Customer Reviews

Hank

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was fortunate enough to be there for the final taping for Hank. In that episode, they adopt a family pet & the way Hank intereacts with this old dog is absolutely hilarious, it's a shame that ABC did not give everyone a chance to see how this cast developed & grew. They were finally getting into their comfort zone when ABC pulled the plug on them, they deserved at least a full season & maybe a better timeslot & advertising like the rest of the Wednesday night lineup got! This was the only one that the whole family could sit down & enjoy together, good old fashioned family comedy at it's best!
How can you develop any continuity when you are being pre-empted & have to go up against things like the last game of the world series & an established show like "Old Christine."
I am looking forward to getting a chance to see the 5 episodes that were never aired when the DVD is released, just a shame everyone wont get to see them. I think ABC should at least have let them run on [...] for the audience that was already watching, but they pulled the plug there also!
Hopefully Kelsey will get with a better network next time & be given a chance to prove himself. He has come back form the heart attack & is looking great!

...ABC should have given it a chance. Yes, it was not as good as Cheers, Frasier, or Back to You, but it was the best show on ABC, as far as I'm concerned. It was the only show worth watching on that network. I hope it gets released on DVD so I can see the remaining episodes. I'm just really perplexed as to how the network could tell the production company to produce X amount of episodes, and then not air half of them. That is utterly ridiculous. Of course it was not as good as it could have been. It needed to grow, and ABC killed it. I do believe this show could have grown. It was refreshing to see a family sitcom on TV. I would definitely buy the DVD, should it be released.

This is Kelsey Grammer's second outing post FRASIER. I have been watching it since the opening episode more than two months ago, hoping that somehow it gets better. If anything, it is getting worse. It is so bad that I doubt I can watch much more although it is a bit like riding by a huge accident and you find yourself rubbernecking. If you watched any bit of his effort with Patricia Heaton as the news anchors, that was actually much better than HANK! Heaton has a new outing too and hers is successful (MIDDLE).

Here's the scenario: Grammer plays Hank, a former CEO who lost it all in the crash and had to relocate himself and his family near his wife's brother in the southern US. He has two kids and they live in a regular colonial house now with the kids going to the public schools. Grammer plays it as the arrogant prig with the stuffy, fussy ways who really is a good guy underneath it all. This is not that different from his role of 20 years as FRASIER.

I think a big part of the problem is that he is just too old now to be playing some of these daddy and hubby sitcom roles. He needs a foil for this talent that ups the age factor. Maybe his foil should be a son or daughter in the 30s age bracket. Use them the way he once used the father and brother as his foil in FRASER. I think if he played a surgeon and had a son or daughter come into his practice, that could be pretty funny. Grammer has not aged particularly well either. I know he almost died of a heart attack and he somewhat looks like that. Whatever solution is found in sitcom land, he needs to be playing a character who is supposed to be in his early 60s. If he's supposed to be that in this role, it doesn't wash with the young kids in middle school and high school and the cute wife. I realize some real CEOs have kids and wives like that but I don't think you'd find their lives particularly hilarious, especially if the CEO loses his job and can't get another.

All the jokes are falling horribly flat and a big part of the reason is that he looks like the grandfather to these kids and the father to his wife. It just doesn't translate as funny sitcom material.

In sum, do NOT buy this as a DVD.