnow and Marc Ficek and directed by Thomas Schlamme. Mr. Sunshine will premier on ABC February 9th, 2011 around 8:30p/9:30p. 

You can find a full length trailer on YouTube and you can find more information on the ABC website.