No matter how bad a day you’ve had, it couldn’t be any more horrendous than the disastrous one Sam Briggs is having–and it will get much, much worse. This is the premise of the new CBS comedy Worst Week, premiering Sept. 22. What should be a celebration for Sam (Kyle Bornheimer) and his pregnant girlfriend Melanie (Erinn Hayes), who are about to break that news and announce their engagement to her parents, goes horribly wrong when an escalating series of humiliating mishaps do nothing to endear Sam to Mel’s mom and dad (Nancy Lenehan, Kurtwood Smith).
Without spoiling the circumstances of the funniest scenes, Sam suffers such embarrassments as wearing a garbage bag diaper, urinating in a very wrong receptacle, and setting a prized item afire. The poor schlub has done nothing to deserve his run of rotten luck, but it’s fun watching him squirm in this latest British import, adapted from the BBC’s The Worst Week of My Life.
As creator Matt Tarses points out, Sam “doesn’t have bad karma. Bad things happen to nice people.” And if the series is a hit, his bad week will turn into unlucky months as wedding plans and Mel’s pregnancy progress.
“It’s like make a plan and watch the universe laugh at you,” observes Bornheimer. “That’s Sam’s life in a nutshell. Every relationship he has presents a new problem. Even just hanging out with a buddy, he can mess that up somehow.”
KEEP READING: His father-in-law wasn’t laughing!
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Future episodes will introduce Mel’s three siblings and Sam’s colleagues at the Washington D.C. magazine where he works, but Sam’s primary foil will remain Mel’s stern father, a judge. “Sam lives for the approval of Mel’s parents, and he is clearly not going to get that from her father,” notes co-executive producer Jimmy Mulville. “That central tension is a great comic engine for the show.”
It’s an aspect that struck a familiar chord with Bornheimer, who admits to making “a very ageist joke that my father-in-law didn’t find very funny” the first time he met his wife’s folks. “We get into some Meathead/Archie Bunker arguments every once in a while, but that’s to be expected,” he says.
He has also had his share of cringe-worthy moments, like the time he went to pick up a takeout order and parked in a handicapped-only spot at a valet’s suggestion. Upon his return, “someone was getting in their car next to me, giving me the evil eye. I had to explain that the valet told me to do it. I felt like a jerk,” he confesses.
KEEP READING: Social discomfort can be fun [PAGEBREAK]
Playing social discomfort on screen has been a “gleeful experience” for Indiana native Bornheimer, 38, who’s relishing his first series lead role after numerous guest spots in such shows as The Office, The Unit, Weeds, Will & Grace, Medium, How I Met Your Mother, Monk, and The O.C. A fan of physical comedy and classic shows that employed it like I Love Lucy, he’s enjoying that aspect and participating in “the most bizarre conversations about how much urine is funny and ‘is a blue diaper funnier than a green diaper?’”
He’s also glad to have a steady job after having to moonlight for most of his acting career. “Until a few years ago there was never a time that I didn’t have at least two jobs, often three,” he says, listing stints as a waiter, telemarketer, video store clerk, gardener and talent manager’s assistant, and denigrating his skills at most of them. “The universe kept telling me that I needed to keep going [with acting] because I couldn’t do anything else.”
Hayes, his TV spouse, is also enjoying the steady work after her own string of guest work on Shark, Notes From the Underbelly, CSI, Everwood, Will & Grace, and The West Wing, plus regular roles on the short-lived sitcoms The Winner and Kitchen Confidential. “I love that it’s bringing back broad physical comedy, but it’s done in a way that’s very realistic, very grounded in reality,” she says of Worst Week.
KEEP READING: Who the heck is Rod Stewart?
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A large part of that is the relationship between Sam and Mel. “They really love each other and you get why. They tease each other all the time. But she’s always there for him,” says Matt Tarses, noting that since they’ve been together for two years, “She kind of knows what she’s getting into with this guy.”
And, adds Hayes, “I think she loves him because of it in a way. She’s got to find it somewhat endearing to put up with it. The relationship rings true to me because we rib each other and give each other a hard time like any couple does,” she continues. “They have fun with each other, which I think is great.”
Married for four years to a man she went to high school with in California’s Marin County, Hayes, 32, is the real-life mom to Maggie May, 15 months. “I’d never heard the Rod Stewart song,” she insists. “After she was born, everyone said, ‘Oh, you’re huge Rod Stewart fans. I was like,
What are you talking about?’ I don’t know what rock we were living under!”
