User reviews

Personally, I think this show has some true potential - its main characters are a 32-year-old balding man and a 14-year-old boy that are so much alike that they practically finish each other's sentences. The concept of having not only Glenn (Rob Corddry's character) helping the kid (Josh) meet girls with what they both think are the best pick-up lines in the world, but then they turn around and have the kid helping Glenn date his own mom!! The fact that Josh feels comforted by the idea of his new friend getting with his mother makes the show worth watching.

For those of you who are not familiar with Corddry's work on the Daily Show, a lot of his quirks and nuances make the character and the comedy work - he really does make you think he has the mind of a young teenager (that has problems with talking to girls).

A blossoming young boy of thirty-two (>'.')>

Geez it's not the Next Great Sitcom(tm) or anything, but it's not even close to "1 star". That's just silly. It's better than half of the sitcoms currently on TV, but only barely, so I think a "6" is better warranted. There's some real chemistry with the cast, and I actually laughed out loud a couple times, so I'm giving it a shot next week, too. The last line of the second episode tonight ("This isn't us...") was very genuine and clever, and if the show can find THAT tone more often, it'll last the year.

One other thing: I was a huge, huge Arrested Development fan. But surely even the most ardent AD fan will acknowledge the quality went down season by season. That's the problem when you start so brilliantly. At least this show has room to improve. ;)

To the guy who couldn't believe they would air this show after the simpsons and family guy, as if it's disgracing those two programs, you gotta be kidding me. The simpsons and family guy are sooooo over the hill. It's been years since I've laughed out loud at a new episode of simpsons or family guy, and I used to be one of the biggest fans around of those two shows. Rob Cordry, while his acting at times was a little ridiculous, was hilarious nonetheless and delivered most of his lines fantastically. And I love how he interacts with the 14 year old kid- some of the stuff they said to each other was priceless. To snuggy bear, based on the name you chose for yourself, I'm not surprised you were offended by this show. If it's too edgy for you, try switching over to Nick, Jr.

Everyone seems to rip shows up before they even get to know the character. This show is different in that it's set backwards in time and they can line the plot with jokes about how time turns out...

It's got some great moments between Rob and the kid, some might find it disturbing, but it's life for this underdeveloped adult.

Just try to put yourself in a good place when you watch it, I thought it was pretty funny, with new predicaments they are being placed it popping up everywhere.

Don't trash this so quickly...Rob was great on The Daily Show and Seth has his hand in it. There is a lot of foreshadowing and perhaps the program will break through and get some new elements.

In the future watch pilots neutrally, not hurtingly.

OK this show is abysmal, but I actually enjoyed watching it because it sucked so much. Just the laugh track is an instant classic. And the plot: "It is a comedy about a successful man named Glen Abbott (played by Rob Corddry) looking back to the time when he was in his thirties and living with his parents." On the episode, "Hot For The Teacher", they showed the outside of the video store and all on the windows had posters of new movies. Like Cars, Clerks 2, Little Man, John Tucker Must Die. I think they could've done better by doing something to hide them so it actually makes it look like it is supposed to be in 1994. In another episode a Nintento Gamecube was visible.Brilliant, love it! I hope it gets a 2nd season, just to see if they can mess it up even more. Really bad TV can be a lot more fun than just mediocre stuff...

The Winner FTW!

Network: Fox; Genre: Sitcom; Content Rating: TV-14 (adult content, language); Perspective: contemporary (star range: 1 – 4);

Seasons Reviewed: Series (1 season)

Without the on-screen appearance of creator/writer Seth MacFarlane during promos for the pilot episode of "The Winner", the show might have gone unseen and unheard in a forest of obnoxious laugh-track riddled Fox sitcoms. MacFarlane has become a minor celebrity as the creator of the increasingly undeserving, under-performing neoclassic "Family Guy" as well as "American Dad". "Winner" is MacFarlane venturing out of his animated comfort zone, arrogantly thinking his involvement with such a trite sitcom is going to make it worth watching. Instead of parodying those obnoxious 80s/90s sitcoms or homaging them through an absurd cartoon lens, "Winner" is an unpleasant reminder of those days of childish leading men, cheesy sitcom sets and over-caffeinated studio audiences.

It's hard to even describe the half-baked plot of "The Winner". There appears to be no rhyme or reason for why anything is the way it is. We start with a still photo of a mansion and our hero, Glen (Rob Corddry) narrates from the present day as if we need an assurance that he won't always be a loser, then sends us back to the early 90s – the pilot takes place during the O.J. Simpson white bronco freeway chase – to show him as a sheltered, naïve man-child living with his parents (Lenny Clarke, get back to "Rescue Me", and Irene Hart) smothering him. One day Glen meets the impossibly beautiful Erinn Hayes as a neighbor and single mom, his childish ways finds him bonding with her child and into her life.

