NBC Comedy Pilot has Flawed/Dated Premise

Patton Oswalt and Matthew Broderick have been cast in an NBC comedy pilot titled "Beach Lane." Oswalt will play a wealthy slacker who's been handed the job of running a Hamptons newspaper, and decides to hire Broderick's character, a well-known journalist, to reverse the publication's fortunes.

I like Patton Oswald and Matthew Broderick. Oswalt's style of comedy plays well, in the right situations and Broderick has excellent comedic timing and is a perfect straight man. But, this concept sounds bad.

Why would you do a contemporary comedy, in 2010, that revolves around a newspaper? Doesn't anyone at NBC Universal know that print publications are a dieing industry? Small newspapers barely have a staff, let alone the ability to bring in a named journalist. The only way to reverse the fortunes of a print newspaper is to sell the print newspaper.

Heck, you might as well set the comedy in a company that makes Fax Machines, or in a VCR repair shop. They are about as relevant as print newspapers are today.

Hopefully one of two things will happen with this pilot. Either a major retooling of the concept (Different profession and setting) or it does not get picked up at all. Otherwise, it sounds as bad as recent comedies like "Emeril" or even "Encore, Encore."