TV Tuesday: Why, Fiddle-dee-dee, it's GCB!

Some weeks ago "GCB," ABC's comedy about Dallas church ladies gone bad, burst into the Sunday night lineup with all the color and fervor of a blue-ribbon garden.  Of course, no rosebush worth its grits comes without thorns, and it's just such sharp edges that make this saga sizzle.  Former head cheerleader Amanda Vaughn (Leslie Bibb, in a near-reprisal of her WB "Popular" role) is forced to crawl back to her mother Gigi (a take-no-prisoners, mentor-material Annie Potts) after her embezzling and philandering husband dies in a fiery car crash.  Although the one-time queen of mean has mellowed during her years in California, her victims have long memories and an uncontrollable urge to choke her with humble pecan pie upon her return.  Having picked up Amanda's discarded queen bee mantle, Carlene Cockburn (a hilariously over-the-top Kristin Chenoweth) leads the pack in hatching a string of stunts that  - and I just had to say this - fetches laughs as big as Texas. 

Candy-colored, upbeat, and full of fabulous fashion, "GCB" is fun because it delivers comfort food spiked with spice.  I think this is where "Pan Am," the 1960s drama "GCB" replaced, missed the mark.  Slow-moving and a little dreary, its storyline seemed to stunt the development of promising characters.  Not that I gave up on it.  I watched "Pan Am" until the bitter end, indignantly dreading its demise at the hands of some catty cowgirl show that went by an acronym.  Little did I know that "GCB's" particular brand of melodrama stems from the kind of adolescent wounds and shared history that lay the foundation for a compelling series.  Because despite their slick exteriors, these women have layers.  Although Amanda is the heroine, and therefore the rightful recipient of our loyalties, Carlene and company garner a certain amount of empathy as former pawns in Amanda's games.  There are, after all, two sides to every story.  And it's the rare woman alive who can't relate to that. 

New TV (Otherwise Known as Fall's Consolation Prize)

Last week marked the beginning of the 2011-2012 TV season, and with it my deliverance from the surfeit of sitcom reruns and played-out movies that buzzed on my TV like so much white noise this summer.  As always, my menu of mainstays, including The Middle, Modern Family, Community, and The Office, was sprinkled with fresh new selections.  Just as when I'm presented with an updated restaurant menu, I couldn't help but wonder which newbies would become the new mac and cheese, i.e., flavorful, fulfilling, and always a treat, and which would suffer the fate of concoctions made unpalatable by too many or too few ingredients.  Here's my take on three of the series debuts I sampled (in reverse chronological order):

Show: Pan Am
Network: ABC
Time: Sunday, 10:00 pm EST

Despite the scuttlebutt that it was just a Mad Men knock-off, I had high hopes for Pan Am (pun intended).  Like lots of people, I like a good period piece.  Stories set in iconic eras can't help but be shrouded in romance, and the admittedly fluffy ABC capitalizes on this phenomenon in its drama showcasing stewardesses of the early 1960s.  To be honest, it was slow going at first.  The plot centers around four women -- each a trailblazer of sorts -- which means that there was a bit of back-story to relay.  Even so, Pan Am has all the hallmarks of a best-selling saga and will probably become more engrossing as the season unfolds.

Show: Whitney
Network: NBC
Time: Thursday, 9:30 pm EST

NBC is known for sitcoms that probe beneath life's underbelly.  Whitney, starring comedian Whitney Cummings, fits right in as the story of a cohabiting, thirty-something couple contemplating marriage.  Albeit gentler than the other social commentary-spouting shows in NBC's Thursday night lineup (Community, Parks and Recreation, and The Office), Whitney delivers some trenchant one-liners about love and relationships.  Unfortunately, most of them were in the commercials, which somewhat diluted their appeal.  Nevertheless, pilots are often iffy, so I remain optimistic.

Show: New Girl

Network: FOX

Time: Tuesday, 9:00 pm EST

New Girl is just the sort of off-beat show you'd expect to see on the network that brought us The Simpsons.  Starring queen of quirk Zooey Deschanel, it centers around Jess, a newly single teacher who finds herself living with three guys she met on Craigslist.  Fashion-challenged and in the habit of bursting into song, Jess catapults over Deschanel's resident territory of the unusual headlong into the land of just plain odd.  Indeed, her actions are often cringeworthy, particularly when she's hurling herself at prospective suitors.  Still, her eccentricities are born of a genuineness that render her as endearing and vulnerable.

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Criticisms aside, I'll continue watching all of these shows.  Sweet, salty, or tangy, stories are my favorite snack.