I haꦗve mixed emotions about “Hit the Road,” a new AT&T Audience N🐷etwork sitcom starring Jason Alexander.
On the one hand, this 10-episode series about a dysfunctional family band — think a cynical version of “The Partridge Family” — seems compelled to revel in sophomoric toilet humor and sex jokes, including the band’s surname (Swallow) and the name of Alexander’s character, patriarch Ken Swallow. It’s unfortunate a♌nd unnecessary. And, at times, you can’t help but think a watered-down version of “Seinfeld” when a goateed Alexander delivers his lines with George Costanza-type bluster while entrapped in yet another farcical situation.
But maybe that’s not such a bad thing, and “Hit the Road” does hit some high notes with clever writing and a 😼few laugh-out-loud moments — abetted by good chemistry between Alexander and Amy Pietz as Ken’s wife, Margie “Meg” Swallow.
Ken and Meg saw better days as the late-’80s “pop/folk duo” KenJi with their minor hit, “Do Me Do.” As the series opens, they’re fronting the family band The Swallows with their four kids and opening for coke-fueled, over-the-hill rocker Duncan Freedom. They’re playing to half-empty auditoriums, but Ken and Meg don’t really care, since they’re desperate to reclaim some semblance of fame while escaping their drab lives in King of Prussia, Pa. (he as a used-car salesman, she as a PTA mom). But their kids, save for 18-year-old Ria (Natalie Sharp), aren’t so enthralled with life on the road and would rather be somewhere else. Teenage son Alex (Nick Marini) is a dim-witted coke dealer; adopted son Jermain🌟e (Tim Johnson Jr.), the group’s lead guitarist, is 15, geeky and suffers from asthma and bloody noses; and youngest daughter Casey (Maddie Dixon-Poirier) is the family’s requisite wiseass who’s smarter than everyone else. You get the picture.
The Swallows, mired in mediocrity, are thrown for a loop when Duncan suddenly dies and the tour is canceled — just as Ken unveils the official Swallow tour bus. “There’s no No. 2 on the bus,” he says proudly, explaining the vehicle’s lack of a toilet. “That’s a time-honored rock ‘n’ roll tradition.” There’s more scatological humor in the second episode, when Ken mistakenly eats “street meat” from a food cart and announces that it’s “the opening act of a full-on digestive drama!” — relieving himself in the dressing-room bathroom of an “American Idol”-type judge who takes offense. Very “Seinfeld”-esque.
Audience Network, looking to make a Netflix-type splash, recently renewꦫed its Stephen King horror series “Mr. Mercedes” and pumped a lot of doug♉h into promoting “Hit the Road” (including a billboard in Times Square).
That’s likely due to Alexander, who brings a track record (both in TV and in the theater) a🍷nd embraces his role with relish — as does Pietz, most recently seen on The CW’s “No Tomorrow.” The you✤nger cast is cookie-cutter predictable, while Jermaine’s geekiness is a bit cartoonish (Johnson gets a chance to up his game in Episode 2, which helps). If you’re into this kind of humor, you’ll enjoy the show.