Oliver Beene

It's got heart, and that says a lot. I mean the first episode wasn't a stellar premiere, I'll give you that. But the acting is great! The comedy is more family oriented, and it does a great job at accomplishing what it's set out to do. Isn't that what it's all about? I thought the second episode was very funny, and it's so strange that you can't help but love the way the jokes just seem to just fall out of the scene. It's truly a good-hearted show with some serious moments and real chemistry between these actors. Great job!

Oliver Beene was a great, funny show. It upsets me that they went to Fox though. Fox isn't exactly the best network to go to for new shows. If they had gone to CBS this show would have probably been successful. Fox doesn't even give the shows a chance. Oliver Beene, The Pitts, The Jury, Quituplets..... Anyway, what I liked about this show was the time setting and also I have always seemed to like shows with weird or goofy families. Jerry was my favorite. Hes always mad at someone and trying to get even with them or coming up with some strange idea. My all time favorite episode was the parking space episode where Jerry was fighting Mr. Novogroder to get the best space out in front of the building. It was funny at the end where Novogoder won and kept that old Ford Galaxie there for eternity.

"Oliver Beene" was one of the very, VERY rare family sitcoms that was actually funny, and often hilarious. Well-acted, well-written, and almost entirely anachronism-free. Plus, Andrew Lawrence had to be the cutest thing to appear on TV since George Clooney.

Although Fox's animated programming is mainly daring, high-quality product, they don't support live action sitcoms the same way -- if they did, "Oliver Beene" and "Get a Life" would have run a lot longer.

Rupert Murdoch must have handed down a memo to the effect that Fox's non-cartoon comedies must be all-junk-all-the-time, in order to reach that huge demographic comprised of those who find tired sex jokes ("The War at Home," et. al) and/or people incessantly screaming at one another ("Malcolm in the Middle") to be hilarious.

Oliver Beane is simply the freshest, funniest show to hit the tube in 2003. It's almost a surreal parody of Leave it to Beaver, with straight clueless parents, an older brother and weird little friends. Every episode yields delicious absurdity and quotable punchlines. Predictably, it won't be lasting long. C'mon Fox, do the right thing and renew Oliver.

I totally disagree with the other user comment. I think this show is great. Yes it is a mix of "Malcolm In The Middle" and "Wonder Years" (in fact, the narrator sounds exactly just like Daniel Stern, the narrator from WY), but it's still funny as hell. The characters are fun to watch and the actors seem to have a great time with them. I say take a look.