IFC comedy "Brockmire," which debuts tomorrow, follows Jim Brockmire, played by Hank Azaria, who is a "famed major league baseball announcer who suffered an embarrassing public meltdown live on the air a decade ago after discovering his wife’s infidelity," according to Michael Malone of BROADCASTING & CABLE. Looking to reclaim his career, reputation and love life, Brockmire "takes a job in a small rust belt town," calling minor league baseball games for the fictional Morristown Frackers. Amanda Peet co-stars as the "strong-willed and hard-drinking owner of the team," and Tyrel Jackson Williams plays the team’s "whiz-kid intern" (BROADCASTINGCABLE.com, 3/27). In Tampa, Brittany Volk noted the show "builds off a Funny or Die video from a few years ago." Even though MLB "wanted nothing to do with the series because of its TV-MA rating," Fox' Joe Buck will play himself in later episodes. Brockmire and Buck's best-friend rivalry "comes with hilarious low-blows, pranks and even a solid 'your mom' joke." The show's success is in its "crude jokes through emotionally grounded humor, all wrapped in the comforting nostalgic sounds of America's favorite pastime" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 4/1). In N.Y., Lloyd Carroll wrote if the series gets "picked up for future seasons then it would be a safe bet that more familiar voices of the game will join the fun." Even a casual sports fan will "laugh with tears rolling down one’s face as Brockmire skewers one baseball cliche after another" (QUEENS CHRONICLE, 3/31).
COMEDIC CRINGE: In N.Y., Michael Starr wrote local baseball fans of a "certain vintage will remember Mets play-by-play announcer Lindsay Nelson and his outlandish sports jackets." Azaria said his character's red-checked sports coat in the show is a "direct homage to Lindsay." Azaria: "He’s an old-school baseball announcer, the kind of guy, sensibility-wise, from the ’70s who’d have three or four beers over the course of a broadcast, and he’s one of the few guys in the modern era who rejects the internet" (N.Y. POST, 3/28). VARIETY's Sonia Saraiya wrote the show is "quite a lot of fun to watch." It is a "weird, funny portrait of a singular man, and it paints its picture very well -- working both as a snapshot of this aging oddity of Americana and a universal story about a washed-up person coming to terms with himself" (VARIETY.com, 3/31). MEDIAPOST's Adam Buckman wrote under the header, "IFC's 'Brockmire' Is The Best New Comedy Of The Year So Far" (MEDIAPOST.com, 3/29).