Rob Corddry isn't successful when we watch "The Winner". His character becomes a big shot much later (and that can't possibly be a spoiler, it's in the opening narration!). Before then, his always down, but never out young man is forced to examine exactly what it is that makes his life so different than other guys his age.Ricky Blitt (of "Family Guy" fame) created this great program. Exec producer Seth Macfarlane lets the live action (not involving a football headed baby who looks suspiciously like Stanley Kubrick) get clever, but not too cute. This show was a great two weeks for me. Six originals over a fifteen day period (two each Sunday for awhile). You don't get that too often! I've captured these on lousy videotape and can't wait till I can buy them on DVD, hopefully with a commentary track on each that they deserve. I can only imagine what kind of special features will be included. Are there any scenes that were too racy for the Fox network?Corddry is a wickedly funny man with the right material (as in "Harold and Kumar 2"). Here, he's a lovable "loser" (for lack of a more overused term) one can root for. This peculiar specimen of a male television lead role is behind all his peers (in age anyway) when it comes to growing up and becoming very burned out on life. The mysteries of sex, love, parenthood and so much else are still awaiting him. The fingerprints of "Family Guy" are noticeable on "The Winner". And that's a good thing if you're a fan of the former. The difference in live action is in not letting the imagination run so wild, wondering what a voice's physical source looks like while acting. The guests on this show include Katey Sagal ("Peg", the great anti-homemaker on "Married With Children") as a teacher who instructs Rob about some things he should have been taught a long time ago."The Winner" won't appeal to all (as so many comments here have already demonstrated). But it's worth trying, if the disc hits stores soon and if you're bored with the state of comedy on TV these days.

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.

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.