When an NBC comedy is good, it’s frequently very good.  Just for openers, I’m thnking Frasier, Friends, and Seinfeld.  Other times, NBC’s good comedies are simply good.  In this case, my mind turns toward Scrubs, My Name is Earl, and The Office.  On the flip side, when an NBC sitcom is bad, it’s likely to be god-awful.  Couplings and Four Kings are two fairly recent examples.  Last month, their rank was joined by Teachers, a situation edu-comedy about quirky, young teachers at a New Jersey high school.

Teachers, like The Office, is an adaptation of a UK hit.  But, instead of The Office-style lightning striking twice, NBC has served up the Second Coming of Couplings.  The network believed that the young and attractive cast would draw the coveted 18-49-year-old demographic.  The cast might have pulled in big Nielsen numbers if it wasn’t simply re-arranging flotation devices on a Titanic of a sitcom.  Somebody, please give Sarah Alexander (a survivor of the Couplings debacle), Justin Bartha, and Deon Richmond something worthy of their ability and potential. A few more sh**coms like Teachers, and the Peacock Network will be reduced to stripping special two-hour editions of Deal or No Deal, five nights a week.