Simply nothing about the show works. The arrested development, mismatched unrequited love story has been done to death. The parents, the love interest, the friends – all cliché archetypes of sitcoms past. There's a bizarre, creepy element to the relationship between Corddry and the neighbor's son which MacFarlane plays up for cheap laughs. There is no reason for the show to be a 90s "period piece" given how many contemporary anachronisms rear their heads in the middle of the action (check out the movies of the future in the video store where Glen works). Jokes are retread from better shows that referenced those events back when they happened. Think "Seinfeld's" numerous takes on the OJ trial. Usually the sidekick and not the star, Corrdry takes center stage here, where his painfully unfunny act can no longer be ignored and it is evident that whoever told the guy he was funny in the first place deserves a long bout in solitary to think about what they've done. Corrdry does a lot of smiling and mugging for the camera here while the "audience" wildly overreacts to everything on screen as if in on a joke that we aren't or properly lubricated by a warm-up act working miracles.

On the back of "Family Guy's" post-resurrection creative slump, "The Winner" is not what MacFarlane needs. It's a lazy work from a guy once touted as the hip, young blood needed to jump-start the Fox network. "Winner" is proof that MacFarlane is a guy who needs to be told "no" by a network that shouldn't have let this unbearably embarrassing Frankenstein's monster of a creation see the light of day.

*/ 4

The Winner is an enjoyable show presented to us by Family Guy and American Dad! creator Seth MacFarlane.The show has a very original concept the love of geeky 32 year old Glen Abbott moves back in next door with her twelve year old son who is a mirror image of what Glen was as a kid.Glen and 12 year old Josh become friends and help each other out in life, Josh uses Glen's childhood knowledge to score girls his age while Glen uses Josh's knowledge to form a relationship with Josh's mom.Yes it is far fetched and wacky but it's told in a way that works and makes it all seem possible.Most of the nay sayers of this show will claim it sucks simply because it has canned laughter then go on a rant about shows with canned laughter and how "bad today's shows are" or b*tch about Arrested Development being canceled.In many of the other reviews you'll see very little information on the show they may say "it's predictable" or "it's unoriginal" then rant about everything they find wrong with todays TV shows and hardly analyze The Winner at all.The Winner primarily focuses on awkward situations and embarrassing moments to draw laughter from you much like the American Pie movies.The character is a loser , virgin, nice guy, who's too geeky for his own good he's basically a big kid with little to no knowledge of the adult world (examples being showing up for a job interview without a resume, going to a penthouse for sex lessons, and using his $250 paycheck as a pick up line.Alison is the sweet, trusting girl next door who has great comedic timing she's sort of the "normal" character.Josh is a geeky houndog who wants girls but isn't very good with what to say basically a child version of the Glen character.Glen's parents with whom he lives with are the typical squabbling old coots the father a real hard@$$, the mother a nurturer.The show isn't perfect as a lot of the situations are very unbelievable and the fact that Alison would be so trusting of Glen around Josh (especially in todays paranoid society)is very unrealistic.The show is fun and without any of the random humour or pop culture references you see on Family Guy, or any of the political humour you see on American Dad! this is just a harmless show that gives you more laughs than the average sitcom like According To Jim or Til' Death.The series airs on Sunday nights @ 8:30.See for yourself.

I really hate to be the guy who whines and complains about Fox canceling something like Arrested Development and green-lighting shows of lesser quality, but this warrants it. How bad is this show? It opens with a joke about a mother believing "O.J. Simpson couldn't hurt a fly!" (the show is based in 1994). That's the very first joke. That's the joke with which Ricky Blitt decided to launch his sitcom; which would be seen by millions of people who just finished watching The Simpsons. I changed the channel before the canned laughter even started, which my roommates found hilarious.

You want to know what the true sodomy of this show is on the American viewers? Fox aired TWO episodes of it on one night. One after The Simpsons and one after Family Guy. I seriously thought the ad for another "all new episode" after Family Guy was a mistake. True to word, the second episode aired. I tried to give it a second chance, hoping the O.J. Simpson joke was a fluke.

Whatever talent Rob Corddry had on the Daily Show did not serve him here. Whatever comedic insights Seth McFarlin and Ricky Blitt had in animation, it doesn't translate to live action. When you combine over-acting with meaningless situations meant to be awkward the end result is completely empty trash.

