If last November’s ROSIE LIVE! was the final nail in the Primetime Variety Show’s coffin, last night’s FAMILY GUY PRESENTS: SETH AND ALEX’s ALMOST LIVE COMEDY SHOW was the funeral.
Starring Seth MacFarlane (FAMILY GUY, AMERICAN DAD, CLEVELAND SHOW) and Alex Borstein (the voice of “Lois”) SETH AND ALEX’s ALMOST LIVE COMEDY featured a mix of musical numbers, sketches and animated interstitials. Almost none of which — with the notable exception of a far-too-brief appearance by Stewie to introduce the trailers for the upcoming Warner Bros. films Sherlock Holmes and Ninja Assasins) was funny.
Offensive for offensive sake, the dynamic duo’s jokes ridiculing the Holocaust (Borstein objected to MacFarlane performing “Edelweiss” from The Sound of Music on the grounds that she is Jewish), Marlee Matlin’s speaking voice (Complete with cameo that went on far too long) and failed screen tests (Bea Arthur auditions for Showgirls), all fell terribly flat. So much so that for the first time ever, this self-proclaimed Apple fanboy now feels the need to publicly applaud Microsoft for showing the good taste to back out of this embarrassment. And there is absolutely nothing funny about that. 
