Ben and Kate- Take Two

At the beginning of the year ITV2 decided to show Ben and Kate and Up All Night. However, no sooner did the episodes start airing, we found out Ben and Kate had been cancelled! I watched the first episode of Ben and Kate on Hulu when I was on holiday last year and fell in love with it and judging by the forlorn comments floating around, I wasn't the only one. 

Why wouldn't you like Ben and Kate? It's a sweet, inoffensive, often chuckle worthy family sitcom- something that doesn't seem to be around too much these days. "What about Modern Family or Raising Hope?" I hear you cry. Yeah, I guess but they're not quite like the sitcoms of old are they? Over at Vulture they are doing a battle of the sitcoms (a must read if you love television- here) and it got me thinking about times gone by when we would sit down at six o'clock and switch on BBC2 or Channel 4 for Malcolm in the Middle or Friends. Or when Friday nights were for Will and Grace. Now the airwaves are jam packed with quiz shows, rolling news and reality shows. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for television equality- I rarely discriminate. I might never miss an episode of Question Time or Mad Men but I will just as easily switch over to Big Rich Texas. However, moderation is the key. Besides, sitcoms were like family bridges- something everyone could watch at teatime before the little ones started plodding up to bed and the not so little ones got on with homework and whatnot. 

Anyway, enough of my rambling and back to the case at hand. I think there's a lot of scope with the Ben and Kate premise (brother moves in with single mother sister and takes on some child care responsibilities) however I think it could do with a bit of star power. I enjoy the rapport between Dakota Johnson (Kate) and Nat Faxon (Ben), however they are often overshadowed by Lucy Punch (BJ) and the adorable Maggie Elizabeth Jones (Maddie). Sooooo I think it should be recast with...

That's right- Joey and Pacey. They are both in need of new projects, right? I believe Fringe has finished and I don't think Katie Holmes' play is still running. I'm sure they don't want to play love interests again and both of them do their best work on the small screen sooooo... a cute, kooky, brother and sister show would be perfect, no? 

Anyway, that's my two pence. Next week we'll do Smash because Katharine McPhee as Karen is killing me. 

In other television news, glad to hear New Girl and The Mindy Project have been renewed. Fingers crossed for Hart of Dixie. Make that double crossed. I've really become addicted to the goings on in Bluebell (we need to talk about Wade. What was that?!) and I would pay good money to read Dash's blog.