Whitford ’81 Stars in New ABC Comedy Trophy Wife

Bradley Whitford ’81 (The West Wing) stars as Pete Harrison, a high-powered environmental lawyer with three kids and two ex-wives in the new ABC comedy Trophy Wife, which premiered in September on ABC. On the Tuesday night show, Pete marries Kate, a younger woman, played by Malin Akerman, who previously led a rowdy, carefree life and whose life is shaken up with the new responsibilities of family life.

In his review of the program in The Hollywood Reporter, Tim Goodman wrote: “Whitford shines with his surprisingly Zen-like approach to having three women he’s been married to weave in and out of his life with varying results.”

In a positive review on the A.V. Club, Todd VanDerWerff writes that “the show has a supreme confidence in its ability to reveal character through conflict, something many comedy pilots avoid. … In particular, the series is smart about letting viewers know the point of view of everyone in the show, from Akerman to Whitford to all of the kids, right down to the 7-year-old adopted son from China. These points of view are inherently in conflict most of the time, which makes for funnier gags.”

And Matt Zoller Seitz of Vulture/New York Magazine said: “Trophy Wife is adept at sending up a certain segment of upper-middle-class America: its politically correct gestures and rituals, its overscheduled near chaos, its mix of technological dependence and back-to-nature sentiment.”

Whitford recently appeared on The Talk on CBS to discuss his new show. Watch him in the video below:

[youtube width=”640″ height=”420″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjEij6z6wmI[/youtube]