Lookwell (1991)

You would not have thought it possible for a comedy to have every joke it makes fall flat on its face. Lookwell is funny in the same way a really drunk guy who can't walk or speak properly but is trying really hard to do both is funny. It is indeed laughable, but only in its complete ineptitude, its remarkable ability to fail so thoroughly and consistently on every level.My only possibly guess as to why so many people say they like this film is that they are the sort who, when seeing a comedian bomb horribly and terribly at a comedy club to the point of being booed off the stage, find this incredibly amusing. Or perhaps imagine this: imagine a comedian so unfunny that people cannot grasp the depths of his unfunny, and therefore convince themselves that he is must be intentionally trying to lampoon the whole concept of humor, although this is not the case.Here's food for thought: Now everyone I know who has seen this video has a new word--Lookwell, v. To lookwell is to try really hard to be funny and to fail.

I finally just saw Lookwell after years of hearing about how brilliant and funny it is.It's simply neither. It is mildly amusing, and because it is 22 minutes it is bearable, but that's it. I really don't understand what all the hype is about. Maybe because it is so obscure, people feel like they've stumbled onto a hidden gem? Because of Adam West? O'Brien and Smigel? It's just not very funny.That is all I had to say but not this web page is saying I do not meet the minimum number of lines of text. So I am writing this. I'd recommend you ignore this text. Why would a comment area want users to have a minimum number of lines of text?It's as idiotic as Lookwell.

It's easy to see why this failed pilot didn't get a chance to become a series. Adam West's character Ty Lookwell seemed too one-not to me to every career a series (we get it he's an actor who played a detective in the past and now believes he can be a real detective, but is an idiot), and the writing by the usually capable and very funny Conan O'Brian and Robert Smigal falls flat here, I hardly cracked a smile. IMDb reviewers tend to look at any failed pilot like if it got the green-light for a series would be pure gold. Well guess what, not ALL failed pilots are gold, not even most. I'd wager a VERY few handful. THIS show is not one of those.My Grade: D-

A friend and former roommate and I just happened to be sitting around watching TV, not expecting anything special, when this came on. It was a pilot episode and NBC threw it on the air during the dead summer months. We were bowled over by the sense of humor, right in our ballpark. The stamp of O'Brien and Smigel, that we now are quite familiar with from over 10 years of watching them on Late Night, is all over this puppy. Adam West plays an actor who played a 1970's TV detective, who thinks he's a real detective. That's about all you need to know, but the writing and acting really sell the show. One of the funniest ideas ever. My friend and I still talk about it from time to time. (Okay, fine, we're losers who have nothing else to talk about.)It is one of the crimes of television history that NBC did not pick this up even for a 6 episode run. I've been thinking about trying to dig up a copy of this masterwork. When I try to describe it to people who haven't seen it, they just shrug and go "whatever," but I assure them that they are missing out on comedy gold. Okay, maybe I'm overhyping it, but it sure is one of my favorite undeservedly obscure TV nuggets of all time. I put it up there next to "Quark" with Richard Benjamin. At least that one had 6 episodes. Somebody dig this up and put it as a bonus on a DVD of Late Night or something, would ya?NOTE: As of late 2006, the show is readily available on several different internet video sites for viewing. Apparently the show made an appearance on the late lamented Trio cable network within the past 5 years, and some people recorded it. Catch it if you can.