Well, it's about time! I've been trying to catch this Saturday morning show with our favorite little Terrian King, Joey Zimmerman, since it first aired. My local CBS affiliate keeps moving it around. This morning, they managed to put it on at a time that I could actually see it!
Anyway, on with the review...
Bailey Kipper is a precocious 11-year-old who has way too much video equipment for his own good. He has secret "spyballs" mounted all over his house, and sits in his attic spying on the rest of his family. It's an interesting premise, especially since the producers have a maniac manning the video morphing. People's eyes pop out, faces turn all kinds of colors, and that type of thing. Sometimes they'll cut in clips of something else. For example, when Bailey says "The kids at school flipped...", you see a clip of two gymnasts doing flips.
Joey plays the not-too-bright younger brother, Eric. In the episode I saw, he wants to grow five inches by Monday, because it's school picture day. Eric (Joey) ties himself to a door in order to stretch himself out. When that doesn't work, he drinks three quarts of milk in one morning, with predictable results. In the meantime, Bailey's older sister gets her hair done in a purple punker 'do, and spends all episode trying to get rid of it. Bailey's mom is making him a vest, which is uglier than a Grendler's tush. (Sorry, Jeff Deist. You have a nice tush...) Anyway, everything works out in the end, except that Bailey's mom decides to make more ugly vests.
This is a cute, fast-paced kid's show that was recently rated one of the best children's shows by TV Guide. While it's a bit saccharine for adults, I can see kids really getting into it. Our little Joey continues to amaze me with his acting ability. While he doesn't get much of a chance to act like a spooky Terrian, he reminds me a lot of the manic little Ulysses Adair that we all know and love. I give it four spyballs out of five, and a recommendation to anyone with kids to check this out!