letterten 2003-04 fall preview

debuts Friday, Sep 19, 8:30pm

premise from	The proud owner of a Spanish Harlem donut shop and the landlord of the building its in must deal with an eccentric cast of characters, including: an obnoxious elderly woman in a rent-controlled apartment, a delivery boy who swears he was a cardiologist back in China, a kid who harasses customers to buy items found in dumpster, his ex-wife and a daughter whose only flaw is her free-loading boyfriend. [Fox link]
stars	Luis Guzman ("Boogie Nights"), Jaclyn DeSantis, Diana-Maria Riva, Malcolm Barrett, Charlie Day
producers	Will Gluck
studio	20th Century Fox Television

opinions
	Lots of cultural differences here which could be played for a lot of fun or, for trouble if the jokes are all one-note stereotypes.
	Luis Guzman is essentially playing the off-kilter straight-man here, in a comedy that clearly aspires to a Norman Lear sensibility. The comic pacing is appealingly off-beat, with every joke aiming for a punchline and a counter-punchline, but currently too many seem to be missing. Guzman is always, without fail, worth watching, but it will be interesting to see if this show can press the right cultural buttons, without straying into easy, bland stereotypes.

my thoughts on "Luis"
	13 episodes. Fox owns it, but I don't think this is going to last long, even if the slot nicely counters everything else.