Looks like the sketchy buzz on “Cavemen,” the new ABC sitcom based on those Geico ads, has gotten the producers of the show a little antsy.
They’re doing a bit of retooling, bringing in a new character named Andy (played by Sam Huntington, a.k.a. Jimmy Olsen in “Superman Returns”) who’s going to replace the character of Jamie that appeared in the pilot. Andy, apparently, is going to be the brother of the show’s main character, Joel (Bill English), arriving to stay with his brother after a bad break-up with his girlfriend.
Okay, fair enough…except that the problems with the pilot can’t be fixed by switching out characters. The issue with the show is that it’s ridiculously heavy-handed with the premise that cavemen are societal minorities. I said this in a comment to one of the TCA discussions, but, honestly, the NAACP is going to be tearing this show a new one, and I don’t blame them; playing the characters up as minorities is one thing, but making comments that are clearly trying to compare them to African-Americans is just insulting.
