CBS which over the last few years had great success with its Monday night block of comedies premieres a new one tonight at 8pm called “The Class”. I must admit when I first read about this one it didn’t seem like a show I would like. It is a comedy with a large cast and I pictured people walking in and out making wisecracks and then leaving, kind of a cross between Friends and Laverne and Shirley. After seeing the first episode I must say im pleasantly surprised and did find it entertaining. One man decides to get together for his girlfriends anniversary members of their third grade class for a surprise party for her. These are people that haven’t seen each other since then and he calls and gets together as many as he can from their class picture. The former classmates for the most part have many problems from the angry girl, man living with mom, beauty that married the jock and not happy, to the guy that’s going to commit suicide right as the phone for the party is ringing. The characters are very formulaic but what sets it apart is good acting and a quirky script. The girlfriend doesn’t like the surprise and dumps him in front of all the people. The problem with a large cast is will people care about all the characters and can the script writers make all the characters interesting and funny. At some point they might have to concentrate on a few central characters and it will be interesting to see if they have the time to develop the show. The show is helped by being together with all the other CBS comedies on Monday night but will it be able to compete with Wife Swap on ABC and Deal Or No Deal on NBC at the same time it remains to be seen.
