Bob Patterson is a popular self-help motivational speaker. What his adoring public doesn't know is that he's an insecure husband and dad who often fails at basic human interactions.Bob Patterson is a popular self-help motivational speaker. What his adoring public doesn't know is that he's an insecure husband and dad who often fails at basic human interactions.Bob Patterson is a popular self-help motivational speaker. What his adoring public doesn't know is that he's an insecure husband and dad who often fails at basic human interactions.
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- TriviaReflecting on Bob Patterson (2001) in a 2014 interview with the Archive of American Television, Jason Alexander stated that, "It's the one that really breaks my heart. There are things I would change about it if I were to say I'm going to go back and start that project again. There were things that we didn't realized could be problems that became problems that I would fix. But the basic premise of that show, the character of that show, the bones of that show, even some of the episodes that we pulled off, we couldn't buy any love from a critic. I will go to my grave saying we made seven episodes of the show. I guarantee that if I show you those episodes, you'll laugh, and that it's a better idea than a lot of what's on TV right now. It's just through a series of unfortunate events it didn't really get its chance. We got canceled, put it this way in 7 episodes we were in 3 different time slots. If you wanted to find us, you would have to look a little harder, and despite that, our numbers went up every week. Baby steps, but that direction (up), but we were gone. But I, while I would not fall on my sword for the other one (Listen Up (2004)), I would fall on my sword for Bob Patterson (2001) and say we all missed an opportunity there we didn't fully claim it while we were doing it, but the network and the audience missed an opportunity."
- ConnectionsFeatured in 101 Biggest Celebrity Oops (2004)
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Good idea, but major disappointment
The premise for this show was perfect for our times. Spoofing the "self-improvement motivational guru" phenomena could have run at least a second season if it'd been done right, until we as a society had moved on to something else.
However, writers hit and miss (nobody's perfect) and the final product here was a definite miss.
It'd have been nice to see Bob Paterson actually do a seminar or speak at a corporate sales meeting or weight-loss clinic or MLM gathering...it'd have been nice to hear how they spoof the blurb. The promotional work for this sitcom was heading in this better direction ("the only thing standing between you and your dreams is you...and your dreams").
It'd have been nice to see this Bob Paterson as a character with an air of invincibility, one who can't hear how silly he is, while he takes his work far too seriously. It'd have been nice to see him running his business successfully, but we the audience sit back and see the humor in the guru industry as a whole. It'd have been nice to see fresh intelligent insightful humor that didn't insult the audience's intelligence, rather than a bunch of bumblers standing around waiting for the setup to drop their tired cookie-cutter one-liners. With a legacy of such mature sitcomes as Seinfeld and Frazier (mature for their subtle plots, subtle body language, subtle dialogue that is funny without telling jokes or one-liners), Bob Paterson was poised to connect with a mature audience ready to laugh at good material.
Alas, all we got was a self-doubting, insecure high school student in an adult's body, a transplanted George Costanza, and poor cliched attempts at set-up one-liners that were just not funny.
It's too bad, it coulda, woulda, shoulda been great, but it wasn't, not at all.
However, writers hit and miss (nobody's perfect) and the final product here was a definite miss.
It'd have been nice to see Bob Paterson actually do a seminar or speak at a corporate sales meeting or weight-loss clinic or MLM gathering...it'd have been nice to hear how they spoof the blurb. The promotional work for this sitcom was heading in this better direction ("the only thing standing between you and your dreams is you...and your dreams").
It'd have been nice to see this Bob Paterson as a character with an air of invincibility, one who can't hear how silly he is, while he takes his work far too seriously. It'd have been nice to see him running his business successfully, but we the audience sit back and see the humor in the guru industry as a whole. It'd have been nice to see fresh intelligent insightful humor that didn't insult the audience's intelligence, rather than a bunch of bumblers standing around waiting for the setup to drop their tired cookie-cutter one-liners. With a legacy of such mature sitcomes as Seinfeld and Frazier (mature for their subtle plots, subtle body language, subtle dialogue that is funny without telling jokes or one-liners), Bob Paterson was poised to connect with a mature audience ready to laugh at good material.
Alas, all we got was a self-doubting, insecure high school student in an adult's body, a transplanted George Costanza, and poor cliched attempts at set-up one-liners that were just not funny.
It's too bad, it coulda, woulda, shoulda been great, but it wasn't, not at all.
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- MovieMusings
- Dec 24, 2002
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- Bob - swój chłop
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- Runtime30 minutes
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