Simon Dunn

Scriptwriter and Comedian

Listen Up!

After the demise of Bob Patterson, Jason Alexander would return to the sitcom scene in 2004, with CBS’s Listen Up! (yup, it has that exclamation mark). The series was developed by Jeff Martin, a long time writer of The Simpsons, and was based loosely on the life of sports writer Tony Kornheiser.

Consider the fate that has befallen what should have been a perfectly fine family sitcom, Listen Up. Based on the life of sportswriter Tony Kornheiser, the show boasts one of the new season’s better scripts and stronger supporting casts. It has the backing of its network, the built-in fan base of Kornheiser’s ESPN hit Pardon the Interruption and the promotional pull of a well-known actor: Jason Alexander …

… the Kornheiser you get, renamed Tony Kleinman, is pretty much limited to the whining, screaming co-host you sometimes see on Pardon the Interruption, which is Kornheiser at his most buffoonish, smug and unsophisticated. What’s missing is the wit, charm and brains that also can come through on his show and, more often, in his writing. That Tony could support a sitcom; this one can’t.

Robert Bianco, USA Today
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