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Even Belushi himself surprised at longevity of ’According to Jim’
By Bill Brioux, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Thursday, June 11, 2009

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Jim Belushi accepts the award for Best Actor for "According to Jim" on ABC in the seventh annual Family Television Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2005THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Reed Saxon

Quick: which sitcom lasted longer: "I Love Lucy," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Seinfeld" or "According to Jim"?

That’s right, "According to Jim" - the sitcom critics loved to hate - lasted eight seasons and 182 episodes, topping "Seinfeld" (180), "Lucy" (179) and "Mary" (168).

Nobody was more surprised at its longevity than star Jim Belushi.

"I didn’t think we’d get picked up, are you kidding?" the Chicago native says on the phone. "We just fell into a lucky streak."

Belushi, 54, joins his old pal Dan Aykroyd Friday night as The Blues Brothers return to Casino Rama in Rama, Ont.

"I just love dancing with a grown, six-foot-two Canadian man," he jokes.

Belushi stepped in at Aykroyd’s request after his original blues partner, Jim’s older brother John, died in 1982. At first, Belushi wanted nothing to do with the iconic musical act.

"This is John’s thing," he told Aykroyd. "I can’t pick up a cheeseburger. I can’t pick up a sword."

He was having enough trouble emerging from his famous brother’s shadow after following in his comedy footsteps, first on Second City stages and later on "Saturday Night Live."

He’d sung in a Broadway production of "Pirates of Penzance" in the early ’80s, but that was different.

Aykroyd kept pressing; he wanted Belushi to team with him at a gig he had booked at his alma mater, the University of Ottawa.

Belushi worked with veteran blues musicians the Sacred Hearts at the House of Blues on Sunset Boulevard. They brought him up to speed on the Memphis sound made famous by STAX Records in the ’60s and revived by "SNL" firebrands John Belushi and Aykroyd - the original Jake and Elwood Blues - in the 1980 hit movie, "The Blues Brothers."

"They wouldn’t let me do anything they considered a ’bar song,"’ says Belushi of the Sacred Hearts. That continues today, with raw soul classics by Sam & Dave, Wilson Pickett and Junior Walker and the All Stars part of the ’Rama set mix.

Belushi estimates he and Aykroyd throw on the Ray-Bans and black fedoras and hit the road 10 to 20 times a year as the Blues Brothers.

He figures his TV - which ended its ABC run earlier this month - stuck around so long because it was "comfort food" for a lot of viewers.

"We came on right after 9-11," he notes. "There was nothing negative about our show."

To many critics, the traditional, "three camera" studio sitcom seemed out of step with modern TV trends. Belushi says there were seasons when "14 out of 14" new comedies seemed to be single camera sitcoms. "We thought, geez, we’re a dying breed, but it all comes back, TV is cyclical," he says.

He notes that the early success of "My Name Is Earl" was "the one-camera hit that whipped the heads of all the network presidents." Yet that show flamed out after four seasons (although there is talk the show could return on U.S. cable).

Belushi says he never read reviews and doesn’t believe TV reviewers have any influence anyway.

"Every critic in the world loved ’Arrested Development,"’ says Belushi, who was also a fan of that short-lived series. "You couldn’t save that damn show."

He also feels too many critics get isolated in front of their computers and are disconnected with what sells in the American heartland.

"Honest to God, when I see a bad review, I turn to my wife now and say, ’I think this show could make it."’

He feels the new generation of blogger-critics are even more negative.

"There’s a slew of people who write the nastiest things," he says, disheartened by a culture of negativity where, "the only thing that gets noticed is the nastiest stuff."

Belushi laughed all the way to the bank with "According to Jim," but doesn’t rub it in.

Besides, he wasn’t the real reason the show lasted so long, he says.

"Really, I think it’s because (co-star Courtney Thorne-Smith) is so goddamn beautiful," he says, also giving credit to fellow cast member Kimberly Williams. "Two of the most beautiful women in the business. Courtney is cute, man, and we’re cute together."

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Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist based in Brampton, Ont.

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