Unhitched: 1.1 ‘Pilot’ Recap
Original Air Date: March 2, 2008
Finally we get the new series that everyone’s been dumping on so much lately. Is all of the flak justified? Kinda.
I expected the premiere episode to be stupid in an offensive and/or repulsive way, Farrelly Brothers-style. That wasn’t the problem for me, though. Instead, I felt the “comedy” was too tame and, of course, not particularly amusing.
Even worse, the funniest moments were courtesy of guest stars playing peripheral characters, such as Jackass star Johnny Knoxville’s jackass pimp Chuck and Ben Giroux’s very enthusiastic Tim, also known as Kate’s short-statured date who does double duty as Boston Celtics mascot Lucky the Leprechaun.
In other words, the show is similar to CBS’ Welcome to the Captain — while watching you wonder why any network executive thought the world needed to see such nondescript and forgettable material. Will they ever learn? Probably not, so on to the recap…
Main character GATOR walks his date home, and she asks him if he’d like to come up to her apartment. When they get inside, the entire unit is decked out with green, leafy plants everywhere you look. The woman tells Gator the foliage reminds her roommate, a small orangutan, of his home in Borneo.
She then puts on a video of gorillas mating during her recent trip to the region, and she informs Gator that in the primates’ species, females initiate sex. Gator’s all for it when she asks if he’d like to do what the apes are doing on tape … until the orangutan gets excited, as well, drops its pants, hops on his naked backside, and you get the idea
[I missed part of the episode following the opening credits because Fox was a half-hour behind schedule. As a result, the recap continues about five minutes later, not including commercials, after I realized the show came on late and started recording again.]
Gator and TOMMY are at some kind of function for Gator’s beer company, and Gator drags Tommy away from a mature-looking 16-year-old girl he’s trying to hook up with since she looks legal.
Meanwhile, FREDDY is celebrating his birthday on a dinner date with a very blonde and very proud prostitute named ANNIE LEWIS BAPPY (Guest Star Lauren Bowles, half-sister of New Adventures of Old Christine star Julia Louis-Dreyfus via their mother). After he tells her he hasn’t been on a date since December 1992, she suggests they fly to Atlantic City in New Jersey to celebrate in even grander style. Freddy would rather go to this place he knows for some mango chutney cheesecake, but he gives in when his date becomes visibly disappointed.
KATE is also on a date, with TIM (Giroux), who looks half a foot shorter and fifty pounds lighter. He escorts her to their coveted courtside seats at a Boston Celtics home game and then heads out to the floor to take care of some business. Just as Kate calls Gator to thank him for encouraging her to be more open-minded, Tim appears center court, yanks off his suit jacket, and starts strutting around the floor comically dressed as mascot Lucky the Leprechaun.
Back at the beer function, Gator asks Tommy to do him a favor and take his distraught and obviously drunk employee KITTY (Guest Star Kate Hodge) home while being discreet about it. So, Tommy does. When Gator returns home later that night, however, he finds Tommy misinterpreted his ambiguous instructions as asking him to take Kitty to Gator’s home, not her own home.
As a result, Kitty, who earlier complained to Gator about her problems with men, is now waiting for him upstairs in his bed. Considerate Tommy also put Gator’s hamper bedside in case she has the urge to vomit.
In Atlantic City, Freddy and his date have a ball, and when they return to Boston on the private plane, Freddy decides to follow his friends’ advice and take more chances. As he kneels down on one knee, presumably to ask Annie to marry him, her full-time manager and part-time boyfriend CHUCK (Knoxville) interrupts from across the way where he’s been waiting for them to arrive.
Freddy was under the impression from the website that all he had to pay for was the dinner. He now learns he also has to cough up money for the entire fourteen hours he and Annie were away, including overtime for four hours and increased rates for taking her across state lines, not to mention tax. The grand total owed is $8,000.
Since Freddy doesn’t have the money on him, he calls Gator, who’s estranged wife NIKKI (Guest Star Erinn Bartlett, wife of Rules of Engagement star Oliver Hudson, who is lovely Goldie Hawn’s son and cutie Kate Hudson’s older brother — what a comedy connection!) has just stopped by to try and reconcile. Apparently, her French lover Guy left her to return to Cirque du Soleil, which is too bad because Gator is more concerned about going to help Freddy.
In a parking lot outside somewhere, Chuck refuses to take Gator’s check, which leaves the guys — Tommy’s on the scene, too — in a bind since it’s Sunday and banks are closed. So, Freddy hands over the $11,000 engagement ring he bought for Annie, and Gator adds his wedding ring when Chuck claims he can only pawn the first ring for about $7,000. To add insult to injury, Chuck proposes to a deliriously happy Annie next, using the engagement ring Freddy bought for his proposal to her.
Later, the four single friends sit around Gator’s living room. After Freddy finishes examining his butt to make sure the orangutan didn’t do any permanent damage (relax — there’s a towel covering the butt and Freddy’s examination), Gator reveals that having drunk Kitty over finally encouraged him to sign the divorce papers.
And, no, Freddy doesn’t wash his hands, which indicates that he’s not a real doctor — because healthcare workers habitually wash their hands every time they come within ten feet of a bare body part, let alone someone’s uncovered ass right in their face — or that the four buddies are all, like, really, scarily, freakishly good friends.
2 opinions for Unhitched: 1.1 ‘Pilot’ Recap
arieanna
Mar 5, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Yea, was just bad. How were the ratings?
Chandra
Mar 7, 2008 at 12:41 am
The show did okay. It depends on whether you’re looking at overall ratings or the coveted 18-49 demo.
The show was the lowest rated of the night overall outside of The CW’s lineup. But, it beat a handful of shows in the 18-49 demo, including Big Brother, Dexter, and Law and Oder: SVU.
It also come on a half-hour late, so who knows what effect that had on top of the lousy reviews.
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