Cast of ABC's ‘Mr. Sunshine’ reminds me fondly of past shows

“Mr. Sunshine” premiered last Wednesday on ABC and it was like a class reunion filled with old friends you’re happy to see once again.

One fun game was the little “six degrees” puzzle presented by all sorts of instantly recognizable actors appearing in this fresh, funny comedy set in a busy San Diego sports arena.

Main man Matthew Perry worked with boss lady Allison Janney both in NBC’s “The West Wing” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” Then, Janney appeared briefly with maintenance guy Jorge Garcia in ABC’s “LOST.”

Nate Torrence, who plays the boss lady’s hapless son, also appeared in “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” with Matthew Perry, as did best friend James Lesure.

Lesure also appeared with Garcia in “LOST” and with Torrence in “Las Vegas” -- which I know, I know, I should’ve watched it because Minot native Josh Duhamel was in it, but if I’m remembering correctly it wasn’t doing a thing for me.

No-strings-attached girlfriend Andrea Anders -- who I loved in ABC’s “Better Off Ted” -- is a bit trickier to trace. “Better Off Ted” co-star Jay Harrington was in “Las Vegas” with Lesure and Torrence, but that seems a bit tenuous.

Looking back a bit farther into the past, however, she did appear in “Joey” with Matt LeBlanc, who naturally was in “Friends” with -- ta-dah! -- Matthew Perry.

Of course, people need never have worked together before in order to get cast in things. I’m not seeing a clear connection between scary assistant Portia Doubleday and anything Perry’s done in the past, for instance. I just enjoy playing the mental game of “Where were they then?”

Rambunctious

This simply added another layer to my enjoyment of Perry as Ben Donovan, the newly 40-something manager of the Sunshine Center, whose assistant has chosen to put that information on the stadium marquee. He’s not happy about this necessarily but would prefer not to fire her because she has, in the past, set people she’s upset with on fire.

Donovan works for Janney as Crystal Cohen, the capricious, impulsive, semi-out-of-it stadium owner. We meet her searching her office frantically for “a little white pill with some Spanish on it.” She says, which searching, that it’s possible she’s already taken it.

She needs Donovan to find her son some sort of a job in the stadium. Her son, Roman, played by Torrence, has already overheard the main drama in Donovan’s day in that Donovan’s no-strings-attached girlfriend, Alice, wants to break up with him and commit to her other boyfriend -- as it turns out, Donovan’s best friend and assistant of some sort, Alonzo, played by Lesure.

This, just as Donovan was coming to the conclusion that he would, in fact, like to commit to Alice a bit more exclusively.

This day would be busy enough except the circus is trying to set up for their scheduled performance, but there’s still ice on the floor of the arena from the hockey game the previous night. It refuses to melt because something is wrong with the heater. Donovan’s solution is to hand axes to the clowns so they can busy themselves breaking up the ice.

Naturally this leads to an encounter between a hilarity of ax-wielding clowns and a freaked-out Crystal in the midst of an award ceremony surrounded by a multi-ethnic babble of children and, of course, a photographer, who caught an image of the child she picked up and threw at the clowns as she ran screaming. Crystal, a ridiculously wealthy woman, is then extorted to keep that particular photo out of the media.

All this and I barely mentioned Donovan having to spend at least part of his day tracking down a stray elephant.

In fact, if for nothing more than the fact that this review is at least the first -- if not the only -- opportunity I’ve had in recent memory to employ the phrases “ax-wielding clowns” and “stray elephant,” this new comedy stands out from the pack.

As unlikely as a production centered around day-to-day operations of an arena complex might seem, this setting allows for enormous problems to arise for Donovan to confront and somehow solve. Taken along with his out-of-control personal life, the stage is set for quite a rambunctious situation comedy, and I for one look forward to seeing where they take it from here.

“Mr. Sunshine” airs at 9:30/8:30c Wednesdays on ABC.