Ok, I looked up where Check It Out! was supposed to take place because I didn't remember. it was produced in Canada and aired on CBC, but it also aired in syndication here and on USA Network. I always assumed the grocery store at the center of the action was in California, just like most everything else on TV.
Not so! According to Wikipedia, Cobb's Grocery is in Brampton, Ontario. I don't remember anything in the series pointing to a Canadian setting, but it's been a long time. I wonder if there was ever a scene in which a customer complained at the register about the price of crackers or something and the cashier says, "Oh, but remember, these are CANADIAN dollars."
So before I get to deep into Brampton, Ontario, let me get a sampling of how the show is received, its legacy, so on and so forth.
Harry and Wally's Favorite TV Shows, one of my favorite books, gives the program ** out of *** and, in a brief capsule review, calls it a "simple but sometimes satisfying sitcom." That's better than I expected, really!
IMDB gives it a 5.9 out of 10. That is not good at all.
The New York Times trashes the show twice. In April 1986, Richard F. Shepard says Check It Out! is "silly without being funny at all." He adds, "The comedy deals more with jokes and gag lines, none of them very good, than with situation." Shephard says, There are standards even for inanity, which can be highly entertaining in skilled hands. Here one is left only with inanity that is placebo for entertainment."
In the Fall, tied to the show's debut on USA Network and marketing push, the paper's head TV critic talked about Check It Out! and a few other syndicated sitcoms like What a Country! Adams, he explains, manages a supermarket "with a staff consisting exclusively of morons and bimbos, those old standbys of television comedy a couple of decades ago." What, morons and bimbos were passe in 1986?
He continues: "This is the kind of comedy in which somebody gets to leave the room by announcing, 'I have to go to the potty.'" O'Connor closes by saying, "This is the kind of effort that makes any further talk of 'the promise of cable' seem thoroughly pointless."
In the Fall, tied to the show's debut on USA Network and marketing push, the paper's head TV critic talked about Check It Out! and a few other syndicated sitcoms like What a Country! Adams, he explains, manages a supermarket "with a staff consisting exclusively of morons and bimbos, those old standbys of television comedy a couple of decades ago." What, morons and bimbos were passe in 1986?
He continues: "This is the kind of comedy in which somebody gets to leave the room by announcing, 'I have to go to the potty.'" O'Connor closes by saying, "This is the kind of effort that makes any further talk of 'the promise of cable' seem thoroughly pointless."
What am I getting into, folks?
O'Connor stuns me by saying the "first-rate cast" of What a Country! "can make the material seem surprisingly fresh."
