97 of 100 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hilarious and Dark, Yet Killed Before Its Time, July 20, 2005
This review is from: Titus - Seasons 1 & 2 (DVD)
It truly is a shame that FOX's Titus only lasted three seasons, although, in retrospect, it's amazing that it even did last that long. The material is probably the darkest stuff I've seen on television (and this is a comedy, remember), the budget must have been tiny (there were only three main sets, and everything else looked recycled). The show survived on its merit, but fortunately, it deserved all the acclaim it got, plus much more.
The show Titus is based off of comedian Christopher Titus' one man stage show entitled Norman Rockwell Is Bleeding, which in turn was based on his real life. In fact, the members of Titus' family had to sign release forms, as the show was so close to real life. Titus plays himself, a custom car shop owner who comes from a very dysfunctional family. His father Ken Titus (Stacey Keach) is a womanizing alcoholic who takes the term "tough love" to a whole new level. His mother Juanita (Julie Wagner/Frances Fisher) is a manic-depressive schizophrenic who, on many occasions, tried to kill Ken. Half-brother Dave (Zack Ward) is a marijuana-smoking, unintelligent man-boy. Titus' "normal" friend Tommy Shafter (David Shatraw) is sensitive and effeminante, which leads to him being at the butt of a lot of Ken's jokes. Erin Fitzpatrick (Cynthia Watros) is Titus' loving (but equally screwed up) girlfriend. She also comes from a dysfunctional family, but she does everything she can to forget about it.
The stories are told in a very interesting way; as everything is going on, there are frequent asides from Titus in a black and white "neutral space" where he narrates, comments, and sets up jokes. A lot of the dialogue in the neutral space comes directly from Norman Rockwell Is Bleeding. The plot of the episodes range from the group fearing that Ken is dead because he hasn't left his room in four days... not even to get a beer, to Titus and Erin breaking up, and having both of them hook up with other people within 10 minutes, only to want to get back together.
As you can see, this isn't Ozzie and Harriet. The plots are extremely dark and twisted. One episode deals with the group having an intervention so that Ken can START drinking again. In the featurette Hard Laughs on the DVD, Titus confirms what I had pretty much known since I had seen the show; many of the plots barely got network approval. Chris had to coax them into the episodes by explaining how funny they could be, and believe me, this is one of the funniest shows I have ever seen. Very few shows on network television have ventured this far in terms of the kinds of stories they do (sure, there's Family Guy, but that's a different kind of edgy). The people in this show are dysfunctional and real. There is no weekly reconcilliation at the end of each episode. In fact, it's lucky if the characters' situations aren't worse off by the end than they were at the beginning.
As I said earlier, this show had a tiny budget. Aside from the three main sets (Titus' house, Ken's house, and the Titus High Performance garage), most of the others were definitely recycled, and it doesn't take too much of a trained eye to see old sets refurbished to look like something new (I'm pretty sure that the police station and the hospital were the same set). Furthermore, it seemed like they just couldn't hold on to the actors who played recurring characters. One character was in three episodes, and was played by someone new each time. Juanita Titus was played by a different actress in each season (although they go into that in Hard Laughs, and it does make a kind of sense if you watch the show). I'm surprised that they were able to get guest stars like David Hyde Pierce and Jay Leno to appear (although I'm guessing that they enjoyed the material and were willing to take a cut in their normal pay, just like Gary Oldman on Greg the Bunny). A good number of the episodes dealt only with the main five characters, and didn't have guests at all.
As I said earlier, even though this show deserved more than just three seasons, I'm surprised that it got that many. This is not a show with a big middle ground; most people either love it or hate it, and I'm guessing that there are more people who hate it than love it (although I'm guessing that most people haven't even seen it). In Hard Laughs, Titus was saying how FOX got numerous angry letters protesting the show, and that a lot of people came up to him to insult him (although, he also said that people come up to him and are angry that the show was cancelled). Despite everything that this show had going against it though, it did a great job with what it had. It was hilarious and it was able to remain on the air for three great years. It really is too bad that it wasn't on longer, with it on DVD now, I hope that more people will appreciate the genius behind this amazing show.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dark, Brilliant, Hilarious...Perfect, December 6, 2006
This review is from: Titus - Seasons 1 & 2 (DVD)
I do not watch much television, probably less than an hour a week on average. One of the extremely rare series that I sought out was "Titus," a masterwork which was cancelled before its time, after three short, but brilliant, years. Most good comedy comes out of tragedy, and certainly Christopher Titus has had more than his share. His father was serially divorced, his mother was insane and later committed suicide, yet he was able to take that personal pain and turn it into a darkly funny stand-up act, and later this show.
This show broke new ground, and Fox was brave to let the show explore taboo areas such as divorce, abuse, insanity, and general familial dysfunction. The writing, direction, cinematography (it was the first show in High Definition), and most of all acting are perfect. Christopher Titus plays himself, the beautiful Cynthia Watros plays Erin, his girlfriend, and best of all Stacey Keach plays his dad. For my money Keach as Ken Titus is one of the greatest performances ever in prime time. The remaining cast is equally brilliant, and the guest stars (David Hyde Pierce, Jay Leno, etc.) are delightful.
The show is unique in its construction, and the black and white narrated segments are some of the best scenes ever filmed. Most are very funny, though some are powerful social commentary (a trend that became even more pronounced in season three.)
This show is truly unique: it takes situation comedy to a totally new level, and while it sometimes makes the viewer uncomfortable, it also challenges the viewer to look at themselves, their own fears, biases, and prejudices, and in the final analysis that's a good thing.
I can't recommend "Titus" highly enough. Yes it's very funny, but it's a lot more than that.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bitterly funny, and wickedly smart... or perhaps wickedly funny and bitterly smart., July 6, 2005
This review is from: Titus - Seasons 1 & 2 (DVD)
Titus was a bitterly funny, viciously dark comedy done wrong by the infamously moronic people who run Fox. This show should have stayed on the air until all the actors and writers died of old age--it was good enough to merit a much, much longer run than it actually had. Titus features one of the funniest, most dysfunctional families to ever grace the small screen. Even better, there was a deadly serious undercurrent to the humor, as comedian Christopher Titus examined the deep dysfunction of families and life in general. This DVD belongs in the collection of every person with a sense of humor and a brain (and there are a lot fewer of these people running around than you might think--just look at the folks who run Fox, for example. Nary a sense of humor or a shred of brain matter between them.).
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