Series premiere tonight at 8 on Nick at Nite.
“Glenn Martin, DDS” isn’t your typical Nick at Nite show.
The cable network best known for reruns of “Home Improvement” and “Family Matters” takes a stab at an original series with a claymation sitcom (tonight through Thursday at 8 p.m.) about a dentist and his family that’s as funny as an impacted molar.
The biggest gag of the show? The family mutt’s oversized anus.
From the folks who made MTV’s “Celebrity Deathmatch,” “Glenn Martin, DDS” follows Glenn (voice of Kevin Nealon, “Weeds”), determined to get closer to his family – wife Jackie (Catherine O’Hara), 13-year-old dweeb Conor (Peter Oldring), 11-year-old business mogul-in-the making Courtney (Jackie Clarke) and Courtney’s personal assistant Wendy (Judy Greer) – by taking them on an extended road trip across the nation in an RV with a giant toothbrush atop it.
Glenn becomes disgusted with his family’s reliance on all things electronic – from PlayStation Portables to BlackBerries – and confiscates the gadgets, much to his family’s horror.
“Humans weren’t meant to live like this,” Conor groans.
Vacation turns into summer hell when the family gets stranded in Amish country.
“Why are you dressed like a man?” a curious villager asks Jackie.
“Why are you dressed like Mrs. Butterworth?” she snaps. Jackie starts to like the locals when she discovers a couple who resemble certain stars of “Sex and the City,” her favorite TV show.
A horse stands in for Sarah Jessica Parker. (Thanks, Maxim, for a cruel joke that will never die.)
Conor becomes engaged to a 16-year-old “spinster” who had given up hopes of finding a husband. They shop at the local Crate & Barrel, which – wait for it – only sells crates and barrels.
Courtney and Wendy corrupt the other youngsters with the People magazine they’ve hidden in their Bible.
“Weave! Weave! There’s only three shopping days until Pentecost,” one frantic teen shouts.
When Glenn discovers Amish dentistry is something out of a “Saw” film, he vows to get his family out of “this horrible land that God forgot.”
“Glenn Martin, DDS” is the first television series from Michael Eisner’s Tornante Animation. Claymation is labor-intensive, and there are few creative flourishes here. The voice work is adequate in a banal way. Nobody stands out. Despite the occasional raunch, “Glenn Martin, DDS” doesn’t have much bite.
