By Fred Leland
March 27, 2001
This sleeper-hit premiered on Fox stations March 20th 2000, and currently airs Tuesdays at 8:30 PM (Eastern.) Taken from the life of comedian Christopher Titus, some critics did not welcome this show with open arms and apple pie. But this show is so beyond mom and apple pie America that critics weren't ready for it. Sure the parade of sitcoms about dysfunctional families is quite long, but besides Roseanne, I can't think of any that were based on a real dysfunctional family that was so damn twisted.
Titus (Christopher Titus) runs his own hot rod shop with the help of his half brother Dave (Zack Ward,) who is slower than the speed of stupid, and his Polly Anna friend Tommy (David Shatraw.) All three often run afoul of Papa Titus (Stacy Keach,) whose favorite hobbies are drinking, finding new women to marry, and being paranoid that his first wife (Titus' mom) will get out of the asylum and finish him off. But keeping Titus sane is his girlfriend Erin (Cynthia Watros,) who also comes from a twisted family and often has Titus by the short hairs. In real life Christopher Titus is married to the real Erin.
In tonight's episode, Tommy is dating the woman (Kim Rhodes) that Titus had sex with, when he and Erin had broken up for a night in another episode. Tommy's girlfriend runs the restaurant where Titus and gang have gone for dinner. This ex-mistress starts hitting on Titus, who isn't believed by Tommy or anyone else when he tries to break the news. Eventually Titus finds his ex-mistress on a butcher block in the kitchen, getting her salad tossed by the chef. But when Titus gets Tommy into the kitchen to see what's going on, Ms. Rhodes' character is on the floor with a strained back, and ticked off that Titus convinced Tommy to break up with her. It comes out during this scene that Tommy and his girlfriend have an "understanding:" he can have sex with her, and she can have sex with everybody else. She even has the nerve to tell Titus, as the paramedics wheel her out on a backboard, "Come on bitch let's dance!"
I enjoy the writing and characters of Titus, but I especially enjoy the quick jump cuts. For example, if an episode is about Papa Titus' skirt chasing, there will be a peppering of flashback examples from Titus' childhood. Also, Christopher Titus provides snappy commentary on the show from the room deep inside his head: a room shot in black and white, with a single light bulb, window, and chair.
From TV Guide.com:
Question: Are you gonna be
appearing on any late night shows, if so
which ones?
Titus: That'll depend if the
audience watches or not. You never hear
Letterman say, "My next guest has a show that's sucking on Fox..."
Well Dave better keep that couch warm because Fox has a kick ass hit on its hands.
