— Netflix debuts the eight-episode seasonal series "Merry Happy Whatever."
Perky daughter Emmy (Bridgit Mendler) has decided to drag her musician boyfriend, Matt (Brent Morin), back to Philadelphia to meet the family and pass muster with her widower cop dad, Don Quinn (Dennis Quaid). He’s a gruff guy filled with opinions on the wrong way to do things and the "Quinn way." This extends to how to hang holiday ornaments and how to speak to him. And from the get-go, Matt fails every test.
Matt soon bonds with other in-laws who have married in to the Quinn family and submit to Don’s tyranny. This extended circle saves "Whatever" from being a pure "Meet the Parents" imitation, but it doesn’t make it funny.
Quaid’s Don is simply charmless. At one point, he accuses the hazy Matt of being high and assures him that in Pennsylvania, he can still arrest him for pot possession. With an air of disgust, he recites a list of the states that have legalized pot. If this is supposed to be amusing, it fails. It makes Don seem obsessive, even creepy.
Worse, the younger characters who submit to Don’s bullying seem spineless and essentially uninteresting. As such, they’re not dissimilar to the straw man-snowflake millennials that Mike (Tim Allen) gets to lecture on "Last Man Standing." But that ABC-turned-Fox series is a lot more big-hearted and generous than "Whatever."
Just last May, ABC repeated a live reenactment of an episode of "All in the Family," arguably the greatest show to revolve around the seething ferment between a stubborn father and his son-in-law.
While many recall the show’s creation of Archie as a kind of folk hero, they forget how heated things could get. And that "Meathead" Michael (Rob Reiner) often gave as good as he got, pushing back when Archie (Carroll O’Connor) seemed to be most proud of his bigotry and ignorance.
As families gather for the holidays amidst an atmosphere of heated argument, let’s raise a glass to "Meathead," who knew the difference between keeping family peace and abject moral surrender.
— Lance Bass hosts "Outrageous Holiday Houses" (11 p.m., HGTV), a nationwide tour of elaborately decorated homes and town-wide festivals, including the annual bashes in Santa Claus, Indiana, and North Pole, Alaska.
— John O’Hurley hosts the annual "National Dog Show" (noon, NBC). Now a popular holiday event, "Show" will air in prime time as a repeat tomorrow evening.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— Celebrities perform under wraps on "The Masked Singer" (8 p.m., r, Fox, TV-PG).
— Performers including Sting, Shaggy, Portugal. The Man, Pentatonix, Ingrid Michaelson, Andy Grammer, Ally Brooke and Emma Bunton appear on "The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration" (8 p.m., ABC, TV-14).
— The Falcons host the Saints in NFL football action (8:15 p.m., NBC, NFL).
— Ryan Seacrest hosts the second night of the "iHeartRadio Music Festival" (8 p.m., CW, TV-PG).
— A historian and decorator bond in the 2019 romance "Christmas at the Plaza" (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— Julia needs more chairs for Thanksgiving dinner on "Almost Family" (9 p.m., Fox, TV-14).
— A "resurrected" teen raises eyebrows on "Evil" (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
— After a small-town tyrant (Margaret Hamilton) threatens to euthanize her dog, a teen (Judy Garland) runs away from home and is implicated in the murders of two sisters in the 1939 fantasy "The Wizard of Oz" (8:15 p.m., TBS).
SERIES NOTES
Bible study on "Young Sheldon" (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG) … Grope therapy on "The Unicorn" (8:30 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG) … Christy butts in on "Mom" (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14) … Going the extra mile on "Carol’s Second Act" (9:30 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG) … Pop Pop is ungrateful on "The Goldbergs" (10 p.m., ABC, r, TV-14) … Putting babies to work on "Modern Family" (10:30 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG).
LATE NIGHT
"The Daily Show With Trevor Noah" (11 p.m., Comedy Central) is pre-empted … "Conan" (11 p.m., TBS, r) visits Ghana … Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen, Che Spiotta, Cory Nieves and Remy Bond appear on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" (11:35 p.m., CBS, r) … Jimmy Fallon welcomes Tracy Morgan, Brian Regan and Jason Aldean on "The Tonight Show" (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff and the Teskey Brothers appear on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (11:35 p.m., ABC, r).
Josh Meyers and Hilary and Larry Meyers visit "Late Night With Seth Meyers" (12:35 a.m., NBC) … Ashley Tisdale, Taran Killam and Cherry Glazerr appear on "The Late Late Show With James Corden" (12:35 a.m., CBS, r).
