Trouble With ‘Men’ Isn’t Just Guy Thing

Given the title, you might think it’s women who are shying away from “Men Behaving Badly.” But so far, the NBC sitcom, which airs at 9:30 Wednesday, is having trouble with viewers of both sexes.

The show, which is adapted from a hit British series of the same name, stars Rob Schneider and Ron Eldard as bachelor roommates with varying levels of slovenliness. Where Eldard’s Kevin might not change his bedsheets very often, Schneider’s Jamie uses his dirty BVDs for a coffee filter. Justine Bateman plays Kevin’s girlfriend, a nurse named Sarah.

The producers and writers have made a conscious effort not to alienate female viewers. For example, executive producer Harvey Myman said, they added brief bits of voice-over narration--done in a woman’s voice--”to make it more accessible to women.”

“In some ways, we’re eavesdropping on men when they think that no one’s watching,” Myman said. “It’s less a celebration of men than a study of hard-wired behavior.”

Some of that behavior was evident on a recent episode where Kevin and Jamie watch a National Geographic documentary hoping to see bare-breasted women. Breasts, Kevin declares, represent some of God’s finest work. “He could have gone with six teats in a row,” Kevin says with growing enthusiasm. “But no--he said let’s go with two. Let’s make ‘em bouncy. Let’s have some fun!”

Adds Jamie: “Yeah. Don’t tell me God’s not a guy.”

It’s scenes like that that make some women, like one-time viewer Michele Hampshire, cringe. “If I really believed that men behaved as badly as the two in the show, I’d willingly garrote myself,” Hampshire said.

Myman said Carsey-Werner--the company that produces the show--set out to make a comedy that had its roots in real-life behavior. The humor stems from the shock of recognition, he said. And women especially might enjoy seeing men’s unruly practices exposed.

The numbers bear him out--to an extent. Women over 18 constitute about 49% of the show’s audience, where men over 18 are only 40%. (The remaining 11% of viewers are children and teenagers.) In England, more than half the viewers for “Men” are female.

But Bert Lo of Mountain View, Calif., can’t muster any enthusiasm from among his female friends for “Men Behaving Badly.” It’s his favorite show of the new season, and reminds him of “Married . . . With Children” before that show’s humor got so mean-spirited. Still, Lo, who is gay, can convince only his boyfriend to watch the show with him. Women he knows believe they’ve gotten their fill of men behaving badly in their real lives.

“When I mention that I watch ‘Men Behaving Badly,’ they act surprised, as if it’s in bad taste,” said Lo, a 32-year-old computer programmer.

Indeed, there are people--not all of them women--who have problems with the show’s deliberately politically incorrect stance. A few TV-watching men suggested that the show was demeaning to men.

Other women grant that parts of the show demean women but enjoy it anyway, like Renee Ferrie, 28, of Toronto. She finds the most humor in Schneider’s character, who deludedly believes he can attract beautiful women. She is least impressed with Bateman’s character. And Sarah’s long-term relationship with Kevin seems totally implausible to her. “Quite frankly,” Ferrie said, “Jack and Janet on ‘Three’s Company’ had a better chance for a successful long-term relationship than these two.”

Ferrie often watches the show with her husband, and they seem to typify the difference between how the sexes view the show. “Where I know that men are slobs and animals when left on their own, my husband knows men who are like that,” Ferrie said. “I get to appreciate the stereotype; he gets to relate more directly.”

The program’s biggest hurdle isn’t political correctness, though. It’s Drew Carey.

In its sophomore season, “The Drew Carey Show” on ABC has been dominating the 9:30 p.m. time slot this year. It ranks 15th among all prime-time shows for the season thus far--up from 48th overall last season. “Men Behaving Badly” is hovering around No. 65 for this season, but dropped as low as No. 80 for the week ending Nov. 24. CBS hasn’t really been a player on Wednesdays so far, giving a late start to “Public Morals” and then yanking it after one episode.

Some respite could come this week, when ABC shuffles its Wednesday night schedule to put “Carey” on at 9, followed by “Ellen.”

Myman, the producer, is looking on the bright side: Up against “Ellen,” maybe his show will get a bigger share of male viewers.

NBC remains optimistic about “Men Behaving Badly,” extending it into the new year. The network also hopes to give the show a boost by airing some episodes at 9:30 on Thursdays, including this week, hoping to lure some of the “Seinfeld” audience to Wednesdays.

“We’ll see how our ratings grow or don’t grow,” Myman said. “I would like to think that the country is ready for [“Men Behaving Badly”]--but that’s because I think it’s a good thing for us to be able to laugh at ourselves--and each other.”

* “Men Behaving Badly” airs Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m., with an extra episode this week, Thursday at 9:30 p.m. on NBC.