Laugh Tracks: CBS looking for another HIMYM?

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This article was published on February 21, 2011 and may be out of date. To maintain our historical record, The Cascade does not update or remove outdated articles.
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By Amy Van Veen (Contributer) – Email

CBS started this week off with a new episode of HIMYM and a brand new pilot for those who love HIMYM at 8 pm, but would like to see a lookalike show at 8:30. FOX stayed strong going into week two of their shows on Tuesday night and ABC is still basking in the sunlight of Matthew Perry on Wednesday. All new shows on Thursday night for both NBC and CBS made for a very fulfilling week of laughs.

HIMYM follows the group as they deal with the upcoming celebration of Valentine’s Day. Falling exactly on that dreaded day of red, Ted learns the difference between a male booty call and a female one, Lily is missing her and Marshall’s tradition of watching Predator on V-Day while he’s in Minnesota and Robin finds solidarity, or so she thinks. Barney, too, gets in on the celebrations, but not for V-Day, for Desperation Day. In true Stinson fashion, the explanation includes a brief history of St. Desperatius, the bro to St. Valentine, who is celebrated on February 13th. HIMYM really brought it this week with little nuggets of gold like Barney as Predator, clicking noises included, Marshall as an adult who has regressed to adolescence, Ted who’s afraid of his fast-paced relationship with Zoey, and Lily breaking up with Marshpillow.

Jason Biggs puts down the pie to become Ben, a handsome, single lawyer who has found true love with Sarah Chalke as Kate in CBS’s new sitcom, Mad Love. The show seems to have some potential, especially with the ensemble cast of Biggs and Chalke paired up against Tyler Labine as Larry, the narrator, and the hilarious Judy Greer, Kate’s best friend Connie. Both Labine and Greer have elegantly accepted their fate as “the best friend” making for some honest acting as sidekick and fairy godmother. If that’s not enough, Ben’s ex-girlfriend Erin hails from the Cornell waitlist, like a certain paper salesman, and can’t tell the difference between words like “granted” and “granite” and “swatches” and “snatches”. Fairly funny, but it will be nice to see if it’s at all different from HIMYM.

Maw-Maw gets lucid right in the middle of a massage train in Raising Hope when Jimmy comes home with a video camera he bought at a garage sale down the road. He wants to record his memories, but when he shows them to Sabrina, he learns how disgusting his family really is. Better yet, viewers find out what Sabrina’s neurotic flaw is: germaphobia. Thanks to a black light borrowed from work, Jimmy, Virginia and Burt find all of the germs that are hanging around their house. After they scrub everything down, though, they see Maw-Maw in the crime scene black light Virginia borrowed from her friend and she is in fact the motherload of germs, which means she gets quarantined to the glass shed. A couple of little treasures in this episode include Burt using the video camera to practice his Punk’d and Jackass moves, including tasering his own son, and a reference to Cloris Leachman’s Mary Tyler Moore Show days.

Traffic Light brings back the three amigos with a couple of their college practices including “spider hole” and “burn notice”. Adam realizes he can’t keep using his old move of winning a stuffed animal at a carnival game on the girl he’s now living with and in the end that little dog ends up in a margarita blender. Ethan revisits an old girlfriend leaving Lisa to be a Smash Sister with her husband and viewers learn that marriage is all about holding mistakes over each other’s heads.

Wednesday night starts out with The Middle as Frankie tries to get Brick to socialize, which means an adult woman befriending children in the park. Sue cannot lie well, which leads to problems when she sees an R-rated movie; well, not so much problems as a self-grounding that Mike can’t say no to. Axl and his band, Axl and the Ax Men, want to make a hot music video featuring their attractive biology teacher, Kristin Cavallari, but when she says no, they must resort to secret footage.

