Captain Goes Down With Its Legendary Ship

Welcome to the Captain, the new series debuting tonight on CBS, is a sitcom about the Columbia student’s worst fear: peaking too soon. As a young New Yorker, the bright Josh Flum (Fran Kranz) was destined for success. He even became a wunderkind of sorts through his film-writing. Now, only a few years out of college, Josh finds himself across the country where he has lost his creativity, productivity, and apartment.

Josh’s best buddy Marty (Chris Klein) convinces him to move into his legendary Hollywood apartment building, El Capitan, based on the real and legendary apartment building El Royale. The show focuses on Josh’s interactions with the overly quirky Los Angeles folk who occupy the expensive building.

“In this building, in the El Royale, I think Cameron Diaz has an apartment, Jack Black has an apartment,” comedian Al Madrigal said in a conference call. Madrigal plays the apartment’s doorman, Jesus, who pronounces his name the same way as the religious figure.

According to Madrigal, Welcome to the Captain is “like a single-camera Three’s Company.” The show does have some undeniable connections to the popular ’70s sitcom, mostly due to the participation of Jeffrey Tambor. Tambor appeared in five episodes of Three’s Company, and his character in Welcome to the Captain—a tenant who goes by the name of Uncle Saul—used to be a writer for what he calls “T-Co.”

Welcome to the Captain, however, plays less like T-Co and more like a watered-down Entourage or maybe a roofied Arrested Development. Marty’s career, demeanor, and haircut make him seem like a caricature of Ari Gold, and his Hollywood name-dropping (Wilmer Valderrama again, really?) sounds inauthentic. Tambor’s presence may seek to remind viewers of the hilarity that ensued on his last show, but Welcome to the Captain only attempts a fraction of the jokes that Arrested Development could successfully cram into one half-hour episode.

There are definitely some laughable moments throughout the show’s pilot, although many of them lie in premise rather than dialogue. The way Jesus’ name is pronounced is funny every time, and a visual gag involving mounted costume monster heads in an acupuncturist’s apartment is effective. But are these amusing moments sustainable for an entire television season?

The production of Welcome to the Captain took place after the writer’s strike had begun, so script rewrites were out of the question. Madrigal remembers, “I would go out and picket a little, you know, on my break.” Sadly, the show’s creator, John Hamburg, couldn’t be on set­­—perhaps a few punch-ups could have helped the inconsistent show hang together.

Probably the worst result of filming the show during the strike is that the actors, who come from all areas of the entertainment industry, couldn’t improvise. It would have been interesting to see what could have happened if Madrigal, who has toured with Mitch Hedberg, were permitted to riff with Tambor and film-veterans slash cast-members Raquel Welch and Chris Klein.

Twice during the first episode, Josh decides to move back to New York and then changes his mind. Unfortunately for viewers, neither the apartment that makes him stay nor the sitcom that portrays it is as charming as it purports to be—maybe he should have just left