Series Run : 1999-2000
22 episodes
Network: UPN
Series Premise (as far as I can tell):
Struggling pseudo Rap group trying to hit it big
Episode Watched: The F Word (Season 1)
Episode Summary: The band is trying to find inspiration for a song to be used in a movie when Scott’s ex girlfriend is discovered by Dennis while he’s shopping for Valentine gifts.
My Thoughts: Happy Valentine’s day everybody! The wheel of sitcoms landed on this odd offering from the UPN network and their Valentine themed episode happened to be called “The F Word”, so that is what I watched. I admit I was looking forward to this entry just based on the title alone (later shortened to “Shasta” for the last 10 episodes). What I found was a strange, rather unfunny show starring Gary Busey’s son and mini-me from Austin Powers. It seems to be a derivative of the movie Reality Bites, as well as a precursor to what we see on the current show, New Girl. It also tries to main stream rap music and it fails miserably in that regard. The show follows a down on their luck pseudo-rap trio who live in a run down apartment in Venice Beach and share a living area with a young ad agency worker, who happens to be in love with the lead singer of the group. Jake Busey is the big name of the cast and he plays the loveable screwup of the group, the top billed star plays Scott who is the angst filled artist of the team, and then you have your token black member, who happens to also have the most common sense of the lot. It’s an odd compilation of scenes with no real sense of story or comedy. In this episode, Scott’s ex shows back up and the guys and the ad exec try to keep them apart, only to fail at the end. I think I laughed once. Oh, did I fail to mention they sort of work at a bar that is owned by mini me? From what I have read this show was mostly known fo its vulgarity and crude subject matter, which I did not see on display at all in the episode I watched. More puzzling to me is the large number of D List guest stars that show up in the episode list, folks like Gary Coleman, Erik Estrada, Gary Busey, Cindy Margolis and Ben Stein. I can only assume UPN threw a lot of cash at these ‘stars’ in hopes of boosting the ratings. Its a show which mimics the network and era it was broadcast, both trying to find an identity in the new millennium.
Memorable Quotes:
“200 dollars a bottle! That’s more than we paid for our car!” -Dennis
Acting Notables:
Jake Busey- Dennis
Verne Troyer- Verne
Carmine Giovinazzo- Scott
Tomorrow: A show which I wanted to hate
365 Days of Sitcoms 