Better With You follows the epic journey of the unlucky leather jacket. When worn by Maddie, she gets attacked by bees while on TV. When worn by Ben, he drops a blanket on a New York Yankee that lost them the game. When Mia wore it, she took a nap in a store’s window and then got locked in overnight. When Joel wears it, he inadvertently looks like he’s soliciting a prostitute and then bribes a cop and Vicki, well, there’s no time for Vicki’s story. Casey is the one to discover, though, that the jacket is in fact lucky when it ends up getting him his dream job as the Madison Square Garden mascot, Maddie. That will get confusing.

Nana Dede is back. Fizbo is back. Matt Dillon guest stars. Gloria has a shot of tequila and a Xanax. Happy birthday to Lily on Modern Family!

On this week’s Mr. Sunshine, Crystal decides to motivate everyone by holding a competition for most valuable employee in which she decides the winner. This means that on the night of the big Eli Cutler concert, also known as Nick Jonas who is a rock star, not a pop star, Ben has to do everything since everyone else is bribing Crystal with gifts. Alice steals Frisbees from blind children and Ben gets a hot teenage girl’s phone number all on Ben’s tenth anniversary at the company. The only thing that needs to be improved is more of Kathy Najimy from Sister Act.

On Community, Pierce uses his hospital stay to fake his death bed as he gets Abed to make a documentary of him enacting revenge on the study group. Shirley gets a recording of the others talking behind her back, or does she? Britta gets a blank cheque for ten grand to a charity of her choice, and in the end learns from LeVar Burton that she’s a generous friend, but she’s stupid with money. Troy gets tortured by the presence of LeVar when all he wanted was a signed photograph because, as he says, “pictures can’t disappoint.” Jeff gets played by the dad card, well he does a little, but even better is that he beats up Pierce, which is likened to Pam slapping Michael: something that everyone wanted to do. Annie gets a tiara and looks too much into it. The best, though, is Troy singing the Reading Rainbow theme while crouched and crying in the men’s bathroom.

Perfect Couples looks at how all three couples deal with things that go bump in the night. Julia is the best of the show to date with her tough, astronaut femininity. Leigh plans Amy and Vance’s wedding but is forced to come face to face with her own mistake of food poisoning. Dave, thanks to the explanation of a childhood prank flashback, is deathly terrified of possums and Rex’s lacrosse skills are not what they were. It’s improving.

The Office shows the first full screening of Threat Level Midnight. It’s been highly anticipated for years and cannot be explained, only seen. Watch Threat Level Midnight and you will not be disappointed.

Parks & Rec do, as the episode’s title suggests, deal with a Media Blitz when Ben is faced with his past as a 18 year old failure of a mayor and everyone learns just how terrible he is under pressure. Ron helps Andy get April to stay and Chris redefines Anne’s flow when all she is wondering is whether or not they have a future together. Ron Swanson buys a typewriter, and for anyone who has used a typewriter, his enthusiasm is well-placed as he types out every word he knows much to the chagrin of his office workers. “Rectangle! America! Megaphone! Monday! Butthole.”

Liz Lemon has officially given up on 30 Rock. She has a fanny pack, her hair is done up in a chip click, she carries granny candies around with her and she has a cat, who is named Emily Dickinson. She also knows all of the main characters of NCIS, bought a cemetery plot, and joined a book club with seniors to read Murder on the Orient Express. In the end, she tries to undo the mystery of a Liz Lemon themed night club with quiet music, ample seating and clearly marked fire exits and the strange coincidence of meeting a handsome stranger who likes her drink, talks Star Wars and compliments her on her hair colour (it’s called Grandfather’s Show, if anyone wanted to copy it). Look out for the shocking twist! And Frank and Pete’s band.

On Outsourced, Jerry flies into India to go on a bender after his wife leaves him and Tonya wants Todd to meet her mother. This show seems to be sitting still, except for Rajiv’s promotion to manager.

Big Bang Theory, too, has been stale lately. This week, though, they were able to bring a little more life into it thanks to Amy and Sheldon helping an upset Penny when Pria comes back into town. Howard is just too close with his mother, so close that not even the adorable Bernadette can cut that cord. The highlight? Bernadette needing a footstool to peer out the peep hole on her front door.

Decide for yourself if Mad Love is clichéd or catchy:

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