• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, March 8, 2017

With all due respect to the many TV situation comedies that have tackled social issues in the past, I would still like to propose the following guideline for the producers of TV comedies, particularly new ones: Make me laugh. Don’t make me think.

It’s a slippery slope. One week you’re watching a comedy series in which the characters in a donut shop are debating some new donut varieties being cooked up by the proprietor and baker-in-chief.

And just a few weeks later, you’re being plunged into a sitcom-style debate about Chicago police tactics, stop-and-frisk, racial-profiling and a phenomenon identified by one character as “unconscious bias.”

This is what’s in store for you if you choose to watch the fledgling CBS sitcom called “Superior Donuts” next Monday night at 9 Eastern.

It’s only the seventh episode, and this show expects you to make the mental adjustment from watching Matt LeBlanc in “Man With a Plan” at 8:30 to this racially charged episode the producers have cleverly titled “The Amazing Racist.” Hey, I just figured out that’s a play on the title of another CBS show, “The Amazing Race”! Golly.

In this not-so-amazing episode of “Superior Donuts,” which CBS provided for preview, the show’s African-American central character -- the donut shop employee named Franco (Jermaine Fowler) -- arrives late one day and announces that he was unfairly stopped and frisked by a Chicago police officer on his way to work.

I have no doubt that this is a terrible thing to go through. But as the jumping-off point for a TV sitcom, this scenario didn’t work for me.

I confess this is a very personal reaction. When it comes to shows like this, I am a habitual eye-roller. Others are welcome to react differently, of course.

According to this show, everyone’s a racist in some way or another -- a perception that is widespread these days in the real world we all live in.

The producers and writers of this episode seemed to have bent over backwards to insert various details that they must have thought were clever because they were not expected.

For example, this particular debate over race is not so black-and-white after all when we learn that this particular policeman is Chinese-American (oops -- sorry, “Asian”).

At this point, you are supposed to wonder: He’s Asian? And he’s racially profiling a black man? This is SO complicated!

Eventually, following various conversations between Franco and some of the police characters who also frequent this donut shop, a petty theft is committed in the donut shop and the proprietor played by Judd Hirsch suspects another young African-American man as the perpetrator.

This bobs and weaves into another complication that I won’t reveal. I wouldn’t want to spoil the show for anyone.

Let the record show that “Superior Donuts” is not doing badly since its premiere on February 2, which happened to be a Thursday. It premiered in its regular time period the following Monday, where it’s been drawing audiences in the low- to mid-6 millions every week. 

An invitation to preview this race episode came with a “letter” from the show’s executive producers. “When we set out to create this series for CBS,” this correspondence said, “we wanted to touch on issues that were timely, relevant, and newsworthy -- something we were not able to do on our previous gigs, including ‘Frasier’ and ‘Community.' We feel this episode is especially pertinent in these unruly times. It’s about racial profiling and, on a broader level, the concept of unconscious bias. … We’re very proud of this episode. … Thanks for your consideration.”

It was signed by executive producers Bob Daily, Garrett Donovan and Neil Goldman. My goodness -- how they must have suffered working on “Frasier” and “Community,” what with all the apparent restrictions they labored under!

Despite these limitations, “Frasier” became one of the most honored and acclaimed comedies in all of television history. “Community” was not quite on the same level (to say the least), but it had its fans -- many of them very loyal and very vocal.

Here’s hoping these producers find the fulfillment with this donut comedy that eluded them previously.