‘Grandfathered’ Review: John Stamos’s New Full House

Ken Tucker
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You don’t have to find the premise of Grandfathered — John Stamos as a grandfather! — funny to enjoy this new sitcom, but it certainly helps. The show, which debuts Tuesday night on Fox, is built around our familiarity with Stamos as a kind of farm-team George Clooney, a charming TV star with an image as a smooth operator.

Grandfathered finds Stamos unbuttoning one too many buttons on his white silk shirt to portray Jimmy Martino, a successful restauranteur and pro bachelor. The hook of the series is that one day Jimmy discovers he’s not only the father of a grown son (played with winsomeness by Josh Peck) but also the grandfather of an infant girl (played, in the Olsen-twin tradition, by sisters Layla and Emelia Golfieri). The tagline practically writes itself: Instant Full House.

Related: ‘Grandfathered’ Star John Stamos: ‘I Am Totally Fine Milking the Nostalgia Factor’

Grandfathered lets Stamos spend some time getting laughs from being not merely unable to accept his new roles in life, but unable to even say the word “grandfather.” But to its credit, the show, created by Daniel Chun, doesn’t waste time setting up what will be the ongoing sit- in this -com: Jimmy takes in son Gerald and granddaughter Edie, while reconnecting with the ex-girlfriend who helped set all this in motion, as it were: Gerald’s mother, Sara, played by Paget Brewster.

Brewster classes up the proceedings considerably with comic timing the rest of the cast ought to study. It’s also terrific that her Sara isn’t written as a TV cliché: neither a nag nor a bitter harridan, Sara is amused that Jimmy is so speechless and helpless about these new developments.

Grandfathered doesn’t have too many solid punchlines — it gets by on charm, which Stamos possesses in abundance; even his interactions with tiny Edie manage to come off, by the end of the half-hour, as sweetly funny. Whether the show can do more than rely heavily on Stamos remains to be seen, but it merits a second-week look.

Grandfathered airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Fox.