liquidcelluloid-1 Network: ABC; Genre: Comedy; Content Rating: TV-PG (adult content, language); Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4); Seasons Reviewed: 1 season "Carpoolers" is an ABC sitcom about the wacky adventures of four guys who carpool to work together. Gracen (Fred Goss, "Significant Others", "Sons & Daughters") is the husband and father. Aubrey (Jerry Minor, "Lucky Louie") is the "straight-laced wussy guy". Dougie (Tim Peper) is the sucker who obeys his wife and believes in the fantasy of marriage. Laird (Jerry O'Connell) is "the player".Well, it's always good to see Fred Goss back on TV. In "Carpoolers" he's basically playing the same exasperated father he did in "Sons & Daughters", only trimmed of that character's more realistic and relatable dimensions. It's a walk in the park and an easy paycheck for Goss. Now he has a wife he has no chemistry with (Faith Ford) and a son, cruelly named Marmaduke (JT Miller), a character the show has no shame ripping from "Napoleon Dynamite" for.Instead of just noting what's wrong with "Carpoolers" and how it could be better, I'm going imagine it was once conceived as a great show (highly unlikely given that Bruce McCulloch wrote the pilot) and how it could have gone horribly wrong.What if, just hear me out, "Carpoolers" was a ballsier, more audience-challenging show. What if it spent most of it's running time inside the car with the guys. Breaking out of it only before and after act breaks, the stories would all be told through lively, well-written conversation. Much in the way that "Seinfeld's" most thrilling and memorable moments were just elaborate stories told in Jerry's apartment or in a booth at the coffee shop. Or the classic "Everybody Loves Raymond" episode "Golf for It" which takes place almost entirely in the front and backseat of a car. So, it's been done. And hey, with Goss around, the show could have been improvised with the car serving a similar roll as the therapist's couch in "Significant Others".I'd also imagine if you pitched this to a network like ABC they wouldn't have it. It's hard to blame McCulloch for the theoretical potential of "Carpoolers" going totally unnoticed. So the show would have been taken out of the car, with the carpooling segments used only to have the guys sing together during the cold opening or simply repeat what we just saw happen to them the night before making the carpooling segments - the very basis behind the show - perfunctory.Then just to make sure there is no confusion, all of the out-of-the-car action is as big and over-the-top broad as physically possible. If you didn't know that O'Connell's ex-wife (Rebecca Romijn) is evil we'll have a big black thunder cloud roll in over her head. Then we'll have Peper get hit by the car a few times to ratchet up the slapstick count. I'm not opposed to stupid, but I don't like broad and "Carpoolers" is as broad as the Grand Canyon. Laughs, even chuckles, are almost non-existent.Between the live-action cartoon of "Carpoolers" and the much maligned "Cavemen", I'd actually take "Cavemen" any day.* / 4

Phill_E Every year, shows come out that are well below par (Most coming from the ever-so spontaneous Fox network). But when I finished watching the okay show Cavemen, I came across this show and realized that Carpoolers is not one of them. This show is another comedy that is basically about nothing (Like Seinfeld), but still remains original and funny. Which is nice, because you can still pick up where you left off if you didn't see the last episode. But more serious than sitcoms where you just listen to a laugh-track playing after stupid jokes. The jokes are more appreciable, things you can remember, instead of being funny for the moment, and then forgetting it 5 minutes later. Even the plots are funny in their own way.The movie centers around four guys and the time the spend sitting in their car, working, and hanging out at home. Gracen, a married man with a 'napolean dynamite' style 20-something kid, is the sensible one of the group. Though smarter than the rest of the group, he is witty, and is hilarious when pointing out the mistakes of the others. Always having to deal with his son weird antics, and the fact that he isn't as young as he used to be, he still manages to be funny in his own way. Always assuming the worst of things, he really relates to some of the older people watching the show.Laird, the divorced cool bachelor is always on the prowl. Looking for girls and telling stories of the never-on-screen times he has with his one day girlfriends. Definitaly the dumbest of the group, he still charms everyone and keeps you wanting more. He is best friends with Gracen, and they really do make a dynamic duo. Aubrey, the married father of 7, is the basically the slightly happier version of Debbie Downer or Negative Nancy. He always brings up his problems at home into the conversations, yet manages to humor things up when he tries to escape from his home life by getting into other things going on around him. Doug, the newly-wed with a baby, is my personal favorite. The newest to the car-pool, he is still adjusting to the weird habits of the group. Always commenting the others obvious mistakes, he still gets sucked into what is going on while trying to be accepted. This is a new and refreshing show and should be given a chance.

Nightcrawlr825 I watched the sub-par pilot of Cavemen and was pretty disappointed with the show when I saw my first ad for Carpoolers. I decided to give the show a chance and I found it very funny. I have seen two episodes(first two aired) so far and I can easily see this show as being my next "Friends", which is my favorite sitcom to date. The show has four primarily main characters: Aubrey who has several kids (more than 5) and an unseen wife, Laird who just got divorced and lost everything to his wife, Dougie who is the new guy who so far seems to get hit by a lot of cars, and Gracen, a psychiatrist who has a wife and a son who has yet to move out on his own.I strongly encourage people to give this show a chance, and i personally hope this show has a long lifespan.

dread_chgo This is like a Leslie Nielsen inspired comedy in that so much is happening in the background and the actors are so unaware of their actions that it is nonstop funny. I laughed so hard throughout the show and this upset me a little in knowing that I missed jokes that came immediately after.Along the lines of a "40 Year Old Virgin" or "Something About Mary". All I can say is try to TIVO it so you can go back and forth and catch everything because it moves quite briskly through the dialogue. The best thing about this show is that none of the actors are really known so it will certainly be a fresh approach to comedy.This is certainly not for everybody, but for those that can appreciate offbeat humor at a quick pace, this is your show!