NBC Comedy Twenty Good Years Needs a Good Rewrite

On paper it looked like a can't-miss combination: "Twenty Good Years," a new NBC comedy that was supposed to showcase the talent and exquisite comic timing of veteran actors John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambour, from the producers of "Roseanne" and the producers and writers of "The Cosby Show."

But in reality, the show fell flatter than the dialogue, the jokes, and the oddly-placed laugh track.

I so wanted to like "Twenty Good Years," because I am a big fan of these two icons of entertainment (see their bios below) and had looked forward to seeing them back on television. Together. For the first time. But even Lithgow and Tambour couldn't transcend the weak material that seemed like it could use a few more rewrites.

The impetus of the show came after some clumsy setting-up of the relationship between the main characters. John Mason (played by John Lithgow), a thrice-divorced, self-absorbed surgeon, pompous as only Lithgow can play pompous, is given a sixtieth birthday party by his colleagues. During which he is summarily retired. And coming home late and drunk to his family party, he woefully relates his revelation that he has wasted his life and probably only has twenty good years left. So he calls on his best friend, Jeffrey Pyne (played by Tambour), a timid, commitment-phobic judge, and together (with much convincing from Lithgow) they make a pact to live each day as if it were their last.