premise: The best moments in the show occur at the beginning and the end (and occasionally in the middle), when Mr. Mason slips into his standup mode and starts meting out that old-fashioned Jewish mischief to other people as well as to himself.  But too often, these routines lack spark because this sitcom, like all sitcoms, is timid about confronting Mr. Mason's stock in trade - ethnic differences. I'm not suggesting that the producers start putting together episodes about topics like the Catholic-Jewish dispute over the Carmelite convent at Auschwitz.
hypothesis: the producers should start putting together episodes about topics like the Catholic-Jewish dispute over the Carmelite convent at Auschwitz