I'm very confident this won't last. Why? Because if Fox had any faith in this show, they wouldn't have given away two episodes on the first night. If you have a quality product you know people want to see, you milk it for all you can and spread out the goodness. Obviously, that didn't happen here.

For the record, I'm not a movie geek. I commented on one movie years ago. I could count the number of message board posts I've made on one hand. In fact, I'm making this comment rather than posting something on the boards because I honestly don't care what other people think of what I have to say. I'm an average viewer who was insulted by what I saw being presented to me. The saying goes, "if you don't' like it, change the channel." I did change the channel. Twice.

I really enjoyed this show. You really have to appreciate the comedy that Seth MacFarlane portrays. I am a really big family guy fan and I thought this show was really funny. Rob Corrdry is a really funny actor and to see him act on Seth MacFarlanes writing was awesome. It is sad to see people cut him down when he makes a really funny show. It is no doubt in my mind that Seth MacFarlane is a genius and anything he creates is the funniest thing I have ever heard of. I don't know if you all were sleeping when you watched this show but it was funny, a lot funnier than Seinfeld and that show lasted what, eight years? I think you all are crazy and I think this show should come back up. I was really disappointed when I found out this show was canceled.

This show was promoted as "From the creators of Family Guy." If only this show was as funny as Family Guy.. Actually, eating lead paint chips is funnier than having to sit through this garbage.

I wonder how many laugh boxes they burned through on this first episode because they use laugh tracks every 2-3 seconds. I wish I were joking, they lay the laugh tracks on thick. Maybe they're REALLY hoping you're fooled into thinking this show is funny.

Oh and btw, all this show is is a VERY poor ripoff of "Get A Life" from 1990, a show that starred Chris Elliot... The difference is that show was actually funny! I doubt this show will make it past a few episodes, it's THAT bad.

This show is terrible. I love the Daily Show, I love Family Guy. This is NEITHER. What this is, is terrible acting, horrible plot lines, shallow jokes that are only driven by the laugh track and insults. I tried to laugh, I really did, but Lenny Clark is one of the most annoying people on the planet (how does this guy keep getting work?!?) and the Mom of the show (who I'd never heard of before, and probably rightfully so), seemed so insincere about her lines I was waiting for her to look at the camera and say "I quit!" (and I totally wouldn't blame her!) The rest of the characters were so forgettable, it would be unfair to judge them as I have no idea what their point was, let alone who they were! Terrible show, I will never waste another second on this.

I didn't see the pilot but I'm watching the show right now (3/12/07), and this has to be the ABSOLUTE WORST THING I'VE EVER SEEN.

Is the person running the laugh track machine deaf and can't read lips or is he an outsourced worker living in India and does not understand English?

This show won't make it to the end of March.

Painful is an understatement.

When are they going to have the episode where he gets bullied and then starts taking karate lessons? Or is that one next?

Bring back Herman's Head and Greg The Bunny.

I am usually tolerant of things that are on television these days...you kind of have to be with the kind of moral-less fodder networks present for the most part (there are exceptions, but that doesn't apply here right now), but the debasing trash of the Winner has reached a new low in comedy. The subject matter (putting down Down Syndrome kids, references to antisemitism, pedophiles, O.J, molestation, and other topics that are sick, and more so that they are used in the context of comedy), the use of profanity, racism (c'mon, you've got to have heard that line about not dating black people like they were a disease), and the obvious sexual innuendos around the kids, like when at the end of the pilot he comes in and says he touched the teen girl's breast (sick) are all contributions to a decay of society to think that it's alright to laugh at that. It shows lack of talent in writing, a total absence of any creativity and more. The fact that Fox airs shows like this is an indication that they are run by baboons (no offense to real baboons) and the network's only redemption is that the Simpsons are still on the air.

Is this for real? I'm not a critic but wow....30 minutes with no jokes... really there are no jokes in this show. jokes are funny. I thought Rob was funny on the daily show and i love family guy..how did this happen? I've watched 3 episodes of this show and I don't even understand the concept they are going for..he's a ... late bloomer..? thats not even funny. sorry Seth but American dad sucks and so does the winner...you are 1 for 3.. quit while you are ahead. Don't waste your time on this bad idea for a show. maybe it sounded like a good idea when they all got wasted...i mean, did they even test this show on people? it must have been some dumba$$ people with no taste or sense of humor. Fox...shame on you. Rob..your career is now officially over. Seth..i think you lost your funny. my prediction is that this show will be off the air by May after getting horrible reviews.... sorry if this review is full of rambling anger but man, they are wasting a time slot that should be filled by a show that is funny

Oh, yes, gotta love those laugh tracks!

