Retooled CBS Sitcom ‘B Positive’ Finds Its Niche

What a difference one year makes. I am talking about CBS sitcom B Positive, which after a shift in storytelling from kidney donor to life at an assisted living center in season two has transformed this half-hour from basically “meh” to “must see.” In an entertainment medium where age is not respected — where the typical senior citizen is portrayed as either a babbling fool or basically useless — B Positive now tells the stories of a group of elderly people, all dealing with the trials of aging, with respect and honesty. Oh yeah…it is funny too!

Initially, and like any typical Chuck Lorre comedy, the emphasis on B Positive was on a couple; in this case a a recently divorced therapist and father named Drew (Thomas Middleditch), who is need of a new kidney, and Annaleigh Ashford as Gina, his former schoolmate, who decides to donate hers. Following an opening title sequence each week that looked like a bloody scene from CSI, all 18 episodes in season one – mostly uneventful – focused on the burgeoning relationship between this schlemiel (translation: nerd) in search of a kidney (laugh track, please!) and the nutty Gina who, in typical Chuck Lorre fashion, is a pothead with an array of zingers.

Gina also works as an aide in an assisted living facility named Valley Hills complete with two actors from yesteryear — Alice’s Linda Lavin as the demanding Norma (which in real life is a character trait that is not all that funny), and The Love Boat’s Bernie Kopell as Mr. Knudsen.

Flash to season two (complete with a new opening featuring Tony Award winner Annaleigh Asford’s ample musical talents), and the now late Mr. Knudsen has left his fortune to Gina in his will. Thankfully, Drew and Gina both come out of transplant surgery doing well (no more kidney jokes, thankfully) and the suddenly more responsible Gina decides to use part of her $48 million inheritance to buy Valley Hills.

Mirroring Chuck Lorre’s earlier hit Mom, which nixed series star Anna Faris’ TV children, Drew’s daughter Maddie (Izzy G) is basically out of the picture, as is his home life, and Ashford’s Gina is center stage running and now living at Valley Hills.

In a who’s who of past TV stars added to the cast of B Positive, the season two residents at Valley Hills include Hector Elizondo as Harry, the gruff (but likely soft in the middle) Harry, who is now dealing with the passing of his wife Meredith (Priscilla Lopez); Dr. Quinn’s Jane Seymour at Bette, an aging beauty who refuses to come to terms with her senior status; Ben Vereen as Peter, a retired professor who is trying to hide his fading memory; and Jim Beaver as Spencer, a former NYPD transit cop who was a 9/11 first responder and is wary of dating after the passing of his wife. Factor in Amen’s Anna Maria Horsford as Mrs. Ludlum, the sarcastic and grumpy administrator of Valley Hills, and David Anthony Higgins as Jerry, an insecure divorced dentist, and what you have is an array of personalities typical of any Lorre sitcom.

With this new focus, B Positive is a more defined showcase for the elderly and their issues, and how a group of strangers become a surrogate family of sorts. And, similar to the Alcohol Anonymous group on Mom, or the characters on any Lorre sitcom (The Big Bang Theory and prequel Young Sheldon, and The Kominsky Method, to name a few), B Positive – Chapter Two (as the above image implies) now features a group of people we care about, people we relate to (or will at some point later in life), and individuals we root for. This is the “secret sauce” for any Chuck Lorre series.

While there is still a potential romance in the works for Drew and Gina, more interesting in this viewer’s eyes on B Positive is the father/son dynamic forming between Drew and Hector Elizondo’s Harry; the potential pairing of Bette and Spencer; and, in the most recent episode, Gina’s realization that Peter’s growing memory loss is probably worse than she thinks.

Technically, B Positive is the lowest-rated of the quartet of CBS Thursday night comedies (which is typical of the Thursday 9:30 p.m. ET time period on the Eye net). But the audience retention out of the hit freshman lead-in Ghosts is respectable. The storyline possibilities are now an endless well following the retooling. And, by finding its niche, B Positive is yet another Chuck Lorre entry worthy – and now poised, perhaps – for a lengthy run.