All Hail the "Knights of Prosperity"!

Congratulations! You’ve made almost every major TV critic’s list of the best new shows on TV this year. So what kind of reward will you get from your network?

How about a postponement in your premiere date of three months? Then when you finally premiere, you’ll get very little promotion, and it’ll be against a major BCS bowl game. Plus, your second week will be delayed 20 minutes by the President’s speech, so most people will miss it. And as an extra bonus, we’ll throw you up against the #1 show on television…

Welcome to the world of “The Knights of Prosperity.”

I have to give ABC kudos for moving “Knights” away from “American Idol,” but I’m concerned it’s too little too late. The whole reason ABC said they postponed the show’s premiere was because they were afraid it wasn’t getting enough promotion. But if this was the best they were going to do, wouldn’t it have been better to have premiered the show when everyone was talking about it?

As I told you in my earlier post, “Knights” can now be seen at 8:30 p.m. after “George Lopez.” Since it’s no longer against “American Idol,” I urge you to tune into this one—especially if you’re a Nielsen family…

Basically everything you need to know about “Knights” is in its wonderfully cheesy theme song (written by Paul Shaffer of “The Late Show”) performed by Kevin Michael Richardson (Rockefeller)…

“Eugene Gurkin was a janitor cleaning toilets for the man.
Then he decided that he’d had enough. It was time to take a stand.
So he put a crew together and he made a master plan.
Now they’re the Knights of Prosperity doing crimes the best they can…”

The master plan the song speaks of is robbing Mick Jagger. The crew is Eugene, his co-worker, “Squatch;” Gary, a cab driver; Rockefeller, a former bouncer; Esperanza, a waitress; and Louis, the intern. Each week, the Knights—complete with their own t-shirts—overcome another obstacle, getting them one step closer to their goal.

In the premiere, the gang had to get the apartment number and the key. In week two, after discovering they also needed a code, Louis was able to get it from a woman who worked at the security company (Reiko Aylesworth [Michelle, “24”] in a hysterical guest appearance) by getting her to take him back to her apartment. Then, in week three, when she followed Louis to the gang’s hideout (a phony Jewish supply store), Eugene cleverly solved the problem of needing a thumbprint by sticking her thumb in the cream cheese. However, the Knights realized they’d also have to take on armed guards, so Esperanza sweet-talked a security expert into training them. When a security guard saw Rockefeller use his training against a guy hitting on Esperanza, he offered Rockefeller a job interview—at the company in charge of security at Jagger’s apartment. Last week, Rockefeller aced the interview, but had to pass the test of taking a suitcase full of money to Atlantic City. The gang turned on each other as they debated on taking the money and running, but they decided in the end to let Rockefeller deliver the case. It turned out to be the best decision as the money was revealed to be fake and Rockefeller got the job…

As you can tell, “Knights” is not your traditional sitcom, (especially when ABC is stuffing it with four commercial breaks), but if you enjoy funny television—traditional or not—you need to check it out.

“The Knights of Prosperity” airs tonight (Wednesday) at 8:30 p.m. on ABC. You can watch previous episodes on-line at http://www.abc.com/ and be sure to check out the music video…

I also recommend that you tape “In Case of Emergency” at 9:30 p.m. Jonathan Silverman’s Harry gives you a recap at the beginning of each episode, so you won’t be lost. And trust me, you’re going to want to be there when Jason (the adorable David Arquette) finally gets his girl (the surprisingly sexy Lori Loughlin)…