`Samantha Who?’ That’s a Good Question
It wouldn’t be fair to say that ABC’s the only network having an identity crisis this season.
CBS, giddy over finally having enough 18- to 49-year-old viewers to brag about, is reaching beyond the forensics lab to see if vampires and singing casino owners can generate some buzz _ and crowing about drawing under-12s with “Kid Nation.”
Fox is hiring people it once might have considered barely young enough to watch its shows _ “Everybody Loves Raymond’s” Patricia Heaton and Brad Garrett, “Frasier’s” Kelsey Grammer _ and putting them in the kind of sitcoms you’d expect to see on ABC.
And NBC’s been hanging with the Sci Fi Channel.
Still, the sheer number of new ABC characters, ranging from the pampered Darlings of “Dirty Sexy Money” to the cranky Cro-Magnons of “Cavemen,” suggests a programming strategy that’s more about stumbling across a hit _ maybe even the next “Dancing with the Stars” _ than with putting a particular stamp on the network.
There are worse strategies. Particularly in a season where the Nielsen ratings show more viewers than ever rebelling against network scheduling, recording and watching at their own convenience and creating havoc with the numbers.
At this point, not knowing exactly who you are might even be a form of wisdom.
Which brings us to the latest entry in ABC’s fall sweepstakes, “Samantha Who?”
A single-camera comedy starring Christina Applegate as a woman who wakes up from a brief coma without her memory, the show’s already suffered its own identity crisis, having begun life as “Sam I Am,” morphed briefly (after reported conflicts with “Dr. Seuss’ ” estate) into “Samantha Be Good” and then arrived at a Horton-free “Who” _ with a question mark _ in time for air.
Sandwiched beginning Monday between the cheesy-but-cheerful “Dancing” and that ever-more-cynical wild goose chase known as “The Bachelor,”"Samantha Who?” seems, like ABC itself, to be striving to be all things to all viewers.
Those who share the network’s apparent obsession with the misbehavior of the very wealthy _ “Dirty Sexy Money,”"Big Shots,”"Brothers & Sisters” -will be thrilled to learn that Sam (Applegate) lives in an extremely nice apartment in a building with a doorman (Tim Russ), playing house with a guy (“What About Brian’s” Barry Watson) she hasn’t treated very well.
Oh, and she apparently’s been a big drinker.
Those for whom Applegate will always be “Married …With Children’s” Kelly Bundy will be equally thrilled to meet Sam’s cynical and self-absorbed parents (Jean Smart and Kevin Dunn), particularly her mother, who, as Sam emerges from her eight-day coma, is busy filming an application to ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” using Sam’s condition as a hook.
High life, highballs and low-lifes: Talk about covering your bases.
With all this going on _ as well as the introduction of Jennifer Esposito as Sam’s bad-girl best friend and Melissa McCarthy (“Gilmore Girls”) as a former friend who may also be trying to take advantage of Sam’s amnesia _ “Samantha Who?” could easily be a complete mess.
That it isn’t is almost entirely due to Applegate, who brings sweetness, sarcasm and a steely edge to this story of a woman doing everything she can not to become the person she’s always been.
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SAMANTHA WHO?
9:30 p.m. EDT Monday
ABC.
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Ellen Gray: graye@phillynews.com
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