I mean, what would we do if we weren't told when to laugh? If every quip was not indicated to us as being funny by uproarious laughter each time? Forget those shows which are CLEVER and require a modicum of brainpower to appreciate. In fact who needs cleverness at all when you have the LAUGH TRACK! When something is supposed to be funny - cue up that laugh track and we'll KNOW it's funny! Not because anything inherently made it funny but because we were told so.

Oh, the off-color jokes, you ask? Why did they bother to write them when we have the LAUGH TRACK telling us to be amused? Well, for SHOCK VALUE, of course! I mean, you must differentiate this laugh track guided show from the myriad other laugh-tracked shows. While we're laughing something will somehow deeply disturb us - even though we don't know why because we KNOW it's funny since the LAUGH TRACK is telling us so. So we're laughing and we're shocked. The one-two punch on which we dumbed-down Americans thrive today.

Yes, forget quality when you can have a LAUGH TRACK! HAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH hee hee ha ha ha ha ho ho..... HUH?

It's strange that a talented guy like Rob Corddry could do a show with such bad writing. I also don't know why Seth MacFarlane would want to produce the show. I am not going to dismiss Corddry and MacFarlane, but the writing and scenarios are freaking retarded (at best). It's almost as bad as the "War at Home" which somebody must have given awesome head to Satan to keep on the air. Thing is, these people aren't necessarily bad writers and the actors aren't particularly untalented, it's just a mismatch that isn't quirky...it's just flat out retarded. Sorry. This show makes me ashamed to be human, and believe me, if you know me that says a lot.

And judging by the use of a laugh track, neither did the original studio audience.

I would gladly watch a "Listen Up!" marathon than sit through one more episode of this show. Horrible decision by all parties involved to let this show air.

That's all I pretty much had to say about it, but there is a ten line minimum. So I guess here are some of the reasons why I hate this show: Not funny. A little creepy. Not funny. Not Funny and not funny. Seriously, this show just isn't funny. It seemed to make no real attempt at making me laugh.

The Winner is 10 years past its prime. The "edgy" comedy that it claims to use is no longer edgy. Not to mention that fact that the Winner was not funny at all. I'm not sure what MacFarlane was thinking producing a show like this, but it was a colossal bomb. I did give this show a chance, instead of turning it off in 5 minutes (like I'm sure everyone else did). It never seemed to get better. The pilot was unbelievably lame and unbearable. It was 22 minutes of torture, to be exact. This show would have gotten at the most a 3 from me, had it not followed the same old, tired format that sitcoms of the 90's / early 2000 followed.

The laugh track is so unbelievably outdated. Shows like The Office don't use it anymore, and for a good reason. It ruins a show and is extremely annoying. Fox's laugh track seems to be extra annoying and louder. Whenever a new sitcom appears with the dreaded laugh track, it's almost a precursor to a horrible script. The laugh track is unnoticeable in shows that are actually funny, such as Seinfield. This show, on the other hand, would never come close to living up to such a caliber.

1.5 / 10 - Should be cemented in its grave. Wouldn't want Season II to come out any time soon.

I have seen Fox shows come and go. I love Family Guy, The Simpsons and even the War at Home has endeared itself to me. With that said The Winner is terrible. I gave it a chance, watched the first two episodes on it's premier night, then tried to watch it again tonight. I couldn't finish it. Not a laugh to be found and Rob Corrdry borders on being child molester creepy. This show shouldn't be aired again. I don't even understand how it made it past a script stage. The creators of the show are funny, but missed the boat here. I just wish this show would go away and stay away.

Two thumbs down, One star, Rotten Tomato. Horrible show, just Horrible.

This show is pretty terrible. I've watched it because it comes on between The Simpsons and Family Guy, which are two of my favorite shows, and also because I liked Corrdry's work on The Daily Show and I really wanted this to be good, for him. I gave it a serious chance- actually got through four episodes (while doing other things, of course, but I was listening). But it was like watching (or listening to) paint dry. I kept thinking to myself "Are they serious? Have any of the producers or writers or Fox or ANYONE remotely involved with making this show available to the public actually watched it? And they still thought it was fit for TV?" Needless to say, it's pretty awful. I won't say it won't get better- Seinfeld wasn't funny to me when it first started (though it was MUCH better than this horrible crap)- but I don't see the light at the end of that tunnel- I mean, even the laugh track sounded like it had trouble. I feel like Fox was slapping me in the face every time they made a "joke". "The Winner" is a total loser... (I know, horribly corny pun on words, but I had to...)