Andy Richter Controls the Universe

_**

When Andy learns that he will be forced to share his office with the new employee, Byron, Andy does everything in his power to get Byron fired.

I have been a fan of Andy Richter, here playing a highly fictionalized version of himself, since he was sidekick to NBC's Conan O'Brien. My sister and I would stay up and night to watch their antics, and when this series was announced we followed him here. It's very possible that she and I were the only people that watched this show, but we both still have very fond memories of it's original airing.

Andy is an everyman, he thinks big, imagining that himself telling his boss off, but acts small, by not telling his boss off and instead accepting every order he's given. Andy is a like able character who can't follow through on any negative feelings he might have because he's too determined to be nice to everyone so that they like him. In a television landscape where the protagonist is usually take-charge and action-oriented, able to throw around zingers should the moment call for it, it's an interesting twist to have the leading man be so weak-willed and complacent.

Voice over narration can often be affected and grow tiresome due to overuse, but here, when paired with his random fantasies, it seems to work. It works in part because Andy spends so much time in his own head that it's no stretch of the imagination to have him narrating his own life to himself as it happens, and in part because, in the end, he is relating his day to his online journal.

There was little to no interaction between the characters without Andy's presence. We're told that Keith (James Patrick Stuart) and Wendy (Irene Molloy) slept together, but we never see them speak to one another, and it's hard to form an opinion about the cast when Andy keeps getting in the way.

The fantasies involving company founder Mr. Pickering, played by John Bliss, are meant to be funny due to the outrageously derogatory and racist remarks that Pickering displays. Unfortunately, the way the fantasies are presented in this episode, the joke just falls flat and doesn't work the way it was intended to. Worse yet, the character keeps popping up throughout the episode, turning the one joke that didn't work into a series of jokes that don't work.

A running joke is how good things happen to Keith (Stuart) due to his attractiveness and charm. Unfortunately, Stuart doesn't manage to get that suave attitude across in this episode, and I was left wondering why the audience was supposed to look up to him at all. Richter does a good job juggling a series of neuroses, and Jonathan Slavin is great as the insecure Byron, but the highlight of the episode is take-charge Jessica (Paget Brewster) who steals most of the scenes in which she appears.

Andy Ackerman directs the pilot episode with a large number of pauses for a laugh track that never gets used, and the episode suffers for it. Also an interesting choice is to have Keith playing solitaire with cards, despite the fact that his computer sits directly opposite him. Even ten years ago, when this episode aired, I can't imagine he wouldn't have been playing the game on his computer, and the subsequent joke that he's clearly too busy to be doing any paperwork doesn't work due to a setup that makes no sense. Had he been making a house of cards, or doing something with dominoes, it could have been funnier, but as it is it's just confusing.

Written by series creator Victor Fresno, this episode is a bit of a mixed bag. On the positive side of things is that, even in his own fantasies, Andy is unable to relate to women and says things that he knows he'll regret, and the ridiculousness of his imagination lends itself to getting his points across. On the negative side of things, his fantasies occur far too often and become a distraction as the episode wears on.

This is a series with the potential to do great things, and this first outing, while not necessarily using all of it's tools to their best use, is certainly an enjoyable watch. It should be interesting to see these characters grow together and the stories that come from that won't be disappointing.

Andy Richter Controls the Universe is in the running to become the feature for Fridays. The series ran from 2002 to 2003 on FOX with a total of 19 episodes.