Consider ‘Glory Daze’ that ‘80s show to avoid.

In the latest offering from up-and-coming cable network TBS, ‘Glory Daze’ features the misadventures of four drunken collegiate idiots. Set in 1986 at a fictional university in Indiana, the show follows four freshmen, Eli (Matt Bush), Brian (Hartley Sawyer), Jason (Drew Seeley) and Joel (Kelly Blatz), who become friends quickly. In an attempt to experience all that college offers, the four set out for greek rush. They accept bids at Omega Sigma, and the series premiere ends with the four starting to pledge for the fraternity.

The show, which premieres Tuesday, wants to take viewers on a part ‘Animal House’ and part ‘Old School’ trip. Instead, the trip feels more like that painful car ride with your parents — the one where they talk about the parties, the pranks and the people at their alma mater. Yes, that car ride, the one where you think one thing: This is lame.

‘Glory Daze’ manages to cram in every college stereotype with a painful blend that forces viewers to cover their eyes instead of laugh. It tries to create funny scenes but lands somewhere between inane and pathetic.

To consider these stereotypes, let’s start with Brian, a sports fanatic trying to balance his college life with his love of the game. Brian plays baseball for the school team. ‘My father always taught that ball comes first, second and third,’ Brian says to his coach. Brian rooms with another baseball player, who has a picture of Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Mike Schmidt in his room. And for some reason, even in the middle of a blowjob, Brian finds it hard to concentrate with Schmidt smiling at him from across the room.

Next we look at an Omega Sigma brother, Reno (Callard Harris). Reno tends to dress in floral shirts, questionable shoes and shorts. He shares an odd relationship with a mannequin. There are obvious implications that when Reno fails to land a girl for the night, he turns to the plastic woman for some attention. In the premiere, after Joel’s father accidentally runs over the mannequin, Reno runs out of the fraternity house to check on the mannequin. He finds that her leg broke off, but other than that, she seems fine (and he later turns the leg into a bong). But as he runs back to the fraternity with the mannequin under one arm he yells, ‘I need 50 cc’s of vodka!’

In this brief examination, we find two stereotypes of the worst taste. Rest assured, more exist in this sitcom. It’s best to just treat all of the characters in ‘Glory Daze’ as dimensional and dynamic as that mannequin. These stereotypes have existed for years, and they lost their humor long before former President Ronald Reagan’s time in office.

‘Glory Daze’ tries to create situational comedy, too, with the same poor result. In one scene, the four friends sit in a jail cell — the end result of a night finished with them drunkenly stripping down to their underwear and defiling the college’s Hall of Fame room. In the jail cell, Joel starts mouthing off to a police officer. In response, the officer reaches for his stun gun and shoves the prod into Joel’s crotch, which sends Joel to the floor in writhing pain. The pain: apparent. The scene’s humor: nonexistent.

Instead of watching ‘Glory Daze,’ go out and actually live the college life.

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Published on November 14, 2010 at 12:00 pm