The series premiere of Back to You was this week and I have to say…. thank god. This show was lovely. It wasn’t innovative, it wasn’t memorable, and it wasn’t brilliant but it was good and it was familiar.

The sitcom King (Kelsey Grammar- Cheers/Frasier) and Queen (Patricia Heaton– Everybody Loves Raymond) together with legendary sitcom director Jimmy Burrows (FRIENDS/Will & Grace/everything else ever) made a show that made me laugh. It was like having FRIENDS back, or Will & Grace or Frasier or Mad About You or any of the other gems from the forgotten 3 camera sitcom genre. I grew up with FRIENDS (it rand from when I was 4 years old until I was 14) and Will & Grace. They were my first favourite shows, the shows that got me into television. Marta Kauffman, David Crane and Kevin Bright were the names of the first executive producers I could recognize. Now I can name dozens and that’s what I want to do with my life.

I love sitcoms. I love classic sitcoms- everything from All in the Family to Who’s the Boss? to Golden Girls to MASH. I grew up in a time when they were everywhere (both first and second generation of the reign of sitcoms) and while in recent years there have been many hilarious new takes on the sitcom (Arrested Development, How I Met Your Mother, The Office, Extras, The Class, Scrubs, etc…) there hasn’t been anything reminiscent of the old days since we lost Frasier, FRIENDS, Will & Grace and Everybody Loves Raymond in the span of a couple years. Back to You fills that gap. It’s not spectacular but it gets in some great laughs and its nostalgic as hell and completely worth the 22 minutes.