My Thoughts On "Happily Divorced"

photo courtesy of tvland

Fran Drescher and Peter Marc Jacobs's new show, Happily Divorced, premiered last night on tvland. I watched it tonight after getting home from Super 8. Boy was it weird when Fran started throwing train cars around. I still don't understand why the Air Force even had her!

The main thrust of the pilot is Fran repeating "You're/my husband's gay! Insert anticlimactic punchline." Two acts end on that exact line ("You're gay! Go to the YMCA!" and "My husband's gay! And I think I just killed my date!") and I'm not exactly complaining. Sometimes you have to let the artists that you love work things out for themselves for as long as it takes, and you have to sit there and watch because that's your job. This all happened to her in real life, remember, along with too many other personal tragedies - she's bound to overdo the MY HUSBAND IS GAY!!!!!!!! GAY! GAY! GAYYYY!!!! stuff at least a little at the outset of the show.

John Michael Higgins is excellent at everything he does. This show stands a 1000% better chance of surviving because of him. Cesar the delivery guy is only ok so far, so I'm really hoping he pulls through and gets hilarious fast. Fran's mother Dori, while no Sylvia Fine, gives me the same kind of feeling Grandma Yetta used to give me - like, here's this little woman with her head screwed on sideways. What on earth is she gonna say next?!?!!!!! And wow, I just looked her up and it turns out that she is in fact RITA MORENO.

photo courtesy of tvland

But the most important part of Happily Divorced is obviously Fran Drescher herself, the perpetually self-titled heroine, the best side-eye giver in all of West Hollywood. Although she starts out decidedly sleepy-looking and tired-voiced, she steadily livens up throughout the episode until she suddenly becomes just like Fran Fine again, the eternal 29-year-old. Is it like watching a phoenix rise from its ashes? I couldn't tell you; I haven't seen that. But whatever it is Fran's doing, whether it looks like some dumb Phoenix or whatever it looks like, I will be there watching it.

My favorite parts of Happily Divorced:

• John Michael Higgins/'s eye color enhancers
• Rita Moreno's hair
• "Fran, you haven't been on a date for a long time. Do you have protection?" "Wait, let me see. Yes, I got my Rolaids!" (or something like that)
• presence of a snooty French waiter (classic)
• the idea that this show can make an audience suspend their disbelief enough to think that a gay man would be married to a woman for that long - looks like I can still write I Do...Men